Overcoming Adversity with Nick Peck

summary

In this episode of The Catapult Effect, host Katie Wrigley speaks with author Nick Peck about his journey through adversity and the role of sports in overcoming challenges. Peck shares his personal experiences with trauma and how sports provided him with a sense of community, discipline, and mentorship. 

They discuss the importance of connection, the dangers of isolation, and the lessons from Peck's book, 'Only Way Out,' which emphasizes resilience and the pursuit of dreams despite difficult circumstances.

takeaways

• Building discipline through sports is essential for mental health.
• Community and camaraderie in sports help combat isolation.
• Mentorship from coaches can provide crucial life lessons.
• Every child deserves support, regardless of their background.
• Isolation can exacerbate mental health issues.
• Chasing dreams is vital for personal growth.

connect with Nick:

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Website

Book - Only Way Out

Resources

• Website
• Learn more about Cognomovement
• Try Cognomovement for yourself!
• Book a call with Katie

Credit: Tom Giovingo, Intro & Outro, Random Voice Guy, Professional ‘Cat‘ Herder

Mixed & Managed: JohnRavenscraft.com

Disclaimer: Katie is not a medical professional and she is not qualified to diagnose any conditions. The advice and information she gives is based on her own experience and research. It does not take the place of medical advice. Always consult a medical professional first before you try anything new.

Transcript

Katie Wrigley (00:00.864)
Welcome back to another episode of the Catapult Effect. I am your host, Katie Wrigley. I have another really cool guest here with me today. I know that say that every time that I have a guest, but all of the guests that I've had on the show are absolutely amazing. And today's guest is no exception. He is an author that wrote the book, The Only Way Out. And we are going to be talking about the benefit of sports and helping people use sports.

to overcome adversity. So stay tuned, that is coming up next.

Thank you again for joining me today. I have with me the incredible Nick Peck. He is a 24 year old California native and award winning journalist who has primarily covered the world of finance and law, garnering significant recognition for his work in these industries. Before starting his journalism career, Nick earned a bachelor's degree in communications from upper Iowa university where he was a standout football player.

Only Way Out is Peck's debut novel that dives deep into the human condition when facing adversity and the choices that shape a person's drive and determination. I am so excited to dig into this conversation. Welcome to the catapult effect, Nick.

Nick Peck (01:12.397)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to have a conversation with you as well.

Katie Wrigley (01:16.34)
All right, so let's just dive right in. So you talk about adversity. So are you willing to kind of talk about what you had to face as a child and what sports gave you as an athlete?

Nick Peck (01:30.103)
Yeah, for sure. you know, growing up, I grew up, you know, in a just around a lot of trauma and just in a very traumatic household, you know, so facing everything, you know, from alcoholism to, you know, deaths within family, mental health battles within people, my family, and then, you know, also just daily troubles that everyone faces in life. And I myself was lucky to find sport early on. I always loved sports and I played baseball, basketball, football growing up.

But as you mentioned, I played football. That's where I found my true passion and joy. we're lucky enough to get a full-right scholarship to do that and take myself out of the trauma and situations that I was in. But yeah, I just feel like I'm living my own dream right now, but that's a little bit of a high-use sport to kind of take me out of my situation.

Katie Wrigley (02:17.676)
That's awesome. What position did you play in football? Just had a curiosity.

Nick Peck (02:21.549)
So my football story is actually kind of interesting. So I initially started out as an offensive lineman. I was committed to one school on a full ride in high school. And then on signing day, they called me and said, hey, we gave away your scholarship to someone else. Would you be willing to walk on? And I was like, no, I can't walk on. So then I went and played junior college for a year. But I was playing offensive line then as you know, offensive lineman are typically heavier. I was 325 pounds then. was, while I was in junior college, was like, kind of.

over being 325 pounds. So I lost about 100 pounds and taught myself how to long snap. So then I finished my football career as a long snapper is how I finished my football career. So that's a little bit of my position journey.

Katie Wrigley (03:03.51)
That's definitely a unique story there. So how can athletes use sports to overcome adversity?

