Latest / Mission: 300 Podcast / Episode 92 - Life discoveries on the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail

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Episode 92 - Life discoveries on the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail · Mission: 300 Podcast

0:00
Well, it's with a somber note that we opened this episode of the Mission 300
0:03
podcast. We're losing Caleb.
0:06
Not permanently, just for a while, just to kind of freak everyone out for a
0:11
little bit and then kind of bring the emotions back.
0:14
Caleb is going to be hitting the trail again.
0:17
Some of you who have maybe listened for a while are familiar with last year
0:21
when Caleb went on this venture before on the Appalachian Trail.
0:24
But for those who aren't familiar, we're talking about Caleb a lot tonight.
0:27
We're talking about adventure. We're talking about planning for the future in an uncertain world.
0:32
And this is kind of timely. So I think a good place to start with this would
0:37
be, Caleb, would you mind sharing a little bit, just real brief,
0:40
on your first time hitting the trail, what your prep was like for that, how you were preparing,
0:46
and the difference between then and now, and maybe a little bit of the history
0:50
of your first trip there.
0:52
Yeah. So last year I went to the Appalachian trail and prep wise was very minimal.
1:00
I was kind of like, I'm just going to get out there and do it,
1:02
which, you know, at the time there was probably nothing wrong with that per se, but quit my job.
1:08
And then like two or three weeks late, by the time I quit my job,
1:11
two or three weeks later was out on the trail, made it about like 120 miles
1:17
in and tore a tendon in my ankle.
1:19
And so that kind of, it took about eight weeks for that to heal fully.
1:24
And even then it was still sometimes painful to walk in.
1:27
And by the time that all happened, the trail was kind of like out of the picture
1:32
of finishing an year for me anyways, from my perspective, like doing the whole
1:36
thing in one go in one year.
1:38
So basically decided I'm not going to go back out there, but I'm just going to try again next year.
1:44
So for the past couple of months, been prepping in a lot of different ways,
1:48
learned a lot more, especially just from the trail experience and everything,
1:54
but this week heading back out.
1:57
So that's kind of like the shortest version of what has happened this past year
2:01
and what's about to happen for the next six months back out on the Appalachian trail.
2:06
Hey, a couple of quick things. So everybody can understand how long is the trail,
2:12
and kind of what is the process to actually do the trail?
2:16
So the Appalachian Trail, it goes along like Appalachia, which you typically
2:21
would think of as the south, but it goes from Georgia to Maine,
2:24
and it's about 2,200 miles.
2:27
This year, it's actually one less mile than last year, so I have a really big advantage.
2:31
And so the process for that is you start in Georgia, and then you hike your
2:38
way up. You walk through the mountains, through the woods, all the way to Maine
2:42
and just resupply food along the way.
2:44
But you live in your tent for the average person takes anywhere from like four
2:50
to six months is usually the average time.
2:53
So I'm starting the end of February and, you know, could finish anywhere from
2:57
like, hopefully not all the way into October, but somewhere in like August or
3:01
September would be the objective. Not too much in a rush.
3:05
So that's kind of the idea of the trail
3:08
and doing it what is called a through hike so you hike a full trail in like
3:15
one one go not getting off for a period of time and coming back and doing you
3:21
can do different sections everybody does it a different way but that's kind of the general idea.
3:26
How do you how do you like plan the resupply like you say don't leave the trail
3:30
but technically you You kind of leave the trail, but how do you resupply?
3:35
Obviously, there's no grocery stores on the trail. There's no food on the trail.
3:39
There's no showers on the trail. There's no toilets on the trail.
3:43
Is there water on the trail? Like, how do you put all that together?
3:47
Yeah. So basically, you are walking through the woods for six months and to, like, get water.
3:55
Basically most people will have like an
3:58
app on their phone and it's basically a map and
4:01
you can use the GPS on your phone shows you
4:04
the different water points different camping spots and then there's like parts
4:08
where you cross like roads a lot because you're either going through like state
4:11
parks national parks or areas that are like next to highways so basically you're
4:17
like looking at that as you go and you might think like okay there's at this
4:21
mile like there's this this water,
4:23
this creek, so I'll get water from there, filter that.
4:26
And then typically, you know.
4:29
You might hike for like three to five days is usually the
4:32
average time and you'll carry all your food with you then
4:35
and then every three to five days you
4:38
would get off the trail so that could mean like going the trail crosses a lot
4:43
of roads so it's a lot easier than you would think like most of the time you're
4:47
pretty close to civilization there's only one section on the trail and it's
4:51
called the hundred mile wilderness where you don't have access to anybody picking
4:56
you up for a hundred miles.
4:58
But besides that, pretty much every other point you could get picked up.
5:02
I mean, there's even one section in the beginning and you can pay a pretty hefty
5:07
delivery fee, but they will deliver pizza to you on the trail, this local pizza store.
5:12
So kind of crazy, but I'll be in that one spot. I'll be right there. Yeah, exactly.
5:18
But so typically like every three to five days you
5:21
would go to a road and lots of places either have like shuttle
5:24
services that you can call so it'll be somebody local
5:27
who just has a car and you're paying like five bucks to come
5:30
pick you up and take you into town lots of people hitchhike
5:33
into town i did that once first time hitchhiking was really interesting so there's
5:38
lots of different things or there's even sometimes where you could maybe like
5:41
walk to a store potentially that you most people probably wouldn't do that but
5:47
that's kind of like the general ideas for the total time you're on the trail,
5:52
you will pretty much always sleep in a tent or there's shelters along the way
5:57
where you might sleep in like a wooden building.
