Meet John David Berdahl

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

John David, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Hey!

I got my resilience from my faith and from my family and from my own personal and professional friendships, y’know!

Haha!

I did!

First, faith, or having an unwavering or an unswerving faith or constructive pride in yourself and in your own abilities or talents was instilled in me very, very early by my father David Berdahl, or by Davey Bee as his know by his loyal, loyal fans!

Ha!

Yes!

He still does explain to me the importance of keeping your promises and being genuine and being fair, as the Father is genuine, and as the Father is fair and just and devoted and pure!

Sure!

Second, and you may have already guessed why it is that the concept of family is one of the cornerstones of my own resilience here, my dad continues to show me to this very day how sacrifice for others, how dedication to other people, and how fixed and resolute authenticity and bravery are more than necessary to begin, to maintain, to sustain and to provide a healthy and joyful life here, they are paramount!

And third now, the connections that I have made as I have progressed from child to student to employee, to teacher, to professional partner or collaborator and community leader, and educator, and mentor have been invaluable and insightful and crucial, definitely, teaching me to be reliable, steadfast, flexible and kind, and certainly teaching me a few maxims or guiding principles along the way, like, “Do the most good, right now, with the people around you.”

And, “Suit up. Show up. Say please and thank you, and always bring cookies.”

And of course, “If you want to be happy, be.”

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Hey!

Hey what I do is I do instruct and I do provide health assistance and care, and I do work as a freelance artist and as an honored, honored advocate for mental or intellectual wellness and support!

Hahaha!

I do!

The small business that I do own and do operate is called John David Berdahl – Aspie, Writer, Artist, Musician here in Moorhead, Minnesota, and I do teach at Moorhead Area Public Schools and for Moorhead Community Education, for which I am also a cherished advisory council board member, and I do privately tutor!

I am also a personal care assistant and a direct support professional with Accra Homecare based out of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and I am the sole autistic board member of Fargo-Moorhead’s own Red River Valley Asperger-Autism Network nonprofit organization as well!

And in addition to those career highlights, I do create content for a web series and podcast titled Where Are You From? on YouTube, and the Davey Bee’s Hit Song Vault and the How Can I Help? podcast series for Prairie Public, our local PBS station, and I do present many fun family art projects on-air for the morning live lifestyle program North Dakota Today for the local television station Valley News Live or KVLY-TV, affiliated with NBC!

When I am presenting or speaking publicly and mentoring, I do empower, and I do enlighten by suggesting very affordable and very cathartic, creative means of self-expression, and adaptive, and sustainable modes of preserving independence and enriching self-care, and detailing effective, and needed, needed measures or methods for fostering inclusion, acceptance, interrelational harmony, and a realization of one’s individual or personal purpose and value!

I do!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful on my own journey were eudaimonia, enantiodromia and haecceity, but, hey, let’s go ahead and throw in teleology and pronoia for good measure now, huh!

Haha!

Yeah!

(Eudaimonia is often taken to mean happiness, but knowing your own life goals, and developing your own best potentials are very, very, very much part or a portion of that term!

Yes!

And enantiodromia is a psychological phenomenon that a person can harness to recalibrate his or her mind and keep it in a healthy balance!

Really!

And the “thisness” or the haecceity of something is the characteristics of the thing or of the being that make it that particular being or thing itself, right!

Hahaha!

Of course!)

These areas or these concerns or topics have gone a long, long way towards shaping, and deepening, and widening or broadening my own comprehension and grasp of this life, and the many opportunities and complexities that it does present or offer all of us!

Certainly!

And the best way to develop or to improve these subjects for yourself is to read about them, and to converse about them, and to engage in them or concentrate on them as often as you can do so!

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
The number one obstacle or challenge that I am currently facing is success, or, to be more specific, “success” becoming an enemy or an adversary of the good, or of the growth and the positive difference or change that I myself am making around me through my work in classrooms and in offices and studios, and on stages, and in media!

Yeah!

Now success can be many things to many people, obviously, uh huh, but to be clear and to be honest, most of the time a lot of individuals do visualize success as money and as fame or notoriety, and as favor, and as being really, really “busy” and prosperous and interesting y’know!

Oh!

Oh!

They do!

And this visualization, or this picture, or this sudden intrigue and fascination with that type of success has been creeping up towards the forefront or the beginning someone’s awareness of me, and it has been, sometimes, slowing down, or even limiting altogether the progress that I could be making otherwise when people do believe that they themselves are supposed to discuss it or recognize it, or, sadly, choose to be slighted or envious or jealous about it while we are face to face or on-air, or while it is that I am supposed to be the lead as an instructor or as a carer or support staff member or lecturer!

Ouch!

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