The New Heart for Life Community
Welcome to The New Heart for Life Community podcast, for a greater understanding of the New Heart for Life Community and its ambassadors.
Their founder, Dan Williams' passion is to inspire others towards a fit and quality life. Dan's journey, from near-death to achieving senior Olympic gold, along with his 21 Fitness Principles, serves as a guide for all, to lead a fit and quality life.
In each episode, Dan explores the stories and experiences of the New Heart for Life ambassadors—individuals making a positive impact by championing the New Heart for Life mission within their personal and social networks.
Every installment provides a platform for ambassadors to share their journeys, insights, and the meaningful changes they're creating in their communities. The interviews aim to facilitate connections among fellow ambassadors, enhancing awareness of their roles in promoting positive transformations.
So, listeners are encouraged to grab their favorite cup of coffee, unwind, and prepare for a rewarding and enlightening journey. Tune in to hear firsthand from ambassadors, actively inspiring others throughout the world.
The New Heart for Life Community
Twins Apart, Hearts Connected: Annika Shares Her Story
Visit our Community @ http://NewHeartforLife.com
Welcome to the New Heart for Life podcast for a greater understanding of the New Heart for Life community and its ambassadors, individuals making a positive impact by championing the New Heart for Life mission within their personal and social networks. Every installment provides a platform for ambassadors to share their journeys, insights and the meaningful changes they're creating in their communities. Now let's welcome Dan and today's special ambassador guest.
Speaker 2:Annika welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, dan, it's so nice to be here. I'm very excited.
Speaker 2:It's all about you. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Your major at University of Arizona and initially, way back when, circa 2023, I guess, what was your inspiration for joining the New Heart for Life community as an ambassador?
Speaker 3:Yeah, ok, so well, my name is Annika Shazitz. I was born in Denver, colorado, but always came to Arizona to visit my grandma and it was always just a paradise for me. So when it came time to go to college, I decided pretty much only that I wanted to go to the University of Arizona, and then I came here. And then I came here. I'm now a business management major with a psychology minor, and I wouldn't trade my college career for the world I've been through. I've had many different majors, but this one's really stuck and I've really excelled in every single way and I'm very proud of myself to be where I am right now.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, so I wanted to join the New Heart for Life community because I was just skimming through things and I saw your story and I truly think that not only being healthy and taking care of yourself is important, but I think that sometimes other people maybe need to be inspired by that, and your story is like remarkable the things that you've been through and the feats that you've overcome and I just think that it would be, it would be dumb not to want to be a part of something like this, no matter what it is, and so I just, and I also find that I love to spread any like anything that I've learned or special values that I have to people that I care about, people around me, and I think that this could be like a catalyst of something way bigger than itself, which it already has been.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for that. You know, within our community, the 21 principles, which is one of the basis, is for mission of helping others, as you do, live a fit and quality life. I always say with others, parenthetically, yourself included let's just start with yourself. The 21 Fitness Principles are one-word principles that I put together in a book format way before the New Heart for Life community, actually during COVID, and you know we talked before and you've noted a couple of those principles that resonated with you recovery, grit lessons, change journey routine, just to name a few. Is there any one or two of those principles that stands out that you'd like to share with our audience that you've applied in your own life or have seen others that have adapted based on you, creating awareness?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I think one that just will forever stick with me, that really really just like shines to me, that I see myself doing in every single day and aspiring to be the best at, I guess, is grit. I and I think we've we've spoken about this previously or during a meeting or something but grit I view it personally as integrity, and there are two sides of grit. Like there's integrity and then there's grit like getting through something. I like the aspect of it where it's kind of doing the right thing even when no one else is watching, like that type of integrity. Um, that also has to do with like journey and lessons and stuff.
