156 | The Concussion That Changed Everything: Dr. Shawn Eagle's Path to Purpose

in my shoulder I was out for six or seven weeks of my senior year and you know not going

“trial that's all you get so I had at least six games I was captured the team I was really”

upset about that but I focused on getting better and and setting up a plan so that I could come back and make the most of the last three or four games and I put on my helmet when I was

coming back went out to practice that first time back had a head to head collision and got a

concussion I had a I struggled a lot with that I was going to miss at least another game I kind of spiraled and anxiety and depression like I can't believe this is happening the story of how I got here is very interesting because you're right it doesn't happen very often from an MAT degree you know I went the typical route I ended up getting a athletic trainer position at my alma mater high school I was pretty miserable you know eventually the AD comes to me and it's

“like I don't think this is a good fit so you know you have two more weeks I think this is a big”

part why I'm so passionate about the CTE side of things is I don't know what I had great parents

but I don't know what I would be without football it was so foundational to my life and the character and the person I want to be and I don't want that to go away for so many young man who are searching for something I'm Sean Eagle and I am on dime Hey friend I'm glad you're here welcome to yet another episode of becoming undone the podcast for those who dare bravely risk mindily and grow relentlessly until we broke a speaker author professor

and performance scientist I've spent much of the last two decades working as an athletic trainer and a strength coach and a professional collegiate in high school sports settings and over the years I've grown more and more fascinated with what sets high achievers apart and how failures I can suck in the moment can end up being exactly what we needed to propel us on our paths to success each week I'll be coming undone and invite new guests to examine how high achievers can transform

from falling apart to falling into place I like to emphasize that this shows entirely separate from my role at Baylor University but it's my attempt to apply what I've learned and learn and to share with others about the mindsets and stories of high achievers y'all it's been a remarkably cool and dreary day here in central Texas that kind of gloomy gray that takes me back to where I grew up and so they don't want to wait those long winter months of

no sunlight that low depressing ceiling of clouds and a kind of quiet heaviness that just seemed to hang in the air for months at a time and I don't know about you but those early seasons of life have a way of coming back at unexpected times and today was one of those days now I won't

“bore you with the details but it's been one of the more challenging stretches that I can remember”

the work has come hard the lessons have been painful and the pace at times has been relentless but I'm still standing and it's Friday night at 10 to 20 p.m. and I'm still grind it's still working away sometimes that's the best we can do is to just show up that said there are days when it feels like I'm limping through life on two or three cylinders but maybe those are the days that we need to give ourselves a little grace and recognize that doing your best doesn't mean perfect

it just means giving all that you had and maybe that's enough today's guest has had days like that too

Dr. Sean Eagle he'll be the first to tell you there are moments in life that don't just change

your path they change you not all at once not in some dramatic even cinematic way sometimes it's just one hit one injury one moment where something shifts and you don't even fully understand it at the time and for high achievers especially athletes we're taught to push through those moments to grind and to fight and to ignore what doesn't feel right and just keep going but what happens when the thing you're pushing through is actually changing you not just physically but mentally and emotionally

even at the level of your identity this episode is a personal one for me because it's not just about concussion it's not just about sport it's about a young man I had the chance to teach early in his journey who's story stayed with me long after he left my classroom and it was very

moment some 15 years ago was the best way to encourage a student this episode is about what happens

“when a setback doesn't just derail you but it quietly begins to reshape the direction of your life”

today Dr Eagle is one of the leading voices in the world on traumatic brain injury with more than a hundred and fifty peer-reviewed publications and a work that's changing how we understand, treat and recover from concussion belong before that he was a captain an athlete a competitor and like so many others his story didn't unfold the way that he thought it would what you're about here is not just a story about injury it's a story about identity and it should give real honest

about regret and redemption and ultimately about what it really means to become undone

