Ep10: From Skydive Disaster to Triathlon Victory: An Unstoppable Spirit | Jason Dennen | Mindset Reinvented

As C .C. Scott once said, the human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. And today we have an extraordinary guest, Jason Dennon. Jason is an author, an inspirational speaker. He's a skydiver, a mountain climber. He's a triathlete, and he's an explorer.

And despite describing himself as just a normal everyday guy, his story is anything but ordinary. Jason survived a skydiving accident that nearly took his life. He endured multiple surgeries, a long rehabilitation process, and his journey from a coma ended up him completing a triathlon.

less than a year after the accident. And to me, that's nothing short of inspirational. And today, Jason will share his insights on overcoming self -doubt, building resilience, and finding purpose through his experience. Jason, I couldn't be more happy to have you on the show, my man. Welcome, and glad you're here.

Jason Dennen (04:36.39)

Thanks for having me on the show, Jack. I appreciate

Jack Trama (04:39.832)

Pleasure's all mine. So let's dive right in. Jason, you've probably been asked this question a thousand times, but can you start by telling us what happened on the day of your skydiving accident?

Jason Dennen (04:56.444)

Sure, started like an ordinary day, woke up, it was a Saturday, went for a trail run, finished that up, great weather, head to the airport for some skydiving. And everything was going great on the third jump of the day. Parachute was overhead, I was coming in for a landing like I'd landed hundreds and hundreds of times before on this particular field. And I got to about 150 feet off the ground.

in landing. And the way you land is you land into the wind that it slows you down a little bit. And then a huge gust of wind came off the mountains. And it picked me up in my harness and slammed me forward. So it greatly increased my speed. And about 150 feet off the ground, you really can't turn because the way a parachute turns is you pull down on a handle on the side. It then collapses a portion of your parachute. You dive towards the ground, and that creates a turn.

So if you're 2 ,000 feet above the ground, no big deal. But if you're 150 feet off the ground and you do that, you'll dive directly in the ground and something pretty terrible is going to happen. So I really had no other choice than not turn and just say, I'm not sure if I'm going to land on this field because a fence at an airplane hangar, big metal building, was quickly approaching with the increased speed that wind gust pushed me towards.

So I'm about five seconds from the ground, and I'm counting down. as I get closer to counting down those five seconds, I realize I'm not going to land before that fence. And as I just about touch down, I hit a cattle fence. So it's kind of wire fence. Comes tight on my chest, breaks right away. And then 10 feet behind it is that metal airplane hanger. So I hit that about 30 miles an hour.

So, and I blacked out as soon as I hit it, my body just shut down. So it was, yeah, it went from a regular day really quickly to fighting for my life within, you know, within seconds.

Jack Trama (07:01.484)

Now, Jason, I mean, I'm blown away at that experience, but you had done two tandem jumps prior to you going on your own. Is that accurate, or did you do more tandem jumps?

Jason Dennen (07:15.196)

no, this was jump 327. So the first one or two jumps I've ever done were tandem. After that, I took a training course to be able to jump on your own and get a license and be responsible for yourself. So yeah, I about 325 jumps on my own. I mean, you jump with other people and create formations and things like that. But yeah, I mean, people far more experienced than I am, you know, 327 is relatively seasoned at the sport.

Jack Trama (07:51.674)

So something that is very statistically, it doesn't happen that often, ended up happening to you. And it was just a freak of nature that you had that gust of wind behind you and you couldn't really do anything about it. You were too low to the ground. So the next thing you know then is, you made impact, you went unconscious, and then you woke up from a coma at some point.

What were your thoughts and the feelings that you had once you learned about the extent of your injuries?

Jason Dennen (08:25.338)

Yeah, so when I hit the building, like I said, it blacked out. So I had no idea what my injuries were in that whole coma process. I knew something was terribly wrong. But I didn't know what. So when I woke up from the coma, I'm laying there. And I get woken up essentially by the doctor who's looking over me. I open my eyes for the first time. And my eyes are, there's sun coming through the window. And my eyes have to adjust for a second.

there's a guy in a white coat standing over me and he says, you're lucky to be alive. And it's like, well, that's an interesting way to get woken up. And I said, thanks for helping me, because I knew he somebody important if he was going to be willing to say that to me. And I kind of lifted my hand up and gave him a high five. But so he leaves and I'm left by myself in the room. And it's for the first time I'm trying to figure out what's exactly wrong with me.