6:00
And then maybe like once a week or once every couple of days,
6:03
you would get a ride into a town, either like spend the night there if you want
6:07
to get a hotel or just resupply that day and get your one shower for the week.
6:12
So it's kind of a general idea of what it looks like per week on the trail.
6:16
And you kind of plan out your mileage to land and at spots where you can be
6:21
picked up, make it into town, so.
6:24
One thing I've been curious about is what do you do for filtering your water?
6:28
Do you have like iodine tablets? Do you have like a LifeWay straw,
6:32
a Berkey filter, or what do you actually do?
6:34
Or do you just drink it straight out of the stream and roll the dice?
6:39
Yeah, I'll pass on rolling dice since I've grown up with filtered water.
6:42
Maybe if I had like grown up drinking, I mean, a lot of it is like mountain
6:46
streams that are pretty deep, pure, or like literally something coming out of a rock, like a pipe.
6:51
And you could probably, maybe, but I don't feel like getting sick on the trail.
6:56
So I actually have, it just screws on top of like a smart water bottle from a gas station.
7:01
And you just fill up the water into that plastic water bottle.
7:05
Screw on the top, and then you you squeeze it out and it has like a
7:07
carbon filter so it carbon filters out like metals
7:11
bacteria viruses even microplastics things
7:14
like that and you pour it into a clean water bottle that's the
7:17
way i do it and most people would it's like the easiest way
7:20
you can do the life job people do the
7:22
life job people do iodine tablets but for that
7:25
you have to like wait 30 minutes so it really depends on what
7:28
you want to do but i think the easiest way you're supposed to wait
7:31
30 minutes on the tablets yeah like for it
7:33
to kill the bacteria it depends maybe there's something i should
7:36
have known that i saw yeah yeah you're getting
7:39
like the iodine and just the bacteria next to it
7:42
i don't know if it'll make it better by the time but yeah so
7:45
the way a lot of people do it it's just like a filtration system
7:48
that screws on to something is the like the
7:51
fastest way because you don't want to get stuck waiting for water
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and things like that so you can even drink it
7:57
straight off the filter so yeah that's
8:00
yeah that's it's nice and the water
8:03
is always like the best water i've ever had in my
8:05
life because it's ice cold up in the mountains and when
8:08
it's hot and yeah i highly recommend that even
8:11
go find a mountain stream to drink out of even
8:14
if you're not hiking or something but the closest thing i've done to what you're
8:19
what you're doing is i was in colorado you know five six years ago and a buddy
8:24
of mine and i went up into the mountains for just for like a couple of days
8:28
and we would drink from the stream we would use iodine on tablets.
8:31
But there's something you can tell the difference in the water.
8:35
I've never tasted anything like that in my life and it's the coolest thing.
8:40
Yeah, it tastes a lot better. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think it's like the spring.
8:45
It's like getting a spring water bottle, but it's like from the actual spring
8:49
or something most of the time. You got to be careful, though. But, yeah.
8:53
Caleb, I just wanted to ask you. I mean, I know we kind of know each other from
8:58
a distance for a long time, but it seemed like you had a pretty steady thing going before,
9:06
and then this last year you took the jump to go on the trail.
9:09
Like what was that like what spurred
9:13
you to want to do this and like how how like
9:16
how is this this time different than
9:19
the first time going after the trail i would
9:22
say okay so for the first question what spurred me
9:25
to do it i think like there's always been kind of in the back of my head of
9:31
doing something to do with the wilderness and i think like something that's
9:35
like an adventure venture that's challenging and that maybe the quote unquote
9:40
average person wouldn't do per se,
9:44
even though like anybody can do it, just to clarify.
9:46
But kind of like growing up hearing stories of my dad, like he like logged in
9:52
British Columbia working in like true wilderness where it's like negative 40
9:56
degrees and hearing stories about that.
9:58
And then like, you know, my dad would take me hiking and we even did parts of
10:03
the Appalachian Trail without even knowing it growing up.
10:07
Then even high school, like, I saw some videos on it and stuff and saw people's,
10:11
like, little documentaries of them doing the trail and different stuff.
10:15
And so it was kind of, like, just this, like, romantic idea in the back of my
10:20
head of, like, wow, to hike from one place to another to,
10:24
like, do, like, what somebody would have done before the invention of cars if
10:29
they really had to get somewhere and they weren't even going horseback.
10:32
Like, especially like, I don't know if you guys ever saw the like black and
10:35
white TV show, Daniel Boone.
10:37
Like I watched that like religiously as a kid.
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And so it was like kind of this idea of like this romantic, like,
10:44
like the American pioneering spirit.
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I think that was kind of like always an idea in the back of my head.
10:50
And then, so just learned more about the Appalachian trail.
10:54
And then so, you know, that was kind of idea of I want to do that one day of
10:58
push myself to a point to see what I can do and see if I can kind of embody
11:03
those ideals of like pioneering, even though it's not like pioneering some new trail or something.
11:09
I think, you know, the challenge and everything is still there.
11:12
So that was definitely kind of what spurred me on to it. And then I think what's
11:17
different from the first time and this time is I mentioned like,
11:21
you know, the romantic idea of it.
11:24
I think definitely the first time was a big reality check of it's not the beautiful
11:29
clips that everybody posts.
11:30
You know like where it's like
11:33
you watch the 20 minute little mini appalachian trail documentary it's the most
11:37
beautiful scenery you've ever seen and they're having the best day of their
11:41
life there's not one day that it rains while they're hiking outside because
11:45
they never record then the camera would get ruined and so i think this time
11:49
it's like a re-out definitely more of like.
11:52
It's still like a beautiful idea to go do this, but there's the reality of it's challenging.
