How a Pararescueman Found Purpose After Leaving Special Ops with Matt Schollard

For The Love Of: Trade-offs we make in pursuit of our passions

Picking up “The Perfect Storm” at a Blockbuster could forever change your life… Or at least it did for Matt.

Matt Schollard is a former special operations Pararescue team leader and lifelong action sport athlete.

As a water confidence coach, he is passionate about developing future special operations candidates, extreme athletes, and anyone curious about expanding their perceived limitations.

We talk about:

-Pararescuemen: The people who show up to save Navy SEALs

-The Air Force Pararescueman selection course: the hardest day of your life over and over again

-Surviving Hell Week and fantasizing about quitting

-Stories of how fear is contagious– but courage is, too

-Joining the military with eyes on ocean rescue, but then 9/11 happened

-The mental health impacts of compartmentalizing fear for so long

-Upregulating and downregulating tools when experiencing post-traumatic stress

-Hanging on to the identity of a job even when he knew he needed to step away

-The big life pivot that came to Matt after bawling on a paddleboard in the ocean

-The tool of humor as a way to cope with stress

-Working with extreme athletes and non-extreme athletes around mindset and water confidence

-The incredible Water Confidence Class at the Hood River Aquatic Center

PSST! If you like this episode, you’ll love these two:

-Why Kayaker and Filmmaker Rush Sturges is Rethinking Work-Life Balance

-How Pro Kitesurfer Jason Slezak Stopped Chasing Highs to Avoid His Past Trauma and Changed His Approach to Sports and Mental Health

Connect with Matt:

-Matt on Instagram

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Shout-Outs:

-Music: The King of Sandwich Island by Shut-ins

-Thank you to The Ruins, the best wedding venue in Oregon, for supporting the show.

For full show notes and more: https://fortheloveofpod.com

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