Over the next couple of days, my family would fill me in and tell me what was wrong. And sometimes they had to repeat things. I'd say, is that leg broken or is that okay? Because in the early stages, I was numb in some ways, and then the pain came in later. But I'm looking and I see my left arm, I can't move it. And see it's covered in ice and a cast.

I see gauze all over my chest and tubes coming out everywhere in my abdomen where it's draining blood. And I see five or six IV bags hanging there. I didn't realize you could have five or six IV bags attached to you at once. And there's all this noise going on with all the different machines that are monitoring whatever they're monitoring in my body. So little by little, they let me know it was wrong. And one of the first things they did say in my family, said, you don't have any

brain injury. did have a concussion, I guess that's a form of a brain injury, but no lasting injury and no spinal injury. So one of the things my dad had said early on when I'm just laying there and just woke up and he said, this is going to be like one of your races. And I'm not sure I could quite, coming out of that coma, quite grasp that, but it's stuck in my head. And later did I realize it's like, there's going to be some permanent damage or could be.

Jason Dennen (10:45.456)

But the reality is coming back from this is going to be similar to training for one of my races. And as long as I kept on dedicating myself and going forward, that I can get through the situation that I was

Jack Trama (10:58.734)

Man, the creator was watching over you that day because for you not to sustain serious brain injury, for you not to sustain a spinal cord issue, nothing short of amazing. 30 miles an hour is no joke, especially as you're coming down and gravity is just pushing you towards these, the fence and then of course the building.

So, and I know that you, and we'll talk about this a little later. know faith is now a huge part of your life, but I'm just amazed that you've been totally blessed by being able to be here today and share this story with us. It's nothing short of remarkable. Now, during the time that you were going through, now, just to put some context around this.

And correct me if wrong, this is where, what I read online is that you were in the hospital for almost four months, three and a half, four months. okay, and then you had, you see, had multiple bone injuries. had some, did you have some organ related issues as well?

Jason Dennen (12:02.032)

Yeah, three and a half months.

Jason Dennen (12:11.164)

Yeah, so the biggest injury that almost killed me was, so when I hit the building, I hit kind of on my left side. And so 10 of my 12 ribs break. And the impact of breaking the ribs is so traumatic. It hits my heart. And my heart, your heart normally sits in something called the pericardial sac. It broke out of the sac and ended up on the right side of my chest. And the doctors,

They tell my family after they do this surgery, I got flown by Flight for Life helicopter to this level one trauma center, which takes care of the worst of the worst type of accidents. And the doctor who did the surgery said, not only have I never done this surgery on anyone before to their heart, but no doctor in this hospital has ever performed this surgery. And the reason is, they said, is because people die on impact when their heart moves from one side of their chest to the other. Things get disconnected.

And it's just instant death. they were, the doctor was completely surprised that not only had I made it off the field where I crashed alive, but made it to them alive through the helicopter ride, because they said, if anyone moved me in a little bit of a wrong direction, my heart would have disconnected and that would have been it. So they were, after they did the surgery, it took them three days to close up my chest because they weren't 100 % sure it worked.

Jack Trama (13:27.086)

Could have been over.

Jason Dennen (13:37.54)

And if they needed to get back in, they didn't want to have my chest all wired up because they saw it by my sternum in half to get to my heart. So after three days, finally, after all that testing, they were saying, OK, it works. And then they went with the rest of the surgeries to fix the rest of my body. But also colon was misplaced, was out of place. They had to put it back in. Spleen was lacerated. Diaphragm was ruptured. Lungs were collapsed. So yeah, there were some pretty big

damage to organs that they had to fix.

Jack Trama (14:08.99)

Wow. I'm blown away at that. I'll tell you, recently I had posted something on social media to ask my connections and friends if, they've ever died before.

or if they desire to do that in the future. And the responses that I got were a mixed bag of, my goodness, I've done it hundreds of times, I absolutely love it, it's an adrenaline rush. And then I've got people saying, heavens no, you would never find me doing that, never, ever, ever. And then some people say, this has been on my bucket list for a while and I will do that as soon as I could make some time to do it. And...

you know, it's interesting to me from your perspective what's happened. And I know that statistically it's not something that happens a lot, but it does happen. There's some risk inherent with jumping out of a plane, no matter how you look at it. But what would you say just from a statistics perspective, you know, were you this outlier that just had this gush of wind or does it happen more often than people think?