11:58
It's harder than you think it is. And it's like an ugly thing to do because
12:03
you don't know how bad you can stink after sweating for four days straight in
12:09
the south heat of Georgia.
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And you haven't showered and you're wearing the same clothes and you're eating
12:15
these like dry granola bars and you hate granola bars now.
12:20
Out and then it starts raining and it doesn't matter that you have a rain
12:22
jacket on because you're soaked through anyways it's just to keep you
12:25
slightly warmer it's like all these different things that are
12:28
like i think this time it's just like reality but
12:31
it almost makes it even more exciting because it's like okay well
12:34
when that stuff did come around i was
12:37
able to deal with it even though it did surprise me
12:40
like walking in the mud for two days straight
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is not as fun as you think and waking up the next morning when it's
12:46
cold putting on wet socks so you don't have a drier and
12:49
the sun's not out is but there's like something that's
12:52
still so much fun about it and still so like fulfilling for me so i think it's
12:57
like having that reality but this time being prepared for all the quote-unquote
13:03
misery i think like i'll feel better about it when i'm in the moment even though
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it'll still like i just know it'll suck which makes me like
13:12
more excited for it in some kind of weird diabolical way.
13:15
But yeah, that's the feeling for this time.
13:20
So Caleb, you went from even in the journey, if you go listen to all the podcasts,
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we go from you being in school, believe in God for a job to open.
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You get the kind of the dream job where you still get to be a part of the school.
13:35
And the, The school actually changes the media program from a class to a paid position for you.
13:45
And you go through that whole journey and you establish yourself and you learn everything.
13:50
All of this media stuff only to hit your peak of
13:54
kind of like i mean you're
13:57
you're you're loved at the school that you came from and your your media was
14:00
awesome and then you win all these victories in that whole process and you learn
14:06
so much and you grow so much and then all of a sudden i shouldn't say all of
14:11
a sudden but if you're just hearing you talk it sounds like all of a sudden,
14:16
you're resigning from your position that you were in
14:20
a way believing god to open up for you and now
14:24
you're going down a journey that seems not
14:28
to have a pun in this but
14:31
off trail it just seems like just i know it's not but just for a listener it
14:36
just seems so off trail like you gave up your job and then you get hurt and
14:42
now you don't have the job but you do other things I know there's a lot of backstory
14:47
to the things you did in between, only to go do it again.
14:51
And I know you kind of talked about like the adventure of it,
14:56
but I think there's a metaphor here that's kind of with our life as well.
15:03
Obviously, one of the key things in your life is God's first and your relationship with him.
15:09
So it wasn't just there's pieces
15:13
that fit with this in that
15:16
journey but then there's also like this call to adventure and how would you
15:21
relate that to normal life because obviously if you have a family you have kids
15:26
you're not going to be taking six months off work to go and i just don't think
15:31
jason's going to be doing the appalachian trail with six months off at this stage i'll just
15:35
do the all like drop into the spot where they deliver
15:38
the pizza and make my appearance and take some selfies and
15:41
post them and then i'm out so other other responsibilities
15:45
like numerous ones numerous little ones responsibilities have kind of taken
15:51
over for him you're not in that situation but how would you apply what you're
15:56
doing maybe that's kind of a tough question it's open for any of you guys how
16:01
would you apply what you're doing to one someone just getting started in life,
16:04
similar to you, and someone who may need to make a change in life,
16:11
but now they have so much responsibility, they can't make that change.
16:16
How would you relate that to those two things?
16:20
And in a way, you kind of made that change with your responsibility and work
16:23
and a lot of time and effort and establishing your place where you were at the school.
16:29
That took a lot of energy and a lot of things got involved and you kind of you
16:34
you walked away with a great relationship with them so you're welcome back but
16:39
you walked away from that.
16:42
For something different. So maybe you could kind of touch that,
16:47
or if any of you guys have any comments on that to relate that I think would
16:51
be helpful to someone else.
16:53
Yeah, I think, well, I can't necessarily comment on the whole having a family
16:57
aspect because like, I don't have any responsibilities to anyone per se than
17:02
myself. And I'm sure that's a lot more challenging.
17:04
So I guess, you know, it works out for this time, but I
17:07
would say even when I did first think about
17:10
quitting my job like all the thoughts in my head were not like oh should i should
17:15
i not it was like well i can't do this because of everything i've like been
17:21
helping to build here like i have too much responsibility here so i can't just
17:25
drop this and leave behind to go do something that.
17:30
Like you know from a practical perspective of like building career things like
17:36
that That doesn't seem like the most logical choice,
17:40
maybe per se, like my other friends are graduating college and getting like
17:46
jobs that they're probably going to stick to for quite some time or like starting their careers.
17:51
And it's like, I had just been really getting settled down into this job.
17:56
And I was, I mean, this is probably the exact reason, but I had just gotten comfortable.
18:01
And then it was like, oh, yeah, well, let's go change it up now to be the most
18:07
uncomfortable you can possibly be.
18:10
Like, I don't think I've ever been so uncomfortable in my life as when I was
18:14
on the trail. Like, yeah.
18:16
Even feeling like besides the physical aspects and everything,
18:20
even like, what am I doing out here?
18:22
Like I met other people who I was like, they don't know what they're doing either.
18:26
But like, like just being like, you know, not super experienced,
18:31
like I had never done a hike for more than like two nights.
18:35
So doing something that's basically, you know, a week at a time of traveling
18:40
and, you know, ultimately like six months of your life in the woods.
18:44
And I mean, I felt like I just didn't belong out there initially.
18:49
Like I was like, I've never had like so much being so anxious in my life about
18:56
doing something and like getting out there.
18:58
Like I'll even tell a really embarrassing story because I'm like,
19:02
what was I thinking back then? Like it's the woods.
