John R. Miles

And I want to switch to your job just for a second, because you have a demanding job.

You've already talked about how you have to fly back and forth all the time.

I have friends who were in Congress from Clearwater, St.

Pete to Florida area, and they often complain about the travel.

like they do yes but as i understand it you're giving yourself the injections like you were talking about there was a time period where you're going to daily ultrasounds and you're commuting cross-country while representing san diego what does it mean for you to legislate while your body is going through something most colleagues never even have to consider

I was going to go to the service members next, given I'm a veteran, but I remember my own time constantly deploying, constantly really under tense circumstances.

In my experience, having been in Iraq and a few other places, I was exposed to burn pits and chemicals, other things that have had a long-term impact on my life.

But I don't think the general public thinks about all these things and the fact that

When we serve in the military, that's right in the middle of the prime reproductive years of trying to have a family.

And yet we have all these complications.

What do you think about those trade-offs that are so quietly demanding of our service men and women and their futures?

Before we continue, I want to pause on something important.

Listening to a conversation like this is one thing, living it, especially when the timing is hard, is another.

So many of you write to me saying, I know what I should do, but I don't know how to honor myself without letting someone else down.

That tension between agency and obligation, calling and capacity,

is exactly what the season of Becoming is about.

Becoming isn't about rushing into the next chapter.

It's about choosing alignment before pressure makes that choice for you.

That's why each episode in this series is paired with a reflection tool inside the Ignited Life My Substack, not to give you answers, but to help you ask better questions like, where am I choosing urgency over alignment?

What decision have I been postponing because I'm afraid of how it will look?