Meet Daryl Dittmer

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daryl Dittmer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Daryl, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I didn’t know it then like I do now, but I grew up in the heart of the Midwest, the heart of the auto industry, and the heart of the “protestant work ethic.”

My dad was a mechanic for one of the big three automakers, and he worked very hard. He was an hourly employee, raising three kids, and doing his best to take to take care of all of us to the best of his ability. He did that. I never knew what it was like to go hungry, but I did know what it was like to have powdered milk, as well as watch my mom wash plastic sandwich bags for reuse. I like to say we had all our needs taken care of, including food, clothing, and shelter, but not as many of our “wants.”

When I was 14, my dad put me in front of a local farmer and said, “Can you put him to work?” The farmer told my dad that he could and thus began my first official job. Prior to that, I’d made money shoveling snow, mowing lawns, and delivering newspapers, but this was the first one where I needed to show up every day and wear myself out working. And I did. It was very hard work. That was the beginning. I started at $1.50 per hour.

As I grew older and worked through troubles and troubling times, I found that I wanted to live a life different from the one I grew up living. I wanted to be the one who decided what I wanted from life and then figure out how to get it. I wanted to have enough money so that I didn’t have to think about money all the time. I wanted to decide how I spend the waning days of my life here on this rock, if possible, and have enough money to do that.

I had to ask myself, “How do I achieve all of these things in a world where it appears very difficult to do?” Then, I had to answer that question for myself and get to work.

Thus began my work ethic.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Well, I’ve had an interesting ride thus far.

I worked through some troubles with addiction and dysfunction in my younger years and came out the other end of that with a lot of drive to improve myself and my life.

Since that time, I’ve been a carpenter, sales professional, builder, property investor, landlord, business owner, and most currently, an author.

I said to my wife many years ago, after relating one of the crazy stories of my youth, “remind me to write a book someday.” Well, almost 20 years later I have two published books out there and one more in process.

I wrote them to share my story, my experience, with the hope of truly helping others.

My first book, WHEN I STOP FIGHTING: The Unexpected Joy of Getting My Head Out of My Ass, is geared toward the fight we all have with ourselves, and centered around my story of addiction, dysfunction, recovery, taking risks, losing, winning, and finally freedom. I’ve been very happy with how it’s been received, and it truly is helping people with their lives, for which I am grateful.

My second book, which just released on October 15, 2024, WHEN YOU STOP FIGHTING: The Road You’re On is Your Own Asphalt, is a deeper dive into our journey, our trajectory, and what we truly want out of this lifetime. I believe we all want some form of the following: meaning or purpose, peace of mind, great relationships, financial security, and contentment. What have we been doing to try to achieve those? Is it working? What if we tried something different? There are the questions I ask and answer in my most recent book.

I’ve done audiobooks for both books myself, as I feel there is something genuine about hearing the voice of the author. The first audiobook is released and available at virtually every outlet, and the second one will be available on November 15, everywhere.

I’m happy to report I’m getting some great reviews from readers on both books. I believe they are both at 4.9 and the numbers of reviews are rising fast!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I am a “dive in” type of person, so 99% of my skills and/or knowledge in many areas has come from on-the-job training, which I wholeheartedly believe in. There are also some attributes and qualities that we can develop for ourselves which will help keep us on track and help us understand what it takes to achieve things we may never have dreamed we could achieve.

When I started in my sales career, I had the work ethic but there were other things I needed to develop to become successful. One of these was patience. Patience, to me, is not hanging out waiting for things to happen. Patience, as a real strength, is putting in the time, putting in the effort, whilst understanding that it takes a while to achieve success in this lifetime. It takes time to master the craft, whatever that is; it takes a time to develop the necessary relationships; it takes time to bolster our mindset for success.

Courage is also another attribute that I believe we need to develop as we move through this life. Sometimes people confuse courage with facing down danger, which is true, but how many times do we actually have to do that these days? Rarely, if ever for most people. Courage is stepping into the unknown when you don’t know the outcome. Courage is making that decision to be true to yourself and others. Courage is making that decision or phone call that you don’t want to, but you know it is what you need to do. Courage isn’t about not being afraid. Courage is about being afraid but doing it anyway.

Perseverance is the last of the three attributes that I believe changes lives. It’s easier to quit when things get tough. It’s easier to not go that extra mile or put in that additional effort. Doing the difficult things that many people won’t do, puts us in a position that many won’t find themselves in, which is what separates those who achieve what they’d like to in this life, and those who don’t. Actually, speaking from my own experience, I long ago achieved what I wanted to. I am now in the “I never would have dreamed” stage, which is what I’m attempting to help other people get to. Perseverance will help you get there.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

We live in a world where it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed. I believe it’s why many people don’t realize their potential. There are times when it just feels a lot better to not add anything additional to our plate, which I certainly understand. Sorting through these things and finding out what is necessary and what we need to spend time on can be difficult.

I’ve been a driven person for a long time and have found myself overwhelmed on many occasions as I tackled new and challenging things in my life. Going from a very blue-collar upbringing in the Midwest to a high-pressure sales position in the Northeast definitely overwhelmed me on many occasions. Buying properties and homes that I really couldn’t yet afford and putting myself in a position to fail, overwhelmed me. Buying and starting businesses that I had no experience in was very overwhelming.

I’d be so driven to succeed that there were occasions that I made myself physically sick, not to mention the mental and emotional burden of taking on things that scared the heck out of me. I had to learn new ways to cope and new ways to quiet myself and step back a little, so that I could begin to sort through those overwhelming times.

It’s very easy to do way too much when we’re highly driven to succeed, and many times, we learn that a lot of those things were unnecessary. I found that to be true in my journey. So what did I need to do?

I needed to learn ways to take care of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, so I could withstand being overwhelmed at times. I needed to quiet my mind and heart so that I could step back and evaluate what is necessary to do and what is not, so that I don’t overwhelm myself as often. I needed to learn to reformulate my strategy as often as was necessary so that I don’t get bogged down by things that aren’t moving me forward.

It takes time to work through these things but if we’re moving ourselves and our life in a great direction, overwhelmed can be a part of the journey.

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