That's my question for you.

Jason Dennen (15:21.596)

Well, yeah, well, there's I think it's about 3 .2 million skydives are done a year. Now, some people obviously do four or 500 themselves. And there are between 20 and 25 deaths on average from skydiving. Obviously, I was not part of that because I didn't pass away. injuries do happen. mean, ACL tears, broken legs, arms, things like that.

it inherit danger of landing and wind. Now in Colorado, we do have crazy weather, whether it's wind gusts or you also land a lot faster in Colorado because we have thinner air than if you were jumping in, let's say, Florida. So yeah, there are definitely interesting weather patterns where in a lot of places where you skydive, if the, let's say, the wind is coming out of the east on that particular day,

Jack Trama (15:50.52)

the impact.

Jason Dennen (16:17.82)

It's out of the East the entire day and it's pretty consistent. Where Colorado, you can be out there and your parachutes open and you're a few thousand feet above the ground trying to figure out your landing and your pattern and where you need to be in order to land safely. And the wind is just circling instead of in one direction. And it could change three or four different times before, let's say you're 3000 feet above the ground before you actually touch down. So the wind can be...

pretty tricky out in Colorado for sure. And people that come from sea level and jump out here, you know, will tell you that, you you land a lot faster and it takes getting used to. I mean, this is where I learned. So this is, this is where really I figured out how to, how to, you know, how to land and all those other things. But if you go to Arizona, even, you know, 3000 feet lower, you could definitely tell the difference between the speeds in landing. So yeah, there, so injuries do happen and,

And that's part of the game. the more you jump, the more you realize there are injuries that you didn't maybe know about in the beginning. I mean, certainly you realize there's danger and things can happen. But sometimes you can put that out of your head because if you thought about that every time you jumped, you probably wouldn't jump because it would freak you out a bit. the more people you know and the more you go through it, more,

of sad things you see that happened in the sport. But for the most part, is relatively safe. say 20 deaths out of 3 .2 million skydives, but certainly things do happen all the time. And the more people you know, the more things you realize do happen.

Jack Trama (18:03.02)

Yeah, yeah. And I think it's important for people that enjoy skydiving and have done it successfully and will continue to do it. I think it's really important just to know what the risks are, what the potential is. Because sometimes we as humans, we put blinders on sometimes. We're doing something just solely for the...

The way we feel when we're doing it, it's an adrenaline rush and all of that is good. It's just that we should be aware of where some of the pitfalls might be and not be tunnel visioned into just one way of thinking. Now let's go back for a moment because you were again in the hospital for almost four months. Then you went through rehab and rehab was about a year or a little less than a year for you, something in that ballpark. How long was rehab for you?

Jason Dennen (18:54.94)

Yeah, total was about 11 months. So about eight and a half months of outpatient rehab where I was out of the hospital, but four days a week on top of all the other things I was doing to get better on my own. So, I mean, for a long time, was eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week of rehab where I would go in for anywhere between an hour and two hours at the rehab center. And then I

do things before I got there and afterwards I got there because I was just look at it as, I better take advantage of this time as much as possible. you know, when I was on disability and at home, so, yeah, it was anything from stretching out the muscles cause everything was super, super tight after those injuries, and muscle weakness and, and re lack of range of motion and things like that. So a lot of it had to do with just, you know, stretching your body and

hours a day and then trying to re -strengthen it. it was a full -time job for

Jack Trama (19:58.754)

Yeah, no doubt. you you probably, because you're very driven and you love to be outdoors and you do the things that you do, you probably had this innate desire to rehab yourself and to really be that person that goes against the conventional wisdom. The doctors, when they first saw you, they said, hey, it doesn't look good, but you managed.

to get through that and not only that, but you managed to get through rehab. Rehab is one of the most challenging things that I don't need to tell you. mean, it was a full -time job for you, but you need a certain mindset. You need a certain thought process to be able to remain consistent with it, dedicated with it when it's hard. And so you followed some principles.

to overcome those challenges and what were they? Share with us what were some of the principles that you followed to get you to where you are now today.