Nick Peck (03:11.936)
I think they can use it several different ways. think one way is to have idols and role models in your life that you may not have at home or you may not have in other areas of your life. And that's where I use that to my coaches and other athletes for my role models and how I kind of learned how to be a quote unquote successful person is what I've done now. And then in other ways is just letting out the emotions that you deal with growing up in trauma.

on a field court, wherever it's at. So I think that it's kind of, can use it in both ways, obviously building connections to help you leverage yourself to become a better person and get over things that you're going through, but then also exert those heavy emotions that you're dealing with and feeling on a daily. On the daily, yeah.

Katie Wrigley (04:01.46)
Yeah, you know, and I'm sure you've heard as well, like there's a direct correlation between physical health and mental health. And so when you're focusing on the physical health to be an elite athlete, which is right, you're talking about getting a full ride scholarship. I would consider that an elite athlete. Like that's something that not everybody gets to do. And it's a very small portion of the population. So what did you notice really helped focusing on the physical side to boost up the mental health side?

Nick Peck (04:29.738)
I think just what sports does in general, think the first thing is like it teaches you how to build discipline within yourself, which I think you need before anything. So I was building these healthy routines and those things, which is what you need, obviously, as you're going through mental health struggles, is just having daily healthy routines, having goals that you're trying to reach and things like that. But then, like I mentioned earlier, is like when you're going through trauma or mental health or whatever it is that you're dealing with, you have these emotions that you necessarily can't just get out in everyday life.

So it kind of gives you a healthy place to be able to get those emotions, whether it's in the weight room lifting heavy weights or on the field trying to make a play. You're able to exert those emotions out on the field or in the weight room even. think that's a lot where a lot of my teammates found their own solace as well to let emotions out and those kind of things.

Katie Wrigley (05:20.044)
I love that, know, and I like to tell clients like you one nervous system. So when we change something to help boost mental health, it's going to impact your athletic performance naturally because you got those feelings out. I love that you found those healthy outlets to help release those. And I'm sure there was a lot of like strong guttural stuff coming out of you and other athletes in there. It's usually what it sounds like. Not always pretty, but it feels good to get it out, right?

Nick Peck (05:44.043)
For sure. For sure.

That's for sure I agree

Katie Wrigley (05:53.014)
Well, tell us about your book, The Only Way Out.

Nick Peck (05:56.107)
Yeah, so my book itself is, you know, it's loosely based on experiences that I dealt with in my life. I'm also, you I'm a writer, so I love the creative aspect to be able to tell the story, but use, you know, my own background and my own experiences. So it covers a kid named Jalen Pierre, who's a high school senior and kind of grew up in a similar situation that I did, looking for his way out of his life. He eventually one night watches a television special and gets inspired to find, you know, find...

to try football out and use that as his outlet to help himself achieve his goal and get himself out of a situation. The book covers all kinds of things of mental health, alcoholism, relationships, recruiting, all the above, everything that I kind went with. But I kind of put it in a one year span of Jalen Pierre's senior year in high school.

Katie Wrigley (06:47.156)
Nice. That sounds really interesting. So what do you think is important about the message that you have in The Only Way Out and how is it critical for people in society today?

Nick Peck (06:59.371)
I think it's important just for everybody to realize, know, whether whatever situation you're in, whether it's trauma, know, mental health, you know, poverty, any of those kinds of things that there is always a way out. I think a lot of times when you're going through those kind of things, it becomes very isolating for you and you isolate yourself mentally and or just literally isolate yourself. So it's always good to, you know, just a good reminder that you can find things and.

Katie Wrigley (07:20.62)
Mm-hmm.

Nick Peck (07:25.662)
that can help you get out of your situation, that the situation you're in now isn't permanent. And then just the other thing is just keep chasing your dreams and don't give up. I think that's the one thing that separates anybody who's great is that they don't quit. They just keep going no matter what's in their way. It doesn't matter if you're an artist, you're an athlete, you're a performer. All the great people just keep going regardless of what's going on in their lives. I think it's kind of all those messages and just you could find a way out of it.

And then you can also continue to chase your dreams regardless of the circumstances you were born into.