Speaker 3:You are the only person that will truly allow yourself to learn and to grow if you make yourself uncomfortable and if you, you know um kind of find what makes you unique and then push yourself towards that. I guess, um, I think it's always important to um. I'm trying to think like grit there you're the only person that's going to push yourself to do something. At the end of the day, you can't ask anybody to help you, um, for with everything in the entire world, obviously, asking for help is completely normal and, um warranted and stuff, but for those really big things, those internal battles. You need that grit and you need that self-awareness and to be able to push yourself. And that's when you can understand and learn the rest of the principles, because that's when you get your routine done, that's when you see change, that's when you are experiencing your journey and you learn these lessons, things like that.
Speaker 2:Awesome, and I always say to your point that if it's to be, it's up to me. I like that. We have support, we have family, we have family, we have friends, but at the end of the day, it's really up to you individually to not quit and to keep trudging, as I say, along the path. So that's a great perspective and it's interesting that I remember now, you and I talking about grit, and it's one that it's a principle, that At the end of the day, it's easy to discuss it, to talk about it, and I can just share my own personal experience. Right, I can give and share and talk and teach and coach and mentor, write books and do speeches, but actually get off the couch and go to track practice.
Speaker 2:It's not easy, and I think what I try to convey to all is that you know, using myself as an example, although it's an inspirational story, and you know how it's evolved you know people look at other people and think, well, they are doing something different than they are capable of doing and at the end of the day, it all gets down to many principles.
Speaker 2:The principle of grit is that, just to find your goal, take your passion, whatever that might be and they're different for all of us and then it takes, you know. Then it takes, you know, hard work or grit to get it done. So thank you for sharing that. We in the green room we have a green room right Before the actual broadcast in our studio here in Arizona and northern Virginia. In the green room we we talked a little bit and you shared a little bit in preparation for this spotlight interviewed and it's a transition to a deeper personal reflection about Annika and it was your and is your relationship with your twin brother. You share beautifully with me about your close bond with your twin brother, ryan. You share beautifully with me about your close bond with your twin brother, ryan.
Speaker 2:Could you describe that you know and maybe an early memory from your childhood that really captures?
Speaker 3:that unique connection with Ryan. Um, so I, yes, I have a twin brother. I don't want to um forget that I do have an older sister that I've always looked up to and is incredible and a wonderful human being, but my brother, ryan, and I share a like extraordinary bond. I'd say it's amazing, I don't know. But basically I think something that also relates to um new heart for life is him and I.
Speaker 3:We grew up super athletic. Like we were like crazy competitive with one another, with people around us. We played all the sports we won, like he always won all of his classes, field day competitions and I won mine. It was always just like we would triumph together in a way, um, and always kind of pushing our limits in our own ways, uh, and being able to support one another no matter what.
Speaker 3:But one memory, a way it's kind of hard to explain, but a way that I something I remember very vividly feeling wise, like in my body, is in high school one day I don't specifically recall what was happening, but I felt like something was wrong.
Speaker 3:Like I felt a drop in my stomach but nothing was affecting me that day, like it was just a normal day in algebra or something like that, but I felt super wrong. Like something scary or something wrong happened, kind of like an intuitive feeling, and so I texted him and it happened to be because he went to the same high school as me, and it happened to be he was having a really rough day for some reason, and I just remember I was like that that can't be a coincidence, that I've felt wrong because he did too, and that is not an own, like it's own, example of something like that. I've felt that my entire life. It feels like we're connected in like a like, kind of like a different wavelength, I guess, like he's like a part of me which is crazy and it sounds so weird to say, but it's something that I don't understand, but I find it like fascinating that I'm able to share that with someone.
Speaker 2:Well, twin brother too, I mean that may I don't know, may have something to do with it you now are at, but there's a bond there, there's a spiritual connection that you've felt. But that particular day you felt it at a much deeper level and indeed, you know, you felt the fact that he was not in a good spot. I'm sure there's other examples, but that illustrates, you know, more than just a sibling relationship, a deeper relationship. And you and Ryan are now in different colleges, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, we are.
Speaker 2:Yes, talk to me about that.