Jason Dennen (21:01.542)

Yeah. So, well, one of the things I always thought, so you, would hear no a lot, you know, you're not, for instance, the hospital, you're not going to walk out of here. You're going home in a wheelchair. You know, when, when I first got clearance to walk, I asked when I was going to run again and the doctors like you probably never going to run again with all those injuries. And what none of those medical professionals knew was I had a goal that no one knew about before I ever talked to those doctors. Cause about a week after I walked, woke up from the coma.

I said, my goal, needed a goal. Cause that's, know how my mind works, that it needs something to shoot for. And it was that I was going to race in a triathlon again. And kind of the mentality behind that is, you know, I had lower body injuries, organ injuries, upper body injuries and the triathlon yet it's swimming, biking and running. couldn't hide any portion of your body. You know, if you were, if you were just, if the goal was just running then, and I couldn't rehab my upper body, well then that's okay. You can get through that. But if you are, it's a, it's a whole body.

exercise, there was no hiding, getting well. So that was kind of the mentality of like, this is what I need to get to. This is what I need to make my body do. I had done triathlons before, but that's what I need to do to get better. So the mentality behind that was, okay, this is where I need to get to. How do I get there, you know, through this challenge? And the reality is, sometimes I say fear, you know, you have fear in skydiving, you have fear in lots of parts of your

And when I decided, you know, eventually to sign up for that triathlon, you know, there was, there was fear mentality and like, you know, am I going to fall on my face? Can I even actually do this? Because I wasn't going to bother asking doctors because they kept on telling me I wouldn't be able to do lots of things. And I never wanted to, I basically ignored it and said, the only way I'm going to figure out what I'm capable of is if I give absolutely a hundred percent of what I'm capable of giving for a long period of

And then if I can't do something, well, maybe that's just in the cards and I can't do it. But if I just take their advice and believe what they're going to tell me, then there's no possible way I'm going to get to where I want to go. So I said, if I do everything I can to try to get to where I am and I can't make it, well, maybe that's it. But if I don't ever give 100%, then years down the line, I might regret it and say, well, if I tried, maybe I could have done this, but I never tried or never

Jason Dennen (23:24.964)

challenge what someone was going to tell me. then I'd be disappointed and say, I wasted my time. I should have tried to do it. So I never want to have that thought of, I could have done more. And that was really the mentality going through it. And in going back to kind of fear that whether I was able to do it or not, mean, fear can protect you from bad things happen, but also could prevent you from doing something

you're capable of just because you're not sure. So, and the closer you come to danger, the harder it is to determine whether that fear is trying to protect you or preventing you from doing something you want to do. And I determined as far as triathlon that, you know, that fear that I was having was really going to hold me back. And there were some times, especially when I first got in the water in a swimming event, because I had a couple of warmup events

shorter ones before I did the actual triathlon race and You know I was in a few minutes into it and I was it was open water swimming so we were in a lake and which is completely different than swimming in a pool and I just have an amazing a panic attack and I'm my heart's coming through my chest of like 200 beats a minute and I'm hyperventilating and I'm just like in my mind your mind starts playing tricks on you and saying

you know, did you come back too early? Should you even have done this? And then, you know, I turned on my back and you see the, you know, shore so close and you could say, you know, I could turn around from this hundred yards away easily and go back. And then it's like, but that's temptation to quit. And I wasn't going to quit. So as I'm freaking out, I'm just taking, you know, deep breaths and going, okay, just swim a hundred yards. Don't think about the whole swim. Just break it down to small pieces. Go a hundred yards and see what happens. And you swim a hundred yards.

And I'm a little bit calmer, but I'm still freaking out. And I'm just like, OK, just go another 100 yards. And then little by little, I'm starting to relax and then really starting to swim better than I was. And it's that initial shock of you can quit or you can say, take a hold of yourself, calm down. You can get through this. You've already been through the coma, so this isn't worse than that. And just try to keep going.

Jason Dennen (25:50.362)

which isn't easy, but if I had quit on the spot at that point, then I would have never made it through racing. So oftentimes, you kind of get that early gut check when you're going through something difficult and either quit or you push through it. And you're never going to get to where you want to go unless you decide to push through that.