I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Dr Sean Eagle in episode 156 let's get into it becoming undone as a podcast for those who dare bravely risk mightily and grow relentlessly join me tell me Brooks is I invite a new guest each week where we examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place and I will tell you today's episode the special one for me because I get the chance to reconnect with someone I'm known for a long time and I've had the

privilege of teaching early in his journey that's been really exciting to see how he's grown since those days so join me today is Dr Sean Eagle he's now an assistant professor and researcher in the department of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh he's a renowned traumatic brain injury expert he's got more than 150 papers to his credit and counting I'm sure there's several in the opera right now he's considered a global expert on concussion but his journey today

traces all the way back to his experiences as an athlete so Sean Dr Eagle is great to have you on the show welcome to becoming undone thank you so much for having me well you reached out to me and I was super excited because your story was one that that stuck with me like in a given year we would have a hundred applicants for one of the student positions in our program and there was an essay

“associated with that and I distinctly remember yours even at this day how you were a leader on your football”

team in college and how concussion had really kind of derailed your journey and I recall us having conversations about how that was influencing you even then to see what you've done with it since then

is even more exciting for me so I always start with a little bit of a softball to begin what

would you want to be growing up and why and what did you believe that version of you would finally prove? I don't really know ultimately if I knew what I wanted to be I eventually landed on deciding I wanted to be a physician's assistant and I went to college and they actually had an athletic training major at Dennis University it's a very small liberal arts school in Ohio and you know I had six other people in my class and you know the combination of football and maybe being on my

own for the first time led me not to perform is to my to my best and my grades were fine but that was right when physicians of assistant school was like really getting hot and the criteria to get in were strict and so that that wasn't that was quickly not becoming an option for me

“and it was my mom who said you know you have this athletic training degree you should try to”

get a masters in and practice and I thought you know that's a pretty good idea I should try to do that and that's what led me to apply and at the time there were very there were only like 15 programs or something like that across the country and I had gone to a big high school in a very small college and I wanted to feel what it felt like to be a student at a big program with big time sports and Texas Tech was the best option of those that's what that's how I ended up in love

like yeah that's great I know you were a collegiate athlete briefly talked me through your journey from high school sports to college you mean you kind of alluded to the master's degree but really the core of this show is how setbacks that we face along the way can really help set us up for success so kind of taught me through that process as a high school athlete and beyond and how that maybe set the stage for what was later to come yeah sometimes things just kind of

line up in an interesting way and hopefully we'll get to this but you you've had an influence on

my life whether you knew it or not and I let me go back first so we were we were the third biggest

high school in terms of student population of Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a big time for high school football sports in general but definitely football area you know I'm not sure quite lives up to Texas high school football but Benzah who yes perhaps some some of the all-time

a really big deal to us and you know thousands of people would come lunches play our games and you

know you don't know this at the time but I played tight end at defensive end when I lined up it tight end the person to my left played for the Green Bay Packers for some of you and the person to his left played for the Minnesota Vikings for several years in Hawks Graveyard Peterson we had big time athletes all over the place and you know it it felt very you know especially

“to a young kid it felt very important to me and you know I had a series of injuries my senior year”

in high school and I had a conversation my parents was like I don't know if I wanted to do this anymore like I was pretty broken down by the end of my senior year like I'm sure I want to do this and college and they both were pushed man to doing it I'm glad they did and I landed at a small division three school for football and went from you know Friday night lights were felt like this big huge event in the center of the town and you know playing for 40 50 people on Saturday afternoon

said a small school and you know I was like what did I do here at first and then I kind of fell

into it you know I got invested in changing the program to ways we were very middle of the road for a long time and now they're consistently in the top end of their conference which is something

“I'm proud of because I helped at least from a student athlete perspective when my recommendations”

to a board that hired the coach that coached my senior year in a still there as names jackhead a great guy but you know in terms of how football led me here my senior year in camp I had a pretty severe AC joint separation of my shoulder I was out for six or seven weeks of my senior year and you know not going pro that's all you get so I have at least six games I was captured the team I was really you know upset about that but I focused on getting better and and setting up a

plan so that I could come back and make the most of the last three or four games and I put on my

helmet when I was coming back went out to practice at first time back had a head to head collision

and got a concussion I realized after the fact that nobody including myself had thought to blow up

“the air in the pop it's of the helmet for the last seven and maybe that was what happened but”

