Podcast Summary: Mike Force Podcast
Host: Mike Glover
Episode: Happy New Year! Reflections and Plans
Date: December 31, 2025
Episode Overview
In this heartfelt New Year’s episode, Mike Glover reflects on an incredibly challenging personal year and shares deep insights into resilience, faith, mental health, and the importance of intentionality. He openly recounts his struggles—legal, financial, and health-related—and outlines the habits and priorities that have helped him recover and move forward. This solo reflection is rooted in gratitude for his supportive community, his Christian faith, and a renewed focus on self-care and family.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Gratitude and Support from the Community
- Mike begins by thanking his listeners for their unwavering support during his darkest moments.
- Quote [01:15]:
"When I was at the very bottom, take the bottom, pull me out of it and put me underneath, bury me under the bottom. That's where I was. And you guys stepped up to support me."
- Quote [01:15]:
- He openly shares the extent of his personal and financial struggles, including spending over $200,000 in legal battles to keep his life afloat.
- Community support, both financial and emotional, enabled him to persevere.
2. Reflections on a Difficult Year & Mental Health
- Mike identifies mental health challenges and a lack of resilience as pressing issues, both personally and societally.
- He attributes much of this crisis to social division, the absence of faith and family, and the effects of social media.
- Despite difficulties, Mike expresses hope, citing the resilience of his community.
3. Mindset Toward New Year's Resolutions
- Mike doesn’t believe in typical New Year’s resolutions, emphasizing ongoing personal change rather than waiting for the calendar to turn.
- He encourages listeners to use the new year as an opportunity to “start over, start again, and rehabilitate,” but not to let the date define their progress.
- Quote [05:35]:
"A new calendar year doesn't define how you move forward, but it could shape it."
- Quote [05:35]:
4. Foundations for Moving Forward
a. Faith First
- Mike stresses returning to his Christian faith as the bedrock of stability and resilience.
- He admonishes listeners to replace time spent on social media with time in scripture, study, and prayer.
- Quote [06:40]:
"Invest your time that's allocated to social media and reallocate it for scripture, for study, for prayer... you build a house of stone instead of house of cards."
- Quote [06:40]:
b. Health and Wellness Priorities
- Mike is candid about his own health challenges, including a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the risks it poses.
- He shares the tools and treatments he’s found effective:
- Alternative Medicines:
Ibogaine, psilocybin, 5-MeO—these provided perspective, not necessarily direct healing. - Meditation:
Weekly sessions with Chris, a retired SEAL Team 6 operator, for over 18 weeks have been essential to his recovery. - Breathing Techniques:
Belly breathing and the “internal selfie” practice help regulate his central nervous system.- Reference [13:10]: The Wisdom Dojo as a resource for mindfulness.
- Therapy:
Both mandated and voluntary; he highlights therapy’s value even for those who may not feel particularly “broken.”- Quote [14:00]:
"Therapy isn't just about talking to somebody. It's about identifying things in your life experience that could cause issues."
- Quote [14:00]:
- Physical Health:
- He’s quit drinking alcohol entirely, drawing a strong line for himself and his family.
- After three back surgeries, he’s regained most feeling in his leg and resumed regular workouts.
- He focuses on a high-protein, clean diet, working toward health “for the long game, the endurance.”
- Alternative Medicines:
c. Relationships and Social Boundaries
- Mike re-evaluates all relationships—prioritizing meaningful, faith-based connections.
- He distances himself from social media and removes negative or distracting influences.
- Quote [22:40]:
"For the first time in my life, am being selfish, focused on my family, my relationship with God, and my mental and physical health."
- Quote [22:40]:
- He urges listeners to do the same: to have necessary conversations, set healthy boundaries, and defend their priorities.
5. Looking Ahead: 2026 and New Ventures
- Mike is determined to rebuild after losing his previous business—recounting humble origins and resilience in the face of heartbreak.
- Quote [25:10]:
"I have to pick up the pieces. I have to mend them together, and I have to move forward with my life. And that's what I will do."
- Quote [25:10]:
- Plans include new content and launching a new business from scratch.
6. The Power of Intentionality
- Mike concludes by highlighting the value of focus, presence, and redirecting energy from distractions to what matters most.
- He challenges listeners to “trim the fat”—both literally and figuratively—cutting wasted time and investing in loved ones and purposeful activities.
- Quote [27:20]:
"I want you to recognize it now... start cutting out things that are wasting your precious time and reallocate that time investing in things that you love and people that you love."
- Quote [27:20]:
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- "When I started to put God first again in my life, ... I have sustained that and have maintained the integrity of being stable mentally and physically." [07:00]
- "Most people drink because they're trying to separate themselves from the reality they don't like, to get into an alternative reality that makes them feel better. ... it's a self-fulfilling prophecy of a cycle of doom." [16:00]
- “The amount of issues correlated to alcohol abuse supersedes any drug completely…” [16:35]
- "Being middle aged is about the long game, the endurance." [20:00]
- "If anybody in my family, anybody in my friend group tries to compromise [my priorities] in a negative or toxic way, they're out. ... You don't have to be reckless, mean. ... What I'm telling you is have the conversation because it's important we get our priorities straight." [24:00]
- "As long as you got breath in you, you got fight in you." [26:00]
Important Timestamps
- 00:00 — Gratitude and recap of the year’s challenges
- 04:50 — Reflections on national mental health, divisive times
- 06:15 — Putting faith at the center, returning to God
- 13:10 — Insights from meditation, breathing, and the Wisdom Dojo
- 14:00 — The role and benefit of therapy
- 15:30 — Quitting alcohol and its impact
- 18:50 — Recovery from surgery, rebuilding physical health
- 22:40 — Relationship boundaries, social media detox
- 25:10 — Picking up the pieces and moving forward
- 27:20 — The importance of intentionality, trimming distractions
Final Thoughts
Mike’s message is one of raw honesty, discipline, and hope, rooted in Christian values and shaped by struggle and gratitude. He calls on his audience to be intentional in crafting their lives, to prioritize faith, family, and health, and to never quit—no matter how hard things become. This episode is a candid roadmap for resilience and renewal, timely for a new year and deeply personal to the host and his community.