19:04
But I remember getting to this creek and it was like this nice creek and I was
19:08
so hot and sweaty from the day and everybody was like getting their water from the creek.
19:12
Creek and then i saw like this one person like sticking their
19:15
feet in the creek i was like oh i would love to do that there's like
19:18
all these random strangers and i was like i looked over twin i was
19:20
like is it okay like if i because i didn't know like hiker etiquette i was like
19:25
can i like stick my feet in the creek because everybody's like getting their
19:28
water out of this creek and they're like dude it's like a creek in the woods
19:31
like you can do whatever you want like there there's some stuff don't do like
19:35
don't use the bathroom anyways but like it was like you know,
19:38
that's how like insecure I was on the trail.
19:42
I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing out here.
19:45
There's like these people doing 20 miles a day.
19:48
So, but anyways, all that to say, like, I think it was in the moment,
19:53
like it was finally when I settled down and got comfortable.
19:57
And I think that's why there was like the push from God to do it.
20:01
It was because it was like, okay, you've settled yourself down in this place.
20:06
So I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
20:08
But I think it was like, okay, there's no more.
20:11
Like room for growth for me personally here and that was nothing wrong with
20:16
the job nothing wrong with anybody there it was just like i had done everything
20:20
i could to challenge myself there,
20:23
and i think i had like fulfilled everything god wanted me
20:26
to because i'm sure i could like make up challenges for myself there and could
20:30
do that anywhere but i think it was really like god was like okay let's do another
20:33
life of your aspect to another aspect of your life to grow in and so i I think
20:38
that's like the re the main reason behind doing the trail and even like for
20:43
the future looking and I'll know like.
20:46
Okay, if God's telling me to do something, it's okay.
20:49
If I'm going in there really not knowing what I'm doing, as long as I'm like
20:53
truly following him and going after what he wants me to do, no matter how uncomfortable
20:58
or embarrassing it is doing it, not knowing what you're doing.
21:02
It's like, you just got to go for it. Cause if, if God told you to like, even if it's.
21:08
Like you know i could look at this right
21:11
now and be like well it's not working out how i thought it was going
21:14
to but like all things work together for
21:17
good and everything when you're following god i think so
21:20
even if it takes a while or it seems
21:23
like it doesn't i think that's like something to have faith on so did you did
21:28
you kind of feel i love that story about the river and yeah i agree as long
21:32
as you're not relieving yourself upstream you're probably good etiquette wise
21:36
but yeah i Did you feel like after that moment,
21:40
there was something that kind of lifted as far as like you go into something
21:45
new and you're almost at least this is the way my brain works.
21:48
I am so overthinking it that in my mind, everyone else has it figured out.
21:53
There's a set way to do everything.
21:55
And I need to figure out that algorithm or that set way so that I'm lined up with it properly.
22:00
And what I found is that no one has any idea what we're doing.
22:05
I mean, that's maybe an overgeneralization, but really we're all figuring this out as we go.
22:14
And I think especially as if we're stepping into new areas, that's a really
22:21
healthy mindset to embrace and be like, you know what?
22:24
Yeah, I am figuring this out as I go. And I don't know what I'm doing here,
22:29
but I'm going to do and see where it goes. Because at least for me.
22:35
I've realized more and more most people don't
22:38
know what they're doing either so it's okay let's just just go
22:41
oh yeah definitely even on the
22:44
trail like there was some in in
22:47
the moment i had like it was really good perspective change while also like
22:51
you know not having in my mind to think i'm better than somebody but like i
22:54
met this one lady and what's funny is she actually finished the trail but i
22:58
met this one lady and it was her first time ever setting up her tent because
23:03
she had And that was like,
23:04
that was like 70 miles into the trail because she had only slept at shelters
23:09
and she like just bought this tent before she came.
23:11
She's like, I'm just going for
23:12
it. So like, and her tent was similar to mine. So I helped her set it up.
23:16
But in that moment, cause I was definitely still embarrassed after the like Creek question.
23:20
I was like, that was even a dumb question to ask. Like, I'm just overthinking everything out here.
23:26
But like, there's so many other people that don't know. And then the other thing
23:30
I learned too is you shouldn't worry about the people who do know what they're
23:34
doing because if they do know what they're doing and they say something to you,
23:39
then you don't need to listen to them.
23:41
And then the most people I met out there too who didn't know what they were
23:45
doing, they were just helpful. They weren't ever negative.
23:49
They were just like, oh, this is a great thing everybody should be doing,
23:53
so I'm not going to make fun of you.
23:56
I think it's hard to find. And of course, on the internet, everybody makes fun of each other.
24:00
Because like before looking at the Facebook groups, I was like,
24:03
oh my goodness, hikers are vicious about what gear you have.
24:07
And they're going to be judging me if I don't have this backpack or this nice
24:11
gear. And it's like out there, nobody cares.
24:14
Everybody does whatever, like the saying is hike your own hike.
24:17
And anybody who's out there, I think anybody who's doing it like realizes and
24:23
like you have to be a fool to start something. thing. So you might as well just
24:26
accept that you might not know for a little bit and go for it.
24:30
Isn't that a really good example of the internet is not real life?
24:34
Like for anything that you're going to be stepping into, like I'm picturing
24:38
like college commercials and how everything looks so set up there and you go
24:42
into it thinking everyone else knows what they're doing here and you get there
24:46
and eventually realize no one else does.
24:49
But we have this mindset because we've seen all the Facebook posts,
24:53
all the Instagram and every other social media platform where every anonymous
24:57
account on there is an expert in something and you think that's who you're going
25:00
to run into in the world and it's not because they're not real.