I struggled a lot with that I was going to miss at least another game I kind of spiraled and anxiety and depression like I can't believe this is happening it's my last season in a story that is all too familiar Sean shares his own experiences with injury and how they shaped his journey in his path it started with a severe AC separation and a shoulder that's especially problematic in a past catching tight in like he was who was also frequently blocking

big quick defensive ends that initial injury cost him two thirds of a senior season by itself and as he reflected that time out mine have also made him more susceptible to the injury he'd suffer next a concussion Sean's helmet was most likely underinflated leaving him vulnerable and when he sustained a helmet helmet blow not only was he likely wearing an ill-fitting piece of protective gear he probably also was not a storm and his upper traps and the surrounding

musk is a Jersey would have been had he been playing that whole time regardless the impact led to a concussion and what's worse his symptoms lingered even though Sean was at a small division three school his team had an athletic trainer and one of the things I love most about the profession of AT is that we get to really know our athletes being embedded in the team we're a perfect example of preventative upstream healthcare Sean's 18 new him because he'd worked with him

in rehabilitating his injuries or maybe even just being in the locker room the training room of the weight room so when Sean's personality changed and those lingering symptoms of concussion triggered anxiety and mood changes in him his AT noticed and that matters more than most people might realize that the college level especially within organizations like the NCAA access to ATs has thankfully become the norm the vast majority of NCAA programs have dedicated sports medicine

staffs assigned to their teams and that kind of coverage is expected today now admittedly many

second we realize that Sean's story could have easily happened a few years earlier in high school

“and that's where the gap becomes impossible to ignore across the US nearly eight million high school”

athletes compete each year through the national Federation of high school state associations that's millions of kids same collision same risk same stakes but only about two thirds of high schools have access to a full-time athletic trainer and roughly 30% of schools have no athletic trainer at all not full-time not part-time none so think about that what Sean had someone embedded someone who knew him well enough to notice subtle changes unfortunately that's not a universal

standard for millions of young athletes it's an exception now what he's tracking their baseline

nobody's recognizing what something seems off no one's connecting the dots between injury, behavior and mental health and when you start to see it that way Sean's story stops feeling like

“an isolated case and it starts to feel like a glimpse into a much bigger problem lucky for Sean”

his 18 not only noticed what he took action and it was a step that likely changed his life not to mention his life's work and it took an athletic trainer our teams have athletic trainer to pull me aside and say you're not the same person right now you're acting differently

and when we know concussions can do this and let's figure out a plan and

something that you know after the fact seems so obvious that a concussion was causing the anxiety for at least three or four days I was I was losing that I you know I wasn't sleeping I did understand what was happening and so thank God for him as nameless Eric Winters he was an athletic trainer it does a university and you know that stuck in my mind and I wanted even through our time in Texas Tech you know we weren't we didn't have very much of our disposal for concussion you

know learning about that more at Texas Tech and then more at it as a research assistant with the military our focused on military populations rather that led me to to where I am today yeah and I have to say Sean I was so happy when he reached out to me because over the years I've looked back over my career you know it's kind of what old men do we sit in our chair and we think back about things we could have done better or things that went great and and as I said you were

“stories stuck out to me you were a leader and and I remember conversations with you where you said”

how hard it was to think that coaches were questioning your character like you weren't tough enough for you were somehow faking this or this was lingering on longer than it should have and I feel I can some ways I did the same thing to you because there were moments in your academic career where I knew you were capable of so much more and I had to coach you often said to me sometimes we need to kick in the pants and sometimes we need to hug around the neck and if I give you the wrong one

I send exactly the wrong message but if I give you the right one that's precise of what you needed and since you went on and I've seen what you did as a professional the research that you're doing your honor to Texas Tech as an alum I remember just the regret of thinking I kicked you in the pants when you needed to hug around the neck and I wasn't trying to enable poor behavior I was trying to encourage you and inspire you to be the best that you could be but given what you had been through

and you know this better than I do the lingering effects of traumatic brain injury it doesn't just clear up after a week and it's gone forever you we have patients who suffer through depressive episodes and anxiety for the rest of their lives in response to perhaps one injury that happened on one play that they can pinpoint so in front of God and everybody I want to tell you how deeply sorry I am for kicking when I should hug perhaps but I hope you know that I love you

and I wanted what's best for you and this heart for me to say but I'm just thankful for this chance to reconcile yeah I really appreciate that and I want you to know I don't feel I don't feel that any conversation we had was ever unwarranted in fact you can cut this if you want but I pulled down my my dissertation here that's a print because I recall in prepping for this what I wrote in the preface and I specifically name you I say thank you to doctors Dr Leslie Taylor Toby Brooks