Katie Wrigley (07:59.388)
Absolutely. And those dreams can keep us going when we feel like we have nothing else, right? And just continuing to stretch into tomorrow. I want to pause on this point about isolation because you're bringing up a really good point.

when people have had severe trauma, especially directly after that event, the tendency is to want to isolate. I don't want to put this on anybody else. I don't want anybody else to know what I went through. I don't want to talk about what happened because I don't want to give them trauma from hearing what I just dealt with. And I think that you hit the nail on the head. That is such an important message to have out there. Like isolation, even though it is so tempting.

especially when your nervous system is on fire and it doesn't feel safe to be around other people. It's so tempting to isolate and it is one of the worst things that we can do because we are hardwired to connect to other human beings and finding some way to do it even if you're knocking the shit out of someone on the football field. Literally connecting with them. You want to have some kind of community no matter how small it is. It is so important to have your people around you. Find your tribe.

Nick Peck (08:39.657)
Thank

Katie Wrigley (09:09.374)
of people who let you be you.

Nick Peck (09:11.914)
Yeah, but I think that's what sports just naturally ingrains you because you build that natural community and camaraderie. It doesn't matter if it wins or losses or if you're playing or if you're not playing. You just naturally have that brotherhood or sisterhood, whether you're women's or men's sport, of these people that you build relationships with in the locker room, walking to and from practices and those kind of things can just...

At least for me, that's what really helped me as I was going through my things. It wasn't necessarily even being on the field, but it was being able to have my teammates alongside me. We may not even be talking about the things that I was going through, but just to be able to have a community side next to me, to be able to just feel normal and feel like I had people who had my back no matter what, I think that's what we all need in this life.

Katie Wrigley (09:58.078)
Yeah, absolutely. Like I was a distance swimmer growing up or didn't hit distance until high school years. then like technically you're kind of isolated when you're doing 20 laps on your own, but not really because your team stands around at the end of both lanes and you've got people like your coaches on one side, you're the rest of your teams on the other. And they're like every time you're getting close to that wall, they're down there at the water just screaming and you can hear them.

You know, and so like, even though you've got that isolation in there, you're still aware of what's going on. And you're right, like that camaraderie and it was, you know, the time on the buses to swim meets. Having our crazy, like we would not shave our legs for a lot of the spring and then shave it all off before the big valley meet at the end, which was kind of gross in hindsight, but.

Nick Peck (10:39.196)
Yeah.

Nick Peck (10:49.895)
Hahaha

Katie Wrigley (10:51.57)
But we'd have a big shaving party and lots of pasta and like, but it was all this big community thing. And I love that you're really drawing that out in your book because it's so important. Thank you.

Nick Peck (11:02.589)
I think just, yeah, and I think community in general, know, outside of sports, but everybody, I think we all have that natural sense of, you know, looking for community. I'm not sure if you're familiar with like blue zones, but like blue zones where all these centenarians live, one of the outliers that they have is a sense of community, you know, whether it's in their church or just working in a field, that sense of community. And think us as humans, as we're in the social media age, we try to push that away. But I think that's honestly what to help a lot of these problems.

building that community, whether it's through sport or elsewhere, is just finding, like you said, finding your tribe. think it's so important.

Katie Wrigley (11:37.384)
Yeah, and it's we don't get that. We may feel like we have that sense of community on social media, but we don't. Social media is a great way to show the world the parts of you that you want the world to see, but you're not getting that connection. You're not feeling someone else's energy. It's not this. And it can be so detrimental the way that it's used and all the fake news and all the other stuff that's out there. But that human to human connection like Brene Brown talks about the danger of loneliness. And there are some alarming stats. I don't remember about.

top of my head, but there are alarming stats connected to not having a sense of community and the negative impact it has on our mental health.

Nick Peck (12:15.932)
Yeah, and I think that's what we need to shift more towards. And I think social media can be used for good to also help build community, but I think it's building the community, but building it to also do events in person and those things. It's that human connection. You feel the difference between sending someone a text versus having a conversation with them one-on-one, and I think that's something we're all lacking, and I think we're all, know.

victims of it because it's just the kind of world we live in. And I think it's just a good reminder to have, you know, like, let's keep building community. Let's go outside. Let's talk to each other face to face and do those things.