25:04
Or maybe it's a real person, but that's not actually who you run into in life.
25:09
You run into other goofballs that are trying to figure it out and trying to have an adventure.
25:13
And maybe they know a lot more than you in some areas. And maybe,
25:17
you know, a lot more than them.
25:19
Yeah. Like to how you, you said those that were really experienced actually
25:26
weren't trying to be know-it-alls to you.
25:29
They're actually trying to draw you into the trail. And I think that
25:32
kind of goes back to the idea that we were talking about legends on a
25:34
map it doesn't mean you don't have a map it doesn't
25:37
mean that there's not a trail and it doesn't mean you can't find
25:40
landmarks or road marks on the
25:43
way and it doesn't mean that someone hasn't been
25:47
there before in the sense of as jason i totally
25:49
understand what you're saying nobody knows what they're doing it it's
25:52
because things change so much like you know what you're
25:55
doing you you know a direction i'm going this direction but all the hows change
26:01
so much and everyone's vulnerable in one of those new house like even if you're
26:07
super experienced and all of a sudden you have a freak winter storm that comes
26:11
in you now have to figure out.
26:14
You know, let's say it comes way earlier. And so you're just not prepared for it.
26:19
You don't have to figure out what you're going to do. So that's a new how,
26:22
but I like it that the seasoned people aren't there to make you feel like an
26:27
idiot because you don't have the right pack.
26:29
It's, they just want to keep you going on the trail. And I think that is probably
26:33
a big sign of a great mentor or a good legend.
26:37
It's like, you're going to have so many new experiences is to you, it's going to be all new.
26:43
And yes, people have done this before, but your experience will still be different.
26:48
It'll still be a different way of doing it. And in some manners,
26:52
if you go back in time, like you said, like the early people that walked,
26:56
had a walk, no horses, you know, Daniel Boone, they live like that.
27:01
They lived off the land. They lived having to hunt for So the trail to them
27:07
was just like Monday morning.
27:09
Like it wasn't this unique thing.
27:12
We have become so not like that, that it's probably actually harder for us to
27:18
do those things than it was for them because it was just the way life was.
27:23
And so I thought that was really interesting.
27:27
But to tie back in, when we're talking about legends or we're talking about
27:31
those that have gone before us, it doesn't mean that they have every single
27:34
clarifying point of what to do in each exact situation.
27:38
Situation, what you're looking at is what kept you moving forward?
27:42
What kept you, what were some benchmarks to keep you from coming off the trail?
27:48
So that's my next question to you is what were things that disrupted you on
27:54
the trail that you've learned now that you will not move away from?
27:59
And so this kind of ties into real life, like you get going down a career path or whatever.
28:04
And let's say you run into an ethical issue with your company.
28:07
Well, do you just keep running after the company because it's a paycheck or
28:11
can you still stay to your principles?
28:13
So I know you mentioned something earlier, Caleb.
28:16
I thought it would be good if you brought it back up again, but there was principles
28:21
that you were pressured against that actually probably affected how you did
28:26
your trail, your journey,
28:29
and what are principles that you set in now that will keep you from being pulled
28:35
off the trail, at least within your wisdom of what you know can hurt you or affect you?
28:42
Yeah. So I think the biggest thing people say on the Appalachian trail is hike
28:48
your own hike. Like I hear that more than anything.
28:50
And I get it now because every day you're hiking, you can look to your left and right.
28:56
And I was always looking in front of me because somebody's past me because I'm
28:59
going slower than everybody, but everybody's doing something different and some seem a lot better.
29:04
Some seem worse, but like the people, um,
29:08
I kind of got hiking with who I saw repeatedly and I really liked like talking
29:13
to them and everything, but they were pushing like, you know,
29:15
anywhere from 10 to 15 miles a day.
29:19
And I kind of had been doing like my eight miles a day or whatever.
29:23
And I was kind of like, man, I really need to push it because like in Virginia.
29:29
There's this festival in may and like, you have to make it there by then to
29:33
like via this cool, like hiking event where all the hikers gather and you don't
29:37
want to be behind for that and I was like my I'm not gonna finish at a good
29:41
time and so like I started.
29:43
Really pushing it and I like I was also feeling
29:46
better but I kind of started pushing up to like 13 miles
29:50
a day and I did that for a week straight and
29:53
when I had done that for a week straight at near the end of
29:55
the week I tore a tendon in my ankle and that
29:59
kind of completely took me off the trail and not only
30:02
was it me pushing the 13 miles a day so I'm
30:04
confident like you know I could build up to that again but like
30:07
it was when i started feeling pain in my leg and i was like
30:10
i'm gonna ignore it because i need to get these miles done
30:13
and i even remember like complaining to
30:16
another hiker and i was like trying not to complain but i
30:18
was like do you think this is like shin splits or something like
30:21
my leg feels like it's kind of like a burning sensation
30:24
i was like i don't know what this is and he
30:27
was like you should probably like slow down and get that
30:30
checked out and he was like one of the guys who was pushing big miles
30:33
and i was like i think it's fine because i was like just like i've been
30:36
like there's pain all throughout my body at different times so
30:39
whatever but it was like definitely a different sensation and so
30:43
that was such a huge thing because that was basically the
30:46
reason i had to get off the trails because i started to try and do what other
30:51
people were doing and then also ignored everything like that my circum like
30:58
my body was telling me of like hey you should slow down and do your own thing
31:02
and that was the whole reason.
31:04
And so I had to get off the trail. So this time I'm like limiting myself to
31:09
like eight miles per day.
31:11
And even that, like, it's not even like, because I think that's a good number
31:15
or something like, I know that's just for myself.