I regret that at times you did not see the best version of me I want you to know that I found

“something I'm passionate of out and will drive to represent the program and I that's a theme in my life”

you know my mom jokes about the story that in in like eighth or ninth grade I you know my grades were slipping you know they had a comp we had a parent teacher conference with myself present and you know we grew up on a small bar we had horses and and stuff and and I would make excuses to them like you know I'm working with the horses you know that's not my favorite slipping and my mom a minute was like he's full of it you know this is not what's happening she took me to a

Christian school with a well knowly unbasketball court and I you know all of a sudden my grade has

got a lot a lot better but you know I I've noticed this pattern in my life

“in academia where as a student where I just I don't know I kind of skate by until that thing lights me”

up you know and there were a few of those moments at Texas Tech that drove me exactly to where I am today and I wanted you and the advisors at Dennis and to know yeah that I had found the thing that that turned the switch I love it I I'm so thankful to hear those words and now I sincerely appreciate it I hope you know that all of my guidance and pushing and prodding it was coming from a place

of care and I wanted well it was best for you I want to zero in on that end of the competitive

sport for you that's a common theme in this show whether it's athletes entrepreneurs artists win it ends whether that's one play whether that's one day whether that's one season when it ends the psychological toll on that is not something we as sports medicine professionals have really given enough credence to I don't believe for you personally as an athlete can you describe what that moment or that day or that season was like when you knew in your heart that

it was over and how maybe that continues to impact your work even today yeah I think it impacts my work every day because there are a lot of careers that get ended early because of concussions and brain injuries there are a lot of lives that get ended early because of because of those things and I want people to know that this is a treatable condition there is hope there no matter how long it has been since you've had your head injury you can recover there's there we have developed plenty of

techniques for this you know going back to 2006 in my last concussion as a football player they sent me to a dark room for two days yeah and we know now only 15 years later that is the

“exact opposite thing you should be doing and but it was that was standard practice you know and I”

am laying there in bed in a dark room captain of the team completely isolated from my team and my friends and any social engagement in an attempt to try to get better and instead I did start developing panic attacks and you know crippling anxiety and we we kind of have two ends of the research that we do here that kind of acute management trying to get people better earlier from the injury but we're also very concerned with those who have had long-term effects from the injury you know we all talk

and have heard about chronic traumatic and cephalopathy and it's a big focus of what we do because I want people to understand that the science is not really there on that on that bit yet and yet we're seeing stories in the New York Times about athletes taking their own lives because they assume they have CTE when right in reality man they're probably just I guess some 15 years old and have stress and they need some they need somebody to say hey you're not the same person the way Dr. Winters did

for me we'll be back after this quick message we've ever looked in the mirror and thought what in the hell just happened to my life and the career shifts when the relationship ends when the identity of built your whole life around disappears overnight that's not failure that's what I call a purpose door and most high achievers are prepared for it because no one ever taught us how to train for a comeback Dr. Toby Brooks and I built the science of the comeback for people

prompts and guided reflection tools performance psychology frameworks identity rebuilding exercises

and personalized structure pathways to move from burnout and confusion to clarity and momentum it's not hype it's neuroscience it's performance science and it's hard going experience if you're listening to becoming undone I created a special offer just for you for the next three months you can get full access for just forty nine bucks for an entire year or just five bucks a month but no obligation you can cancel at any time that's less than the

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“and so I think that's that's why I do this yeah it's powerful why and without a”

doubt it influences the work that you do and adds a personal corner to it that other people might not have speaking of your work today since you finished your post doc you have become a prolific figure in this area of traumatic brain injury and that's arguably a long way from an aspiring masters of athletic training student that's not a typical path ours is not a master thesis master's program was there a moment back then maybe as an undergrad or master student were you

realized that the path you were on was shifting from what you thought you were going to be and what you're doing now yeah there was a big moment well actually there was several I I you know Dr. Hooper had a lot of research going on back then and you know I enjoyed protests I noticed I enjoyed participating in those studies and I understood like asking why they wanted to know this thing and then there was a I remember what course it was there was a literature

review type assignment that I dove head on into and really enjoyed and there were GAs there