Katie Wrigley (12:53.194)
Yeah, yeah, I try to do more of that because I'm a perpetrator. Like texting is just easy to do in the middle of the day. But I've even started to evolve for like my closer friends, like even if we can't like have a conversation on the phone, we'll send each other voice memos. So we've got that voice voice connection, even though it's not responding in real time. Like we we still get that extra connection there. And they've they've done I can't remember who, but they've done studies like you don't.

Nick Peck (12:58.859)
you

Nick Peck (13:07.258)
Yes.

Katie Wrigley (13:18.218)
get that same feeling of connection through a text message, through voice-to-voice, throughout phones, through video connections, you do get that sense of connection and it's even better when you're in person, but there is definite distinctions to the brain science behind it and the benefits of that human touch. Like there's nothing that's going to take that place, nothing.

Nick Peck (13:38.041)
No, nothing ever. And I think it's even the feeling, I think most people, the feeling you get when you have that genuine good conversation with someone that you love or just even some random person on the street, you have that good. I think it's something that we all, it makes you feel more fulfilled for sure.

Katie Wrigley (13:54.516)
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to kind of expand on what you had already said. This next question, you've already answered it a little bit. How can sports like football provide structure, hope, and a path out of difficult environments? Like we already talked about community. We talked about the discipline. And what other ways did you see that team sports like football can really help someone move out of a toxic or difficult environment?

Nick Peck (14:18.119)
I think it's obviously a combination of all the things we said, but I think the biggest thing for me was the coaches that I had too. think having the mentorship that you can get out of sports is something that's second to none that you really can't have because in the situations I was, I didn't necessarily have specific role models or people that I wanted to be like. So it was nice for me to go to a football practice or go to a basketball practice and see.

Katie Wrigley (14:24.812)
Yeah.

Nick Peck (14:43.591)
my coaches who have healthy relationships with their families and see what it looks like to be a healthy man, a healthy father, or a healthy mom, or a healthy mother, to see those kind of things. I think that can also help, it helped me to see, just because you're living in craziness doesn't mean that your life has to be craziness forever, to kind of see those things. So I think it's combination of all the things we mentioned before, the discipline teaches you hard work and teaches you resiliency.

Also, think just being able to have mentors and to have people because not everybody has you know Mentors are a good role model to see you know, what's healthy and that's something that sports gave me outside of you know All the other things we already mentioned

Katie Wrigley (15:24.818)
I love that you brought that up. It makes a huge difference. The rate of success and the ability to reach goals, I it goes from 50 % to 80 % when you have that kind of healthy support that you're talking about. So that's a massive boost in your chances of success by having a good mentor who's showing you an example of healthy ways of being in the ways that you had mentioned.

Nick Peck (15:50.0)
Totally, it's, you know, for me, think it's even outside of sport, doesn't even necessarily need to be the coaching that they're giving you on the specific sport, but it's more of, you know, the life lessons they're teaching you within that sport that you may not be able to pick up at home or at school or wherever else, you know, you may be dealing with troubles, you know, and I feel lucky to have, every coach I've ever had has left me with something that I didn't think I would be able to have, you know, because of the kind of crazy circumstances that I was kind of growing up in.

Katie Wrigley (16:19.978)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm really glad that you had sports to help you find the way out to get your message out into the world like you are right now. So thank you. So you had already mentioned that the book, The Only Way Out, is based loosely on your own experience. And to what extent did the background shape the narrative and themes in the book of the main character in his senior year of high school?

Nick Peck (16:28.581)
No, I appreciate it.

Nick Peck (16:46.842)
Yeah, I mean, it shaped a lot. mean, like I said, it's obviously I more and we go, we all go through a lot of different trauma more than just in one year in a story and like it does in the story. But I wanted to touch on some of the bigger themes that I dealt with in my life. Some of the bigger issues I dealt with, you know, some of the bigger experiences I went through. So it shaped it a lot, you know, and I think as any artist or

writer or whatever it is, is your own experiences is what shapes a narrative, a story, a painting, a drawing, all of the above. So it shaped it heavily. And I think that's, I think when you put art into your art, what you know, it comes out more genuine than when you're trying to fake something that you don't necessarily know about. And so that's why I did it that way.

Katie Wrigley (17:32.492)
yeah.