Speaker 3:Yes, Talk to me about that. So we always grew up in the same friend groups because, I don't know, it wasn't ever like a competitive, like friendship or social thing. It was like we have the same values and our friends also have those. They're like us. We're all going to be a little friend group, whether it's middle school or high school or whatever we so in middle school we graduated middle school, went to high school together. Our sister was there for one year, so we all got super close and hung out all the time. But then my sister left for college.
Speaker 3:So that's when him and I were kind of confused and like the dynamic was weird. Everything was kind of off and also just life had its things and its events and stuff. So it was tough. But we were able to create a support system within each other, just kind of I don't know. So we found we got way closer in high school and really navigated this crazy on it's. Just we navigated it together. But when it came to college it was never. It was never something we wanted to really even like speak to each other about, because it just bringing it up was like that. That's going to be horrible. I don't even want to think about it.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to interrupt. There's a saying that reminded me of you to share. Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to Right Exactly, just leave it alone.
Speaker 3:Exactly right, exactly, just leave it alone. Exactly. It felt like that, um, just kind of if I even feel something randomly during the day when he's a floor above me in a different class in high school, what's going to happen when we're 600 miles away, when I go to school in Arizona and he's still in Colorado. So it was. It was a distance that we've never had before, because we grew up together, obviously. So I remember I dropped my family and I dropped him off first at Colorado state, and the whole feeling was just like melancholy. Like my mom and dad were sad to say goodbye, my sister was sad to say goodbye, but like I think they all felt that him and I were going to have like the hardest goodbye, I guess, and so that was really tough.
Speaker 3:It was honestly like a very beautiful thing though, because I always think whenever something kind of tough like that happens, it's a Winnie the Pooh quote that it's like how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. Have this relationship with someone that is has shaped me into the person who I am, and like I'm so lucky for that and I'm so lucky for even the time that we were be like that we were able to spend together growing up and there's so much more you know. So then we kind of had I kind of had to learn how to rely on myself and kind of fix my mindset in a way that I had to focus only on myself, like celebrations were not shared with him, we didn't get to share the embarrassment and open presence at the same time or something like that. So it was kind of hard to kind of discover new ways to become independent and self-reliant.
Speaker 2:I'm visualizing that scene. It's always somewhat emotional for parents to take their children to college on the first day. I remember that in itself. Now they've got yourself and Ryan, so Ryan goes to Colorado State. I can only imagine the hug that went on between you and Ryan and your parents watching. Imagine the hug that went on between you and ryan and your parents watching. Now did you continue on? And now they're taking you to university of arizona yeah, next leg.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it felt like that was harder than any goodbye I said to anyone ever. It was horrible and it was so hard to like help him decorate his dorm and stuff. It was so exciting and I was more than excited for him. But when I said goodbye to him we hugged for probably like five minutes straight, like I never wanted it to end. I can remember exactly where we were standing, where the car was parked, like it was such a core memory of mine and it's kind of beautiful that something like that heavy and in that moment sad, was like has such a effect on me now still and I still can remember like every aspect and detail of it because it was so special.
Speaker 2:And I still can remember, like every aspect in detail of it, because it was so special, wow. And now? So you're a senior. I take it Brian's a senior, right? Yes, hello, let's see. So now, as you've gone through your college years apart, but I'm certainly together and reconnecting every once in a while and certainly, I would imagine, texts are going back and forth. So what's been that experience of separation? How is that? You know, one of our principles is lessons, right, we have lessons and blessings. So what lessons have you learned through Ryan, who's now still helping you out, even in a separation of while you're away at colleges? How is that reflected in your personal growth?