31:17
And there's other people doing less miles per day on the trail who have less this left this week.
31:22
Like I saw one lady post and she was like, I did two miles today.
31:26
And if you do two miles a day, like there's no way you'd finish in like two
31:30
years or three years, but she's just.
31:33
Got on the trail and it's going to slowly work up her way to the big miles and finish it in time and.
31:40
Like they i remember even somebody warned me
31:43
was like don't get excited when you make it to the north carolina border
31:46
and start pushing it too hard because that's where everybody gets injured they
31:49
get all excited and like they're like i've done a state and they go fast and
31:52
then i did that and it was just like ignoring all this good advice of hiking
31:58
and hiking all this stuff just because Because I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing
32:02
as much as the other people that I was running into.
32:06
When meanwhile, I wasn't running into the people going slower than me because
32:10
I had passed them and not really interacted with them.
32:12
And then there was people probably going even faster than those guys that I
32:16
was interacting with, but they were doing their own thing. So I never interacted.
32:19
So I was just judging myself based off what everybody else was doing on my own pace.
32:25
And that destroyed me. And so I think this time it's like, that was such a big lesson, even for life,
32:31
you know, like even getting off the trail with and being stuck on my parents
32:37
couch for eight weeks, not being able to walk on it.
32:40
And my friends are graduating college.
32:43
Like I probably should have in the moment been like, Hmm, what's the metaphor
32:46
for me looking at all these people around me going on a faster,
32:50
faster pace and all this different stuff.
32:53
But I'm, you know, judging myself so harshly, even though I'm out here doing nothing.
32:59
And I think like looking back on all now, of course, hindsight's 2020,
33:03
but for this time and for life, it's like, I don't think I need to be like, Obviously.
33:09
You should look at your life and make sure that you're not doing what you should.
33:15
But in the moment, if you're doing the best that you can, don't beat yourself up over it.
33:19
Because if I hadn't have done that, I probably would have ended up going faster and further.
33:25
And I mean, I know there's even people who were going faster than me and they
33:29
got injured and they had to go off the trail.
33:32
And it's like, but none of that matters because it was really just like,
33:36
if I just set my focus on like, okay, I'm out here, I'm doing what God told me to do.
33:43
And that's all that matters. As long as I put my effort into it,
33:48
while also balancing, like it is a journey.
33:51
I think it would have been a lot different the first time around.
33:55
So this time it's definitely like, I mean, it also helps that I'm starting two
33:59
months earlier because last time I started like in April, which is really like
34:03
a month, month and a half later than most people start.
34:08
So I think it's like all this big culmination of learning so much about like
34:13
pacing and really focusing on myself and not just, you know,
34:19
the whole time being disappointed in myself because I'm not doing 16 mile days.
34:24
When meanwhile, if I had focused on my eight miles days, two months down the
34:28
road, I'm confident that I would have handled 16 mile days. No problem.
34:33
I was just going to make an observation about what you've been sharing, Caleb.
34:37
Little bit it it's interesting you you talked about the beginning about
34:40
how like you you've always had this like pioneering spirit and
34:43
you wanted to do your own thing it's interesting
34:46
because i've had that like same thing but then how quickly
34:49
when you jump into something you start comparing you immediately start looking
34:53
to like what others are doing instead of like holding true to like your your
34:58
own beliefs and like your own values that or like your own disciplines that
35:03
you've already set but yet so quickly we look to the left we look to the right we're like oh oh,
35:07
these people are doing different things. Like, am I doing something wrong?
35:12
It's just really interesting. I feel like that's like a human thing.
35:15
But to like, it sounds like this time, like you're now more focused on like,
35:19
I'm just going to do my own thing.
35:21
I have my set ways of what I'm going to do.
35:24
And I'm going to follow that. And I think that's like the way you got to look
35:28
at when you're doing something like that.
35:29
It's just like, you have to run your own race almost.
35:33
But like, there's going to be people along you like that
35:35
are there with you for part of the journey but you
35:38
never should really compare yourself to those people i
35:42
i think of like when i when i started school like that
35:45
first day it's like you you're so
35:48
intimidated by everything because everything's brand new right and
35:52
i think of like what you're just saying about like hey can
35:55
i like can i put my feet in the water it's like
35:58
you you ask a question just because of like you don't
36:01
know but i think sometimes like having the boldness
36:04
to just ask that question is sometimes like way
36:07
more important than like finding out later down the road like oh
36:11
I could have done that like you could have been in misery for
36:14
like a long time but there you just like had enjoyment in the trail because
36:17
you asked a simple question and so I think sometimes it's hard for people to
36:23
like gather the courage to like just ask a simple question like that when when
36:28
you're so new to something right and.
36:32
So I just, I just think of like, if anyone's out starting something new and
36:35
there's people who have gone before them, like sometimes you just have to ask
36:39
like the little silly questions, but it gives you understanding to like, how do you push forward?
36:45
How do you continue and how do you continue on your own trail with understanding
36:50
of like others who've gone before?
36:54
Yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing to clarify too, is like,
36:57
cause I have been focusing on so much, how negatively other people's performance
37:02
like was affecting me mentally.
37:05
But then also there's like other things too, with the whole asking question
37:09
aspect, there was things that other people were doing that I took notes on that
37:14
I'm doing this time differently because it was working so well for them.
37:17
Like wearing like two pairs of socks instead of one.
37:21
And these people were like, I never get blisters standing there with one, one pair of socks.
37:26
Like I have blisters right now. So I'm going to try the two sock thing.
37:31
And it's like, so I think too, it's like, you can also, I think the important
37:35
thing is because you are going to like naturally look at what other people are doing,
37:39
but the key is not letting it negatively impact you to where you're like viewing
37:45
yourself in a way where you're like saying like, oh, I'm failing,
37:50
even though you're doing the thing God told you to do.