“that you probably still remember that were like you know what this is pretty good like you should”

try to publish this and that was like I didn't know you could do that you know that's an option and you know they helped me kind of guide towards doing that and we did it but you know

having that publication on a CV is what got me my first job in research only a few years later

but I thought about your show and my pivot because the story of how I got here is very interesting because you're right this is not it doesn't happen very often from an MIT degree I don't think any of my peers are in research and I still get to hear from many of them but you know I took the I went the typical route I ended up getting a athletic trainer position at my alma mater high school and went home to my parents after graduating and started that job and you know

the summer and I was pretty miserable I was acting like it and my football coach and my basketball coach were still there and they were big figures in my life and you know a couple you know five or so years after graduating you know as the captain of those teams I'm back in those blocking rooms

“as you know a master's level athletic trainer and I think I I think psychologically I was”

back to where I was when I was 16 17 18 I wasn't acting very professionally I was reading books during practice it's a step of watching the practice and talking to people you know eventually the 80 comes to me and it's like I don't think this is a good fit so you know you have two more weeks and you're out and I was really really really embarrassed because not I just got canned from my alma mater high school where you know my friends little brothers and sisters are on the team my

coaches are still there I was very very humbled by that some period of time later not that long because I only had two weeks I saw posting for the University of Pittsburgh to work in human performance

research collecting data with special forces military personnel I was like that sounds amazing let's

give this a try and having that literature be on my CV and also having a recommendation from a

athletic trainer during the glory years of pit man's basketball G we there was something about out of

state students where we had to get a credit for you know like a one month internship to keep that to keep the funds coming in so when I went home for that six week period I did four weeks with Tony and his staff here at pit at his recommendation sealed me getting that job spying me another another shot at something different right well we don't know if often choose the path but once we're on it you know we find that alignment and everything clicks and things have feel so forced and

artificial and hard suddenly become aligned with our purpose and that's kind of what the failure

in the setback can do in a high achiever so I applaud you for sticking through that tough season because clearly it's paid off how would you say your experiences as an athlete and later as an athletic trainer shape who you have become personally and professionally today I think this is a big par why I'm so passionate about the CTE side of things is I don't know what I had great parents but I don't know what I would be without football and it's a general you know it it was so foundational

to my life and the character and the person I want to be and I I don't want that to go away for so many young men who are searching for something as a science that we are not very confident about and you know I was drawn to athletic trainers and you know my experiences with them

were always very you know very good I liked the idea of how many hats you have to wear when

you're an athletic trainer you're the you know you're the extension of the sports medicine physician a lot of times but you also play the role of like amateur bartender talking about general

“whatever with people you need to talk about things and you know I remember some of those conversations”

and the secret sauce to being an athletic trainer that separates them from other health science professions is the work ethic and love for sport at any good athletic trainer is a grind and I I believe when I'm when I'm the best version of myself I'll grind as that's hard as anyone else and so I was attracted to the athletic trainers and that helps me kind of push what I'm tired and yeah you know the kids aren't sleeping and whatever to get up and go to the

thing that I need to do to push the agenda forward absolutely I often say that being an athletic trainer trained me to think of pretty much any other job as part time work and with that comes

“a sense of obligation that's why so many ATs if they leave they've got side hustles or other”

pursuits because 40 hours a week is usually done by the middle of the day on Wednesday for most athletic trainers and then the other piece of that is and I hate it personally and myself I mean you saw a glimpse of that when I got choked up just chatting with you but we love people and yeah we love sport but I would argue that the best athletic trainers I know are such whole-hearted leaders and they you know they're not just concerned about whether

they're not their their patience one rep max got better you know they they might not have the tools and the resources that they're disposal like you said in 2006 we were struggling with a very blunt concussion instrument in the sack or you know any of the early efforts to try to standardize how we assess concussions as technology improves and as science moves forward with the work that you're doing we're getting better at that and you if you can couple that love

for people slash patients with cutting edge medical care now you've got the best possible scenario