Jack Trama (26:10.424)

Well, and you put a huge investment in time to rehab yourself. And like you said earlier, that was the motivation. That's where you got your strength from because you wanted to participate in this triathlon. So now if you showed up and didn't follow through, you're right. That would have been something that you wouldn't have been able to let go of. It would have been very regretful in your life. And so that makes perfect sense.

And so today, how do you, if you look at life the way that you viewed it before the accident versus the way you view life today, what would you say the biggest difference is in your viewpoint today versus the way it was prior to your accident?

Jason Dennen (27:00.604)

Yeah, I think one of the things is, you know, slow down a little bit. I mean, it felt like I was, you know, going a hundred miles an hour all the time and I, I, I miss things. I think I slow down and, you know, personal relationships where, you know, triathlon, for example, I mean, before the accident, you're always, you know, training and I was doing long distance triathlons. took, you know, hour, you know, 25 hours a week of training and, know,

you would just feel like you're rushing through life and not maybe enjoying it as much and taking extra time and relationships that I'm in. Oftentimes I would think of those people and how much they meant to me when I was out training, because you're kind of in this almost meditative state. But I never come back and actually tell them, those people that I cared about, how much they meant to me. And I was like, you know, I almost died and people wouldn't known.

how much I cared for them or how much a difference they made in my life because I never said it. So I think one of the big things that I kind of went forward and going, you need to express yourself and tell people how much they mean to you. And that was part of the whole recovery process. After I get into the hospital, I start getting a little bit better. And it was about visiting all those people that helped me along the way and letting them know how much it changed or how.

big a part of my life was and I wouldn't be here without their assistance. And that was the people that helped me in the hospital, but also family and friends and all those people. And it's really not just letting that go after the accident of, you know, writing those people cards and letters and telling them how I feel about them, but continuing that down the line and not stopping doing that. you know, just, you know, meeting up with a friend and having coffee with them and, and, you know, having a great conversation and then later back, you know, sending

a text message and saying, just want to let you know how important that was to me today that you took the time out of your day to spend time with me and I'm better because of it. I think that's creating that as a habit where I didn't have that before. It doesn't mean I didn't think about that, but it was not expressing that. And I think just the expression of feelings in general, I'm far more willing to do that and sharing.

Jason Dennen (29:26.47)

difficulties I'm going through and not kind of taking it and burying it inside myself. And I think certainly I'm far better off by sharing things I'm going through with those people that I care about.

Jack Trama (29:41.772)

That's a huge lesson, really, for all of us. And I think all of us are subject to just chasing life and doing things, activities, and things that we think are incredibly important, but we lose sight of relationships. We lose sight of, like you said, sharing our feelings and our love for people that mean a lot to us. We make the general assumption that they know.

And we just don't express it. I wonder for a lot of us, now this is true for your experience, but I wonder for a lot of us if it requires a life -changing moment and not maybe so extreme as yours, but something that smacks us in the face and it gives us a different perspective. And then we take a step back and look at the people that we love and the things that really mean something to us. And at that point we become more expressive and we share

what our thoughts are. Do you think it requires a dramatic event or an about face in somebody's life? Or can we get to that point without any of that and more from an intentional perspective? Does it require something that dramatic in our lives?

Jason Dennen (30:58.172)

I hope not. And that's kind of why one of the reasons I share my story because so when I woke up, woke up the coma, there was about 10 weeks where I couldn't move and you just sit there and it took all the distractions out of life, right? All that hundred miles an hour for all those years was taken away and all you get to do is sit there and review your life. And plenty of amazing things happened in my life, you know, before the accident,

Jack Trama (30:59.907)

Yeah.

