What's a Guide Human?

After 48 articles exploring leadership, fatherhood, endurance, and love along with stories of my decade guiding my fellow Green Beret Ivan Castro—who was blinded in Iraq—through marathons, ultramarathons, and adventures across the globe, it's time to define what lies at the heart of everything we've discussed.

The stories are about discovering a different way to lead—one that transforms both the guide and the guided. Every mile I ran as a guide for a blind runner taught me that authentic leadership is born when we pour our heart into showing up, doing our best, leading with love and compassion, and sometimes that means seeking out ways to improve ourselves to be better humans. Often it means walking alongside others through their struggles.

The definition captures the essence of what I have learned during my 30 years in uniform, as well as the transformative years I spent guiding Ivan and sharing my insights through these articles.

The foundation for everything we've explored—turning suffering into strength, leading with love instead of ego, and finding purpose through service to others — leads us back to the definition.

As I close my second year of writing on Substack, this feels like a critical pause—a moment to crystallize the philosophy that will guide us all forward.

In the months ahead, we'll build on this foundation to help you achieve whatever you want out of life by becoming the Guide Human the world needs you to be.

The Heart of a Guide Human

A Guide Human is someone who leads from a servant's heart, choosing to walk alongside others through their darkest valleys and highest peaks.

A Guide Human embraces the responsibility of helping others navigate life's unpleasantries while finding strength, purpose, and joy in the journey.

It's about understanding you can’t help anyone until you have prepared yourself for the journey and that your continued healing and growth may come by guiding others through their pain and suffering.

What a Guide Human IS

A Guide Human is a servant-leader who puts the needs, growth, and success of others before their own comfort. They understand that true strength lies in vulnerability and that the greatest victories are often shared ones.

A Guide Human is present in suffering. They don't retreat when life becomes unpleasant; instead, they lean into the discomfort, knowing that transformation happens in the depths of struggle.

A Guide Human is intentionally patient. They understand that growth happens at different paces for different people. They adjust their stride to match those they guide, never rushing ahead or leaving anyone behind. Their timeline is love's timeline, not ego's timeline.

A Guide Human is courageously vulnerable. They share their own struggles, failures, and fears not to burden others but to normalize the human experience of suffering and to demonstrate that healing is possible. Their scars become roadmaps for others.

A Guide Human is fiercely hopeful. Even when they cannot see the finish line, they maintain faith that the journey has purpose. They become a living reminder that darkness is temporary and that dawn always comes to those who endure.

A Guide Human is quietly consistent. They show up day after day, mile after mile, whether they feel like it or not. Their reliability becomes a foundation others can build upon when their own strength wavers.

A Guide Human is unconditionally loving. They love not because others deserve it or earn it, but because love is who they choose to be. They understand that love is both the method and the destination of true guidance.

What a Guide Human is NOT

A Guide Human is not a savior. They don't seek to rescue people from their struggles but to empower them to find their own strength within the struggle. They know that taking away someone's challenge also takes away their opportunity for growth.

A Guide Human is not driven by ego or recognition. Their motivation doesn't come from being seen as heroic or praised for their sacrifice. The transformation they witness in others is reward enough. They understand that leadership often happens in shadows, unseen by the world.

A Guide Human is not an enabler of weakness. They don't make the path easier by removing obstacles, but instead help others develop the tools and mindset needed to overcome them. They provide support, not shortcuts.

A Guide Human is not conditional in their commitment. Their guidance doesn't depend on others' performance, gratitude, or reciprocation. They don't withdraw their support when the journey gets difficult or when progress seems slow.

A Guide Human is not a dictator of outcomes. They don't impose their vision of what success should look like for others. Instead, they help people discover their own definition of victory and support them in achieving it.

A Guide Human is not perfect or invulnerable. They don't pretend to have all the answers or to be beyond struggle themselves. Their humanity is part of their power - it makes them accessible and authentic.

A Guide Human is not transactional. They don't guide others with the expectation of receiving something in return. Their giving flows from abundance, not scarcity, and their love is freely given, not strategically deployed.

The Sacred Calling

Being a Guide Human is answering the call to transform your own pain into purpose, your struggles into strength for others, and your healing into hope for those still wounded. It's choosing to believe that every person has greatness within them, even when they can't see it themselves.

A Guide Human understands that in a world filled with toxic, narcissistic, and transactional leadership, the radical act of leading with love becomes a beacon of what's possible. They know that hate isolates and divides, but love binds and heals.

In the end, a Guide Human lives by the truth that we can reach our highest levels of fulfillment when we are helping others become the best version of themselves.

A Guide Human understands the path to personal healing and transformation often runs directly through the act of guiding others.

Lead with Love. Be A Guide Human.

Doom