“and that's what I love and the young professionals that I see today is they're so much better”

equipped with things that I didn't have and that makes them better clinicians yeah I think I agree

their shoulder it's no secret the athletic trainers are the bottom of the wrong health care

professions no matter when you talk to you and about when and that gives you a little bit of flip of grit and resilience because you know how much impact you can have and you know I try to spread awareness especially in our modern understanding of concussion athletic trainers are kind of perfectly trained to manage concussion in the modern understanding you know early activity monitoring symptoms and changes from before injury nobody knows and athlete from before and after

“an injury better than the athletic trainer even the coaches and so I think there's a lot of”

upside for athletic trainers and concussion management moving forward yeah I agree it's a very

upstream healthcare model prevention recognition I mean you know your patients personality so well that if it changes it's a red flag whereas if they got injured and went to an ER how on earth could anyone in that facility know that they they don't have the blessing or the benefit of having that kind of connection to their patient and so I've recognized that it it definitely puts us in a unique position to assess in a way that others don't have the ability to do you kind of alluded to CTE

as perhaps the answer to this but I want to pull it that thread a little bit more what is something you wish people the general population or athletes specifically what is something you

“wish that they understood better about concussion as we understand it in 2026 that it's treatable”

I still encounter people that are shocked by the the notion that concussion can be managed by you know early activity I'm talking one to two days after the injury even just as little as aerobic exercise and for 30 minutes a day and regulating your sleep can do a whole lot for getting better from from a concussion as fast as possible if you think about how far we've come since my concussion it's really pretty astounding like if someone had said someone from the future had

come back and said you know what Sean should do with this concussion is he should be active right away not isolate and expose himself and recover at times but really spent some time getting stimulated and recovering through the symptoms people that want to scare the heck out

people and you know it's really pretty remarkable how far we've come and it's not it's never too late

a lot of people also think that their current situation is set in stone and it's related to the head injury there's nothing they can do about that and part of that is related to the narrative

“around CTE in the fact that there are no treatments and and so forth and so you need to understand”

that the pain is plastic and will respond and can respond and we've seen it over and over and over again and veterans exposed to blast to the to the old lady who fell off her ladder a year ago and could and still is having trouble yeah I think it's it definitely amazing the pace with which we've seen the improvement I used to say that other than congestive heart failure and concussion everything else would benefit from exercise and I've just had to correct that you could even argue that

congestive heart appropriate exercise I mean it's what we used to say in modalities like we're we're not causing healing we're optimizing the healing environment we're letting the body do what the body does to recover and we used to think well photophobia put them in a dark room minimize blood pressure if it's a hemorrhage issue we're concerned about a bleeder than we want them you know laying flat on a bed in dark room for as long as it takes for their symptoms to resolve

but the body's resilient and it responds to the oxygen that comes from movement and from just the physiological processes that are oftentimes made better through activity but the question is you know how much and how long and how quickly do I follow that up with another bout and that's where you're on the cutting edge of that type of work yeah there's still a lot of work to be done and for a lot of these things we're not entirely certain biologically why it works

it just does and it's it's rooted in strong science and and psychological theory and and physiology but the exact reasons why they work we need to do a better job of understanding

with with every individual patient because it's different for everybody yeah agreed

“again we're talking with Dr. Shawneagle he is a world renowned expert in all things traumatic”

brain injury I almost said mild traumatic brain injury but that's the terminology changes and we'll have to keep up with the times it doesn't matter if it's mild or not it's it's a brain injury you know no dinners no bell wrong none of that it's a brain injury and and that conveys the gravity of this situation the name of the show is becoming undone and it's been said that nobody really cares

about our story or our struggle until we actually succeed otherwise you're just a failure nobody wants

that's not inspiring right you have succeeded and as you said here right now what are you growing into not just professionally but as a person who I I hope I'm this is a demanding