Jason Dennen (31:24.816)

I didn't think about all those things. I thought about all the things I thought I came up short in relationships or things I wish I had done better. And it was an amazing, it was the hardest thing I ever went through, but the most amazing time I went through because so few times in life do you have that time where it's like you're not distracted by anything except, you know, pain of living through that accident, but also reassessing your life. So, you know, I like to tell people like the things

The things I regretted the most living are not spending enough time with loved ones and not telling them how much I cared about them. And I don't want anybody to have that same experience because I had got a second chance to live on my life and correct those things. a lot of people don't. And you don't want to have those regrets. I got to correct those. You don't want to have those regrets when you're on your deathbed because you don't get to fix

I think recently I was reading, someone had posted something about Steve Jobs, you know, of Apple and what he came up with when he was on his deathbed dying of cancer that, you know, he was always, you know, super money driven and ignored relationships and all those other things. And he comes out and then says, these are the things I regret the most. And he was dying of cancer and didn't have a chance to correct any of those or it too late in his life.

And it's incredibly sad. And I don't want anybody else to have that. so I say, these are the things I regret. You will regret the same things unless you pay attention to these things. Because life goes so quick, and you can be distracted in so many ways. And the reality is, we're not purposely distracted from these important things. It's just little by little, you make decisions, and you don't realize the results till maybe years later.

You know, I said, you know, I woke up one day and I opened my eyes and go, how did I get so far from the things that are most important to me in life? And then shortly after that, that crash happened and it, you know, put everything into perspective. So, you know, it's not like you're purposely moving away from those important things, but it's, it's important to constantly review. Like, this is the reason I'm going through life. The years are the most important things, prioritize those things, and you're going to get pulled off track. That's just the reality of life.

Jason Dennen (33:49.786)

But you need to get back to the things that are most important. And I'm always reminded, because I have a big scar that goes from my clavicle all the way below my belt line where they cut me open. And I always say that's the scar I never want to go away, which it's not going to. And I get dressed in the morning, and I look at that, and I go, you're here for more purpose than just your job, or you know how things can pull you

to a direction you don't want to be in. And it kind of brings me back to center and say, remember, here are the things you regretted when you woke up from that coma and had to lay there and review your life over and over and over again, 24 hours a day. Don't get to that point again. You don't want to regret that ever again.

Jack Trama (34:38.466)

Yeah, that's a serious reminder. We all look in the mirror every day, and that right there has got to just bring back some real, real hardships and, of course, victories because you've accomplished so much. And to that point, if someone is struggling with something significant, a challenge, a life change, something that they're just really having a hard time with,

What would you suggest to them to do to be able to process it, really take a look at it, be honest about what it is that is bothering you or troubling you, and then what's the course correction activity that you would suggest that they do?

Jason Dennen (35:24.016)

Yeah, I think overcoming, you know, big life events can be extremely challenging. And I think if we look at it from, it can be overwhelming because it seems so big. And I think one of those important things is finding little ways to get better each day once you kind of figure out what your problem is. So when I'm laying in that bed after my accident, you know, my mind's not working.

correctly after all those medications he had me on from the coma. And I'm kind of convincing myself, well, one day I'm just going to get up and start walking and getting out of this bed and jumping out of bed. Well, that wasn't realistic. And I started really hitting a low when I was putting all this pressure on myself to get better right away when the reality was that wasn't possible. The big breakthrough happened was when I said,

All you need to do is find some small thing to do every day to get yourself better. And at this point, I was laying there, and the only thing I could move was my right wrist, and that was about it. And it gave a huge weight lift off my shoulders. OK, you don't have to solve this problem in one day or one hour. It's going to take a long time to solve your problem. But what you need to do is figure out something that's so small to get better every single day, because

30 days, 60 days, 90 days, that's going to make a huge difference. If you decide to do nothing, well then 90 days later, you're to be in the same place you were as before. So it's like really breaking it down to a granular level and go, OK, today I can do this. And then the next day, it's a little piece. And that adds up over time. But you have to have the courage to find something small to do every single day and really concentrate on it. So I think it's just not overwhelming yourself and just finding something to do.

Jack Trama (37:13.282)

How do you finish an apple?

Jason Dennen (37:15.676)

You have to take a first bite first.

Jack Trama (37:18.478)

100%. No, that's rock solid. Because I think we're all subject to this, is sometimes if we've got an arduous task ahead of us, we look at the entire apple and many of us, we get overwhelmed because we can't eat the apple in one bite. We have to take small bites. And I think that's a good reminder, small improvements, small improvements, small improvements. And then that ends up

you know, a victory. Talk briefly about, and I know this is incredibly important to you, and I understand why, but your faith played a huge role in you overcoming these challenges, and to this day, you're very faith -based. Can you share maybe a little bit about...

how your faith helped you overcome all of this and has helped you get to where you are right now in life.

