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In this installment of Sally's Hotline, we get a powerful tip from the Unstoppable Mike Ware, a Vietnam veteran, helicopter pilot, cancer survivor, and flight instructor, about the one choice that determines everything else: which door you open.

Mike shares his simple but profound framework for navigating life's hardest moments. We all have one key, he says, and two doors, one marked life, one marked death. Free will means we get to choose which one we put that key into. And his message is clear: choose life, every single time.

This episode is a quiet but powerful reminder that happiness isn't something that happens to you. It starts in your thinking and moves into your actions, and the decision to pursue it is always yours to make.

In This Episode, You'll Hear

• Why happiness is a decision, not a circumstance
• How your thinking directly produces your physical reactions, and why that matters
• Mike's one-key, two-doors framework for navigating free will
• Why choosing life isn't just about survival, it's about eternity
• What it looks like to have experienced both heaven on earth and something beyond it

Key Takeaways

• You determine your own happiness. It begins with what you put in your head.
• Free will is a gift, and it comes with real consequences depending on how you use it.
• When quitting, giving up, or giving in feels easiest, remember: you have one key. Use it on the right door.
• Belief matters. In yourself, in the future, and in something bigger than this moment.
• Choose wisely.

About Mike Ware Mike Ware is a Vietnam veteran who served as a helicopter pilot during the Tet Offensive, flew classified missions into Cambodia and Laos, and went on to a career in life flight operations before becoming a flight instructor. A survivor of war, cancer, and his own darkest moments, Mike is now writing his memoir, Blades of War, to share what he lived through, and why he's still here.

Resources Mentioned

• Blades of War by Mike Ware (forthcoming)
• Veterans Crisis Line: Call 988, then press 1

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