“job and it's harder it's hard when you're emotionally tied to it as well it's a major benefit”

but it's also you know you want things to go well and move forward and you want to contribute and part of that is that team mentality from being an athlete and then being an athletic trainer and that's really all I'm looking to do and I'm trying to work really hard at work life balance and keeping work at work and and being a good husband and a good father and you know trying to see you know make sure I'm present because it does go really fast and you know to two little

boys and I want to make sure they get everything out of me that they need yeah it's beautiful I as we were talking before the show I certainly relate to that I spent the last weekend in love with hanging out with my two or 22 and 20 and you know gone to the days when I can strap them in the car seat and they got to go where dad and mom say now we're just hoping to get a spot on their calendar and bless their heart but if they were sitting at home I'd be

sad about that too it's the point of this is to launch them out into the world and make a difference and so enjoy it while you can I ask this one of all my guests and it's kind of an odd ball one but I love the insight that it gives me into the personality if we were to watch a montage of your life what song would you pick to play in the background and why oh my

a montage of my life I need to think about that for a second as I love music I love

me I love all kinds of music and it fluctuates so much I'm I'm leaning towards take it easy by the eagles

“trying to remember I used to do a mix tape like walk-up songs for your cohort and I remember I think”

you had a black Sabbath song if I recall yeah but it's definitely classic rock I mean so eagles certainly fits that that description why take it easy that song is just I love that song as a reminder of you know we can get in these modes where we are really hard on ourselves and and push and you know I try to push myself every day but I need a reminder of every now and then to just take a beat look around and embrace where you're at at the moment and this is one of those

moments for me having this conversation and being on there because you don't you don't get to reflect that awesome about where you came from and who met things to you and how you ended up to where you are and you can trace it so clearly the line from how I ended up from my high school position to where I am now and you know it's it's fun to do that every now and again I'd appreciate what you have beautifully said and I couldn't agree more last one here where can people go to

follow your work I know your H index is blowing me out of the water by far but what we're going to send them to to check in on the work that you're doing maybe you live your socials that kind of thing

score eagle definitely on LinkedIn yeah I'll look it up and drop that into the show notes for you

“I work in the neurotromochlinical trial center at the Department of Neurological Surgery at the”

University of Pittsburgh but you know more so than focus on me I want people to understand that I'm very grateful to be from here and this is really an epicenter of concussion and traumatic brain injury research in the world and I'm so happy that I chose this route and you know people who are struggling come come see us and we can we can help there are clinicians here that are absolutely top notch and people already do come from all around the world but I want everyone to

understand that this is a treatable setting and there are others like us around the country that you

can come to school absolutely I know a lot of people you know the Virginia Tech folks are known for their research on helmets bits known for its longstanding and impactful work now no pun intended

“there but it's it's cutting edge work that is changing not just sports I mean rules changes come”

about from this type of work but the way athletes train the way they recover that's the beauty of research is when we're not just learning it for the sake of science that's cool in and of itself but when it impacts people's lives and it changes the way people respond and recover that to me

kind of scratches the edge I've always had to serve others that's that's where I get my athletic

trainer a little piece and I get a little you know it's nice to hear I'm not a clinician anymore but it's nice to work with clinicians and hear the stories of the people that this work and these new ideas are helping yeah well Sean I can't thank you enough for joining me today it's been a real treat I look forward to continuing to follow your work as my listeners can't I'm Sean Eagle and I am I'm done you know as I sit with this conversation there's a part of me that just keeps coming back

to something Sean said not just about concussion being treatable we knew that but it's about how often we misunderstand what's actually happening in the middle of the struggle because for Sean it wasn't just an injury it was confusion it was anxiety it was a sense that something wasn't right