Jason Dennen (38:19.056)

Yes, yeah, faith played the biggest part in it. I always say, God prepared me with all the lessons I need to learn before I ever needed to learn them. Growing up in the church and learning all these lessons from the Bible, it's like when I was lost and my brain was not thinking correctly, because it possibly couldn't, there was a pathway and a plan that I put in place that I couldn't consciously think of myself. It was just

All the lessons I learned just, you know, as far as in the coma, you know, being tempted to give up, the easy way was just to, you know, stop, stop breathing. Don't worry about it. It's easy to give up it. All your pain will go away. And I said, no, I'm going to take the painful path. I'm not sure what's wrong with me. I'm not sure where I'm, where this path is going. You know, I believe that, that, that, you know, there's, there was a plan for me and that skydiving actually was part of the plan because it made me better. was, it was a gift.

given to me to be able to help people in a way that I couldn't have helped with before. couldn't have understood someone else going through the toughest time in their own lives unless I went through that myself first. So I say, like, you know, it's incredibly painful. It's the best thing that ever happened to me because, you know, I probably would have been going down the same path of 100 miles an hour and missing out on things I should have missed that I shouldn't have been missing out on unless I went through it. So

Yeah, I was definitely guided, know, God saved me via miracle. And every day I have to say, you know, there's a reason he saved me and I need to use this to help other people going through those difficult times. yeah, without faith, then yeah, I would have never made it through this. So it only strengthened

Jack Trama (40:09.868)

He knows what he's doing.

Jason Dennen (40:13.1)

100%. I mean, if the plan was jump two times that day and the third one you're going to crash in the building, if that was my decision, I would have went home and ate a sandwich and not went through this. But it was amazing that that happened. yeah, I wouldn't be the person today unless I went through that. So luckily, the builder of the plan has far more knowledge

Jack Trama (40:22.806)

Yeah.

Jason Dennen (40:41.922)

and wisdom than I do. And I had to follow the path and trust in it. And when I woke up, you're like, I don't know what to do. It's just like, I prayed because I knew how to do that. And so I'm not sure why this happened, but I'm sure you're going to show me an answer eventually. I'm going to have to be patient. And it tested me to my limits.

but not beyond them. And I'm so thankful I went through that. yeah.

Jack Trama (41:17.632)

Yeah, and also a pen was placed in your hands where you were able to write a book called Eight Days Till Sunrise. And through that book, I know you've had a lot of inspiration to write it. What would you hope that your readers will take away from that book?

Jason Dennen (41:39.792)

Yeah, that we are far stronger than we think we are. I think it's so easy to say, look at someone else and say, that person's strong or that person has something we don't have. When the reality is we need to give ourselves credit for the amazing strength we do have to overcome. I mean, that's certainly a key. like, say, that person can get through something, but I can't. And the reality is you can get through

what you need to believe in yourself and what you're going through. And so often people will, I went through this throughout the journey that people tell you, you can't do things. And oftentimes those aren't people invested in your life, that it's easy for them to see you for five minutes and say, well, that's not possible, but they don't know who you are. And allowing people to control your life with their beliefs of what's possible and what's not possible is a mistake.

because if I listened to those people, those doctors and those physical therapists, then I wouldn't have never gotten to where I am today because I didn't want to believe. wanted to say, I'm capable of this and you could say what you want and that's fine, but you don't know what I'm capable of. So I think that's so important. Say, don't give up and don't give in because there's so many days that went by.

Because the changes on a daily basis are so small and so hard to measure when you're going through them. And sometimes it feels like you're spacking your head against the wall. like 10, 15 days go by, and it's like, it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress. And then all of sudden, some breakthrough comes through and goes, that never would have happened unless I decided to have her many days ago to find a way to make this small change. And now you see it paying off. Because yes.

day to day, you're just like, I don't see any change. I don't see any change. then, you sometimes I would recognize it when, you know, I hadn't seen a friend for a couple of weeks and they would see me when I got right out of the hospital and saw how much I was struggling. And then they'd, you know, have dinner with me or lunch or something like that. And they go, you realize how much progress you made. You were a completely different person 30 days ago. sometimes you don't recognize it because when you look at yourself in the mirror every day,

Jason Dennen (44:00.72)

You don't realize the change, but someone else will come by and say, you realize the change that just happened. I guess I didn't realize it. And so I always say, always have to test yourself. Because when you test yourself, you could fail. But unless you're willing to test yourself, you don't know where you are and what other changes you need to make to make yourself better. So once I got home, I started walking.