Speaker 3:I think at first it really hit me when I came to Arizona and I was sitting in my dorm and like I said goodbye to my parents but I knew like I would be in contact with them and stuff and also like any teenagers, like okay, bye, a little bit, um, but I couldn't even listen to his favorite songs for a long time because it just would make me so sad and miss him so much. But then I realized kind of it's a test, that or a lesson that we were meant to learn and that now, instead of being each other's kind of anchors and stability in real life, we can just figure out kind of a different channel to do that through and so and while, while also kind of learning how to navigate life independently. Because that's the beauty of going to college and learning more about yourself and being uncomfortable. You have to kind of take those steps and you have to figure out where what you really need and what's important to you and stuff.
Speaker 2:And is he graduating, as you are, in May?
Speaker 3:Yes, we actually are. A funny thing is that our graduations were going to be on the same day, at the same exact time, so our parents were so upset about it. I know, 600 miles away, same time, same day, and our parents were like what do we do, trying to figure all that out. And then, luckily, his college changed the date to the day before. So now we're scrambling. I'm going to go fly to Denver or to Colorado for his graduation, then the next day everyone, including me and him, are flying back to Tucson for my graduation that night. So it'll work out. It's just going to be very stressful, but that's kind of the beauty of just a crazy family dynamic. It's just fun, it's exciting. I'm glad it's going to work out.
Speaker 2:My goodness. I can't imagine what would happen if indeed, his college didn't postpone it a day. Right, that would have been a tough one, I know, yeah. So so you and Ryan, shortly, is he going to settle into the? Is it? Is it the Denver suburbs?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's actually pursuing higher education in Oregon. He's he's a chemistry major and a math minor, so he's got a lot going for him and he's going to do semiconductor research over there, which is incredible.
Speaker 2:So he'll be graduating and going on to graduate school at University of Oregon.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Ducks. He's going to become a duck and you're going to, as we talked about earlier, you're going to be heading back home and working as a counselor, helping out and supporting kids.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm very excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in between those two transitions, are you two going to have any time together?
Speaker 3:We'll definitely make time. I think also when he comes here for my graduation we're gonna kind of just share the grad parties and all that jazz and try and see if we can have him celebrate with me and some of my friends more Um, but definitely when I come back in May we're going to, I'm going to be hanging out with him a lot and my sister, cause they live together so I'm left out all the time. But it's actually fine because then I can just go up and hang out with them whenever I want Um. So I'll have a couple of weeks him and then he's going to go ahead and go off. But I'm more than excited for him. He deserves it. He worked so hard, so hard. I can't imagine I can't imagine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't either Either one of those two topics math or chemistry.
Speaker 3:I know, and that's the beauty, is that we're we pretty much I would always say we're like polar opposites, like I don't really have that math brain as much as he does and he's way taller than me. Brown hair, brown eyes. I'm average height. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Our personalities are very different but we have so much of the same inside of us and it kind of shows that. It kind of taught me to like never really judge a book by its cover, because everyone you can be so alike to the person next to you and never really know if you're just going off of just like basic observations, I guess.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting to use that phrase never judge a book by its cover. I actually, in the principle of journey, I started that chapter which was the last chapter of 21 Fitness Principles, and I started that chapter with you never can judge a book by its cover, but I did. When I read the cover of Jay Steve Jobs's book which was entitled the journey is the reward, mm-hmm, I kind of went oh all right, I get it, I don't need to read this book, I'm done. And the principle 21 was hello, journey In terms of sports and fitness. What is his primary passion for fitness?
Speaker 3:So he is just somehow incredible at every sport ever that he tries, somehow incredible at every sport ever that he tries, but he more. He's more of like us, an academic person also. Just cuz, especially in higher education you were so busy. But yep, he's so fast, he's so strong. I don't get it. It's not really fair. It's kind of annoying. Sometimes he can throw a football, he could be a quarterback, he could play baseball, he could literally do anything, but he doesn't do any of it. And we're like wait, ryan, come on now. You can't let these genes go to waste. But he isn't. It's awesome, though.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, hey, a shout out to the big sister. What's the big sister's name? Sarah, sarah, god, sarah, I'd love to interview Sarah. You should interview Sarah, sarah. How are you doing in the midst of this? Ryan Annika bonding, she must have a very, very.