“but not having the language to explain it and I think if we're honest concussion or not a lot of us have”

been there maybe it wasn't a concussion but it was with something that changed us something that left us feeling off not quite ourselves struggling in ways we couldn't fully explain and wondering if anyone would listen even if we could maybe even questioning our identity because of it what I appreciate so much about Sean's story is not just where he ended up but how he got there because the very thing that could have defined him in a negatively the very thing that could have

been the end of his story as an athlete became the beginning of his purpose and that's the invitation for all of us not to ignore those hard seasons not the rush past the pain but to recognize that sometimes the very thing that undoes us can also be the exact thing that helps begin to rebuild us for willing to stay in it for willing to learn from it if we're willing to let it shape us and maybe today that's the reminder you need it I know it's the reminder I needed that what feels

confusing that what feels frustrating that what feels like you're not quite yourself right now might not be the end of your story it might just be the beginning of something that you just can't quite see yet I'm thankful to Sean for dropping in and hope you enjoyed our conversation for more info on today's episode be sure to check it out on the web simple go to unthanpodcast.com slash EP156 to see the notes links and images related to today's guest Dr. Sean Eagle

some quick updates about the show we are still hanging around at number eight or number nine in Apple's self improvement in education categories and sadly we remain out of Apple's top 200 across all categories again this week if you would have told me three years ago that I'd log in and see those facts and be disappointed at being ranked number eight in the world doing the show I would have laughed out loud at you that that's like a dream come true but yet here we are

so somehow I have managed to find a way to be disappointed in that current circumstance it's

a pathology I get it I have it disease as dads of the world are known to say I'm not mad I'm just disappointed but I'd say more than that I'm determined we're gonna get back there and you can help

“if you want to follow along and see the progress for yourself you can go to undonepodcast.com”

backslash rankings cheer me on in the last month we had over 31,000 downloads but we haven't done yet if you'd be so kind as to share the show with a friend or leave a comment or review that would be most appreciated and it would help time for the teal of the week sounded to me like the BC's just said rhyming and tealin maybe that's just me if you listen into my multi-part Larry Johnson series last year you heard me ramble on and on about my deep love for teal to me it's not just a 90 staple

it's become a trademark the guys around the residence hall gonna make fun of me because I'm always

wearing something teal and there's a story behind that now I consider myself a performance scientist and I like to let the data do my deciding data informed data driven whatever over the years and I think the data backs me up on this I've learned that the environments that we create right down how we decorate our space and what we choose aware all that stuff can influence how we show up for me teal has become that chew it's become a subconscious signal that represents clarity and

energy and focus it's a small but consistent way to signal to myself brooks it's time to be present

it's time to be intentional it's time to do this well so each week I told you I'd be wearing

a different teal shirt usually tied to a team or a program just as a way to keep that rhythm and consistency but secondly this week's teal is a week is no teal at all if you check out the clips on socials or the interview on YouTube when I'm talking to Sean I'm just wearing a plain

“white and gray polisher no teal to be seen and honestly like I said that that kind of track”

I already told you about how it's been kind of a gloomy and a heavy season for me this past month so TBA child probably needed some teal but I will say as I'm editing this and finalizing this episode right now I do have a teal silicone bracelet on it that I just ordered just got it it says Genesis 49 24 so you might ask why I teal bracelet and why or what does that verse have to say so I already told you teals my power color so there was that but I also needed a reminder in this season

Genesis 49 24 says but his bow remains steady his strong arm stayed limber because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob the verse is part of Jacob's blessing over his son Joseph highlighting that despite severe challenges and temptations Joseph remained strong so to me it's a reminder to stay steady remain ready and above all else trust not in myself but in the Lord I hope you can take some encouragement from that the same way I did and you don't need a teal but I'd love it if you came

up with another power move of your own whether that's your own color a room decor a playlist whatever you can come up with that can help inspire you to be just a bit better and if you do I'd love you to tell me about it shoot me an email it told me at undonepodcast.com and tell me what you're doing to optimize your performance coming up on the show I've got former all-American gymnast entrepreneur podcaster and sport management professor Dr. Courtney Beck I've also got a new solo shot

“brewing about the fourth quarter that I think you're going to enjoy this is more coming up on becoming”

undone. Coming undone is a nitro I've created production written and produced by me Toby Brooks tell a friend about the show and follow along on Facebook Instagram and LinkedIn at becoming undonepod and follow me at Toby Brooks PhD on Facebook Instagram LinkedIn and every once in a while on next I don't post on that way much but he's a way. Check out my link tree at link TR. ee backslash Toby Brooks PhD. Listen subscribe and leave me a review on Apple podcasts and Spotify I

heart rate you or wherever you get your podcasts till next time friend keep getting better. you