Katie Wrigley (17:35.952)
very cool. And I'm glad that you did. think it's probably going to be a story that resonates with a lot of people. What is this book revealing about growing up? Like you mentioned poverty a few times and povers neighborhoods and broken families. Like, what is this book going to help us learn about those types of environments for those who either grew up in them or people who may want to be gaining more compassion?

to be able to meet people who have had that kind of childhood and upbringing.

Nick Peck (18:06.745)
I think what it really reveals is just how much children that grow up in, whether it's broken families or in poverty or whatever it may be, how much they deal with on daily basis on top of just being a normal child, of going to school, of being an athlete and those kind of things. Because I think a lot of people don't realize that and a lot of people kind of turn a blind eye to the children themselves, whether it be teachers or whoever it be because it's...

At the end of the day, adults want to respect adults at the end of the day, and it's hard a lot of the time for adults to want to speak up for a kid because it's like, well, that's how they're raising their kids. I don't want to judge and things of that nature. So that's what I want to say reveals those kinds of things, just the amount of what the kids go through when the house door is locked and shut and the teachers aren't looking, coaches aren't looking, what's going on in a household and just how much.

When you kind of grow up in that way, how much you have to be an adult at such a young age when you're not really an adult and dealing with adult themes of life, mental health and drugs and alcohol and all those kind of things.

Katie Wrigley (19:14.1)
Yeah, yeah, we don't necessarily get a choice on when those get introduced to us in life, right? A lot of times, unfortunately, they're introduced to us at a young age and we're forced to deal with it. And we don't even learn most of those skills to cope with it as adults, let alone like kids have. Right.

Nick Peck (19:27.843)
Let alone being a teenager, you know, as you're already going through emotions and you know, all the other stuff that it's hard enough if you grow up in a great family in a great neighborhood, you know, it's hard enough to deal with those kind of things. So it's yeah, I agree with you.

Katie Wrigley (19:35.305)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (19:42.056)
Right. Yeah, you can grow up in a bubble and you're still gonna have a hell of a time being a teenager even if you have like the Brady Bunch as your family or trying to think of another, I know, that one kind of, I wanted to go to the Cosby's but I'm like that whole Bill Cosby thing, trying to ruin that as a reference but we'll stick with the Brady Bunch. Like even if you grew up in the Brady Bunch where all the problems get solved and everything, you're still gonna have a hell of a time as a teen, let alone.

if you're in a broken home or you're dealing with parents who have addictions like alcoholism, who aren't there. There's just so much that kids have to go through. again, like we barely learn these tools as adults. We have to go seek them out. We aren't taught in school how to handle our emotions. It's we may decide to take a path that teaches us, but kids don't even have a shot unless they want a strong mentor.

Nick Peck (20:23.607)
Exactly.

Nick Peck (20:30.303)
No, and that's the thing I think, know, the message of my book obviously highlights the kids who do grow up in those areas too, but it's also kids who don't go through it too. I think everyone needs the support and I think it's, like you said, we don't necessarily always have the most compassion and or empathy for kids in those situations one way or the other. And I think it's, that's what we need to do more. kids, no matter if you, like we said, you grow up in a broken home or you grow up in a perfect place, everyone just needs some kind of support and love.

outside so you know I encourage you know teachers and coaches out there to outside of just you know what's in the typical curriculum is just try to give you know a little extra support to anyone that you can see that kind of needs it.

Katie Wrigley (21:11.466)
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And you may have already answered this, but what is the one big message you want people to take from the only way out from your book?

Nick Peck (21:22.07)
You know, I think the biggest thing is, you know, there's actually a message in the book that it's Jaylen, there's like an experience where he goes and talks to a guy who grew up in the same neighborhood as him who went and played, became a professional basketball player. And he asks him, he's like, what's the one piece advice, you know, what separates you from everyone else? And it's kind of what we mentioned earlier, but it's just, you just don't quit, you know, regardless of what's being thrown at you, just keep chasing those dreams and our goals that you're trying to get to.