Jack Trama (44:05.772)

You know what I

Jason Dennen (44:30.65)

And one day I went for a walk and I had crutches and I said, well, this seems like a short walk. And what it turned out was I remember that walk from when I was actually running before the accident. And it was a real short run, but when you're in crutches and you can't walk very well, it takes a really long time. So I did that once and my body's hurting and I timed it. And I was like, man, that was really slow. But then I realized, was like, OK, every week

That's your little test to see what your progress is. So I'd walk that same loop, and little by little would go down. And sometimes it wouldn't. And then I would say, OK, I need to make these adjustments. But you have to be willing to fail in order to succeed. Because sometimes it does feel good. And sometimes you're like, this wasn't what I thought it was going to be. But then you reassess yourself and go, OK, these are the changes I need to make to be better. But yeah, I was willing to fail in order

figure out how to succeed.

Jack Trama (45:28.77)

Jason, your story is incredible on all levels. And before we wrap up, I have one very important question to ask you. Have you jumped out of a plane since your accident?

Jason Dennen (45:45.052)

I have not and part of that was before I was even able to walk, my mom came up to my bed and she said, know, can you promise me one thing that you're not gonna jump again? Because she knows how my brain worked. Luckily I chose triathlon instead of my comeback being skydiving. But you know, there was a tremendous amount of guilt that when I was laying in that bed after the coma.

that I put my family through. You could blame it on the wind, but the reality is I decided to jump out of that plane all those hundreds of times. It had a huge effect on them. I can't imagine what it must've felt like when they got the call, your son might not live, you need to fly out to Denver right away, or when they came in the room and it saw me in a coma for the first time, or how it would've felt like when they were calling my family, telling them, your brother might not live. So I had a tremendous amount of guilt for putting them through

And the reality is there, this wasn't the only thing in my life. This was a piece of my life and it allowed me to give me lessons that allowed me to survive. And, you know, not everything is forever. And were there days where I would, I would think of jumping out of the plane again, or I would hear the plane going over the top of where I was doing my rehab walks. And I'd say that's, that's the twin otter. That's the plane flying over, bringing people out to jump. And,

It gave me an incredible amount of lessons that I applied to my life that were very positive. But there are other things to move on to. And I decided to move on and spend more of my life doing things that I wasn't doing before, because the part of skydiving was rushing through life. there were other things, like help other people through the difficult things they're going through. And so I kind

know, pivot my life a little bit more to do other things and really use this accident for good to help other people. So do I miss skydiving sometimes? Yeah, sometimes I do. I still talk to my skydiving friends and talk to them about it. there are other things to move on to. so now I haven't jumped out of an airplane yet. Again.

Jack Trama (48:04.066)

Jason, you're an incredible human being and I can talk to you for hours about not only your experiences, just really just, we have a lot in alignment. Of course, I haven't gone through the things that you have gone through, but I would love to invite you back on the show if you're open to it and really kind of dive into certain aspects of...

of some of the breakthroughs that we can all have if we put our attention on it and focus on what's most important to us. So if you're open to that, I'd love to have you back on the show.

Jason Dennen (48:44.102)

Sure, I'd love to come back.

Jack Trama (48:45.922)

Thank you, thank you. And friends, Jason's story is a powerful reminder of the incredible resilience of the human spirit, our capacity to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges, the importance of determination, a positive mindset, and unwavering faith.

A challenging experience like that can be a catalyst for personal growth and finding renewed purpose as Jason has experienced. So friends, if you're inspired by Jason's story, please share the show with others and pay it forward. You never know what someone needs to hear right now in their lives.

And what we're gonna do is have all of Jason's links, his social media, his website in the show notes so that you can follow him, connect with him. so Jason, again, thank you for being here, man. Really appreciate your time.