Speaker 3:Tell me about Sarah a little bit. She is an incredible person. I've always looked up to her in every single way. She was the coolest person in the world to me, and still is. I think to explain her in summary, it would be someone that just is so caring and so considerate and compassionate for people and animals and everyone around her. It's incredible. She really has. She really has the ability to make everyone feel so cared for and so special and she just has this light that beams outward of just like genuine care. And yeah, she's. She's incredible. I want to be her when I grow up.
Speaker 2:I want to be Ryan. You want to be Sarah. You are Ryan already. Your parents must just be incredibly, just over the moon. As a parent myself, and you know we always tend to. You know, we always tend to see our children much differently than anyone else. But how do your parents? What are your parents' names?
Speaker 3:Kristen and Rick. Kristen and Rick.
Speaker 2:How do they talk about and support the three of you darlings?
Speaker 3:I think for each of us it's very different. It's in very different ways, just because we're very different people. But none of us really like to be the center of attention. I mean, I kind of do sometimes, but my siblings do not like to do that at all. So you kind of have to accommodate to each of our personalities. They are so good at that and being so malleable with the way that they can support us and speak to us and just kind of help us through the tough times. I think something that they did that has made us all who we are today is they. Let us figure it out.
Speaker 3:They didn't really baby us and make sure everything was safe, and obviously we were safe like normally safe. Make sure everything was safe and obviously we were safe, like normally safe. But with the unknown, with learning about ourselves, like that was a journey that we had for ourselves and I think, speaking for all of us, none of us would want that to be any different. I value that so much in myself. I think all of us are very. We have incredible ingenuity, which comes from my dad. We just somehow there's something like random, some like random intelligence that comes from, honestly, both of them, both of my parents, that we have. It's really special, it really is.
Speaker 2:I might want to interview Rick and Christine honestly you should.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna say we should just do a family podcast because really you know so incredible sounds like it.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, you know I can see it in you, obviously, and now I'm, I'm, you know, vicariously, you know, getting to know your family, but I can see I wouldn't be. I'm not surprised. So, as we wrap up, annika, I always like to. This is going to be the hardest part of the interview for you. Okay, this is going to be the hardest part of the interview for you. Okay, it typically is for most people. But I would like to ask you, based on what you shared, all the experiences, college and community principals. This really isn't a fair question, but I'm going to ask it anyhow, and obviously Ryan and your beautiful family. So if you could summarize this interview in one word, what might that be?
Speaker 3:probably Um probably self-discovery, if I can do that. Everything and pretty much everything I've talked about, it's been either me discovering things about myself, or my brother, or my parents raising us, or my sister, I don't know. I think everything that you go through, every experience you experience in the world, brings you to the person that you are today, whether you regret it or not, but all of it boils down to. You are figuring things out about yourself, whether they're good or they're bad or whatever happens, and I think that being able to understand new thoughts and ideas and emotions that you have can tell you a lot about yourself, and it's really special to have a good relationship with yourself internally, I think.
Speaker 2:Beautiful point. So, with all of the positive and just special relationships you have with your family, the relationship, what I'm hearing from you with yourself, that you've developed to learn about yourself and how you go through your ups and downs, yes, you know, first and foremost, yes, completely.
Speaker 2:Well, summarized. Well, as we close out, I want to thank you. It's just been, it's real to get to know you a little bit more, and certainly your family. And I can't, I mean I'll, I'll be visualizing you know, colorado and University of Arizona and graduations and parties and celebrations, and throwing a you know graduation caps up in the air and lots of pictures and just so happy for you and your family to be able to experience this part of your lives, this transition. So, with all four words, actually that is.
Speaker 3:Be fit. Yeah, yes, yes, be fit, be well. Yes, yes, I love that you do that. That's my favorite thing.
Speaker 2:It's so special I'm dan williams, founder of the new heart for life community. Be fit and be well.