37:53
Like, I think that's the biggest thing. And so, yeah, I think that's definitely
37:57
key of the asking questions and looking for the positive aspects rather than
38:02
all these things where you think you're failing at when you might not really be anyways.
38:08
I could, you guys, clarify, because there was three things that you said,
38:11
and I understand what you said, but some of these terms become cliche,
38:15
but then they become confusing at the same time, such as I'm going to do it my way or do my own thing.
38:22
That goes one direction with people in their life. And then the idea God told me to.
38:29
And then the idea that we still need to ask questions to learn,
38:33
but yet we're trying to do our own thing.
38:35
Those all seem kind of like counterintuitive to this idea and i think it's just
38:41
because we're around each other enough or we're familiar with what that person
38:45
is meaning by those things but if you're just hearing that for the first time
38:49
it could be like well i'm just going to go on the trail and do my own thing
38:52
but wait a second you said god said to go out on the trail.
38:56
So maybe you guys any of you can comment on what does it mean god pulled you
39:01
to so it's not like It's not like an order.
39:03
It's not like I woke up one morning and God just said, you have to go do this.
39:08
It was, what does that mean to you? And the second thing is,
39:13
we do it our way, but we need the legends on the map.
39:17
We need those who have gone before to still learn. So there's a difference between
39:23
learning etiquette to serve other people on the trail, which is what you're
39:28
really doing with the creek.
39:29
Because if you didn't care about anybody else, you'd have just stuck your feet
39:31
in the, I'm going to do it my way and just stick it in and realizing you're
39:35
being so offensive to everybody.
39:37
So one of it was what's protocol, like what is, what, what, what is a way that
39:42
kind of keeps harmony on the trail?
39:45
And then what questions do you ask if you're supposed to do it your own way,
39:49
if nobody else has done it?
39:50
So I know we've just all said these things have all been said,
39:54
and I understand what you guys mean, but maybe if we could bring some clarity
39:57
for someone trying to go do something new, like David, when he went and did
40:02
the marathon or going and doing the last run,
40:05
I don't think he'll tell you.
40:07
I mean, maybe he will. God said to go do this.
40:10
But there is something that there was a prodding along in his makeup that was doing it.
40:17
So maybe if you guys can comment on that, and then maybe a little more clarification
40:22
on, well, if I go get a mentor, they're going to tell me what to do.
40:27
So, you had mentioned experienced people that had done it have a different way
40:34
of teaching than those who just know about it.
40:38
So, maybe there could be a clarification there in your thoughts on it.
40:41
And the third, how do you do it your way if you're trying to do it God's way?
40:45
Or you're trying to do it the proper way. How do you do it your way?
40:49
One thing that helps clarify it for me is there is a difference between,
40:54
you know, sticking with our trail metaphor,
40:57
there's a difference between a mentor that knows you and can walk you through
41:01
how you should approach the trail and the person that blazed the trail,
41:04
set up the outposts, wrote the map,
41:07
and put all the warning signs on it.
41:11
That person's not a mentor to you. They're the one that blazed the trail and
41:14
you should use their map and adhere to their map.
41:17
So when the map that they wrote says, hey, there's a sinkhole here,
41:22
don't walk this way, it's pretty foolish to be like, well, I'm doing it my way,
41:28
so I'm just going to go this way.
41:29
You're an idiot then. But that person can't be a mentor to you because they
41:32
don't know what pace you should be going at.
41:36
So, and I hope that makes sense, but at least for me, there's a difference between those two.
41:40
And we need both. You need the person that blazed the trail,
41:45
wrote the map, handed it to you, and you can use that map.
41:48
The map's not going to tell you how many miles per day you should do.
41:51
The map's not going to tell you what you should eat for how many calories you're
41:55
going to burn or what your physical experience is.
41:59
To add to that, I think a mentor is not going to tell you which direction.
42:04
The mentor isn't the map. the mentor
42:08
is almost like the person who who calls stuff out of you to continue the race
42:14
right or give some like broad guidance over like the whole thing i think of
42:21
like with my work like my boss has been a mentor to me but he's never told me
42:25
like this is what you should do,
42:27
normally i i look at a situation like okay i should maybe do this and i check
42:32
to see has Has he done this before?
42:34
You know, what? And then making it my own almost becomes like,
42:39
what creative ideas can I add to this that might make this go further,
42:43
farther than maybe the mentor has gone before?
42:46
And I think it's, there's just a difference between like following the person
42:51
who's like, do this, this, and this, and this, and you'll get there,
42:54
versus like the mentor's meant to walk alongside you and not necessarily.
43:01
Give you like turn left, turn right, if that makes sense.
43:05
Well, the mentors are also supposed to know your reason for doing it.
43:09
So they're supposed to know why you're doing the trail in the first place.
43:12
So one person might be doing the trail strictly for personal growth.
43:17
I want to see how fast I can get through it and get to the end.
43:21
And that's great. That's their journey.
43:23
One person, God might be calling them to do the trail and spend three,
43:28
four or five days in one location, praying or ministering to people or attending
43:33
some festival because there's a different purpose for why God has them doing the trail.
43:37
God might have someone else doing the trail because you need to get the blood
43:40
flowing and I want you to push yourself.
43:42
So those situations are going to look very different on how you approach it then.
43:46
And ideally, a mentor for each of them is going to know that and be able to
43:50
guide them on, okay, well, if you're trying to burn through it,
43:53
here's how many miles per day you need to average. bridge.
43:56
Here's some of the places that you're going to be able to hit more.