And at the end of the day, know life has so many different seasons and you know, I'm a I like to surf and I think you know waves are the perfect example of life, know, just stay on top of that wave keep riding that wave out because eventually it's gonna work out for you, but you just it might be shaky waters You know, there might be something in your way, but just kind of keep riding that wave So I think it's you know, keep riding the wave but just don't quit as you keep chasing after those dreams or goals or you know No matter how big or small that they may be

Katie Wrigley (22:18.07)
I love that surfing is an analogy. And if I may add another one in, some of those waves are gonna kick your ass, but you're gonna walk up to the surface again and you're gonna be able to breathe again. But some of them are gonna kick your ass. You're not gonna know which end is up for a couple of seconds, but you're gonna get your way out of it again.

Nick Peck (22:23.421)
Exactly.

Nick Peck (22:34.687)
Exactly, and I think even that as you mentioned that analogy I think the other thing I would say is to just remember to breathe you know through everything that you're going through I think that's a lot of things we that's where I can see panic attacks and anxieties come from is that you know lack of just remembering to breathe you know but at the end of the day all you you're going through anything just take a few couple deep breaths and everything isn't as bad as it once seemed you know five seconds ago so I would add that too

Katie Wrigley (23:00.584)
yeah, 100%. Love that. Good analogy to use and expand on the thing in it. Thank you so much for your time today. And I know we talked about the book and I want to make sure where can people find you.

Nick Peck (23:04.875)
Hahaha.

Nick Peck (23:13.44)
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram, Nick at Nick Peck author. And then my book is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and pretty much everywhere else you get your books. So, feel free to look out Only Way Out by Nick Peck on Amazon and that'll pop up and get your copy today. It would mean a lot any support and I'm just super grateful. Like I said, I feel like I'm living my dream right now. So, super grateful to be where I am.

Katie Wrigley (23:35.478)
Love it. Very cool, and I'm glad you're living your dream. And we'll make sure that the links to reach out to you on Instagram as well as to buy your book, we'll make sure those are in the show notes. So if you're interested in Nick's book, definitely find the show notes, go grab your copy today. And before we wrap, Nick, is there any message that you wanna give to a listener today who may be in a similar place that you were coming out as an adult from having a tougher childhood?

Nick Peck (24:04.127)
I think just always one, remember that you're not alone. I think we all try, like we mentioned earlier in the episode is we all try to self isolate. You're never alone. There's always somebody who can support you. So I would say go and seek that support. And then, I also have kind of like another saying that I like to live by, which is no bad days, is to remember, a day isn't bad. It's either great or it's a day to learn from. So I think kind of shifting your mindset to that can be a big help.

Katie Wrigley (24:28.972)
Mmm

Nick Peck (24:34.251)
You're not alone and you know, no bad days. You every day's a day to learn or it's amazing. So you can't go wrong with that.

Katie Wrigley (24:41.226)
I love that. Thank you. I don't have rough days very often. stopped using the term bad a while ago, but I'm going to be like, whoo, today was a learning lesson.

Nick Peck (24:51.68)
Exactly. That's we all have those, you know, but it's important to, you know, to kind of have that reminder for yourself like, it's not a bad, I'm just learning from it. You know, life, life's all about learning. And it's, you know, it's all about the journey, not about to get into the goal. So it's appreciating the journey, whether it's great, or it's a day to learn. So

Katie Wrigley (25:09.814)
Yeah, I love that. There's another concept just to add on to that before we wrap. I was a big follower in the heroic community. They've got an app and everything. And I'm kind of in an integration phase of self-help, I realized, because I consumed so much for so long. I'm like, I need to go out and live my life and put these skills into action. And one of the things he talks about is either you win or you learn. And when you learn, you win. So you either win or you win.

Nick Peck (25:29.577)
entirely.

Nick Peck (25:36.104)
Love that, know, that's my exact thing. Every day's a win, know. Even losing is a win, you're learning, like you said, and I think that's where we were put on this planet to do, is just to continue to evolve, continue to learn, and continue to try to go chase after those wins.

Katie Wrigley (25:51.338)
Yeah, you got it. I agree. I think that is why we're here. And thank you again for your time, Nick. I really appreciate you being here with me. And thank you to the listener out there who is staying with us to the end. I you've got a lot of choices of what to listen to out there. And I really appreciate you taking time to listen to this episode, be able to take what Nick is sharing and bring it into your own life. Grab a copy of his book, Only Way Out. Again, we'll make sure it's linked in the show notes. And until next episode, there it is right there if you're watching it on YouTube.

And until next time, please be well.