43:58
And here's some where the terrain is going to be more rough, so you hit less.
44:02
The mentor for the other person is you're going to structure everything completely different.
44:05
I think that's more of the limitations of, well, I'm doing the trail my way.
44:11
That's the proper application of it from what I'm seeing, as opposed to,
44:14
well, I'm doing the trail my way. So I'm going to start at the starting line with everyone else.
44:18
And then I'm going to hop on a helicopter that's going to take me to the
44:21
finish line and then get off a helicopter well i
44:24
just did the trail my way no that that doesn't count you
44:27
didn't do the trail you're just weird you don't get
44:30
to do the trail your own way in that regard
44:33
because you didn't actually do it yeah i
44:36
think too and that which is funny you bring that up
44:39
because there's like different blazing so you
44:42
can do white blazing which is like the purists you hike the whole thing
44:45
or you can do like they call
44:48
it yellow blazing for the yellow lines on the road and i i
44:51
kid you not i saw some people do it if you got to a
44:53
road and there was a hard section people would hitchhike up
44:57
to like over the section into the next part so there's
45:00
there's lots of different ways to do it but i think i would
45:03
say that's that's fair as long as those categories are separate
45:06
from each other you know yeah yeah yeah and they're
45:08
not claiming but and i mean that in our in our general
45:11
broad life sense too like yeah yeah yeah
45:15
don't claim the stuff without actually doing it
45:17
but I think to like what the aspect of
45:20
God told me like if I had to
45:23
compare it to something I would almost say it's like if you're on the trail
45:27
you know you should be going north innately like there's just like I know that
45:33
like I'm on this trail and there's a journey north that I need to take and I
45:39
think for me in my life it's been like God's been like.
45:43
This is the direction to go. And it's like something in me that just says like, head this way.
45:49
And then in my head, I'm like, well, how am I going to do that?
45:53
What do I do with this? What do I do with that?
45:55
And it's like, there's no other thing besides head this way.
45:59
Like when I heard, like, when I felt like it was like, okay,
46:02
now's the time to go do the Appalachian trail.
46:04
It wasn't like, now's the time to go do the Appalachian trail.
46:07
Here's your set of instructions of which tent to buy, what to do this week before
46:12
there and and which stops to make along. It was like, just head that direction.
46:15
And I feel like that's what it is always with my life. When I feel like,
46:19
quote unquote, God tells me
46:21
to do something, it's like, go move to Alabama to be a part of the school.
46:26
Okay. Well, what do I do when I get there? Well, and nothing else.
46:30
And it's like, okay, so I got to take this step of faith to just get out there
46:35
into the woods where you don't know what's going on.
46:38
And there's bears on the trail and these different things, and it's like,
46:41
you got to take the step of faith.
46:43
And then with them, like along the way, there will be people heading in the same direction of you.
46:48
Like there's other people on the trail and they know they have to go north,
46:52
but they're doing it in a way that is not beneficial to you at all.
46:57
Like, even if it seems like hiking 16 miles a day, wow, they're going so fast.
47:01
That's so good. I should do that too.
47:03
And then it messes up your whole plan. Like there's There's things that God
47:08
didn't tell me to, like I didn't feel the need to, or I didn't feel like I was
47:13
told to get out there and do it in record time,
47:16
like finishing it in like 100 days or something.
47:19
It was like, no, just go do this journey in the woods and find out what I have for you there.
47:25
And I was like, well, I got out there and forgot about all that stuff when I
47:29
saw these people doing this thing that I was trying to do, but they were just
47:32
better at me than it in like every aspect. and I was like, I'm not really good
47:36
at this. So I should try and do it their way.
47:39
And totally forgot about like, God didn't ask me to do any of that.
47:43
So I think it's like, sometimes, you know, it's like, if God tells you to go
47:47
a direction, don't, don't like, get out there and do the things he didn't tell
47:52
you to do, even if it seems like a good thing, sometimes,
47:55
you know, like, if it's not beneficial. And then I think to like.
48:00
The third part of making it your own like the best analogy i can think of is
48:05
there's certain mountains that are not safe to cross when there's a storm up
48:10
there and so they have bad weather.
48:12
Bypasses where you should take that bypass that goes
48:15
along the ridge of the mountain instead of going up
48:18
and over the mountain in the middle of the lightning storm and so
48:21
i think it's like there's like aspects where there
48:25
are things you should not do even though everybody else did
48:28
it that way not because of circumstances or
48:31
something but like god's not asking you to
48:33
like go do something stupid like don't just
48:37
go do something that doesn't make sense even though you see as a part of the
48:40
journey like god wasn't asking me to prove myself to him by doing 16 miles a
48:46
day like these other people were and so i think it's like these different aspects
48:50
that work out in my head for the analogy of the trail but it's kind of this
48:54
idea of just like there's the direction,
48:57
like you'll learn the how and what steps
49:00
you have to do to make it your own along the way
49:03
you just have to take have the faith to go start and
49:06
do it even if you are going to look silly or something but
49:09
why would you need a plan if you
49:12
were doing it your way like what's what's the
49:15
purpose for having a plan to build up to something i guess
49:19
so that there's higher likelihood i have some advice and actual facts about
49:25
what to do so that i have a higher chance of actually being capable of doing
49:31
it in the end that's one thing that i i think we discount a lot when and i know i've talked about.
49:39
You know, going into new territories where there's not a lot that goes before you.
49:44
But I think a lot of times we forget how much has been built for us that we
49:48
need to take advantage of.
49:49
So even something like a running plan is incredibly valuable because if most
49:57
people decide, I'm just going to run a marathon, I'll just figure out how to
49:59
train up until it, you're not going to be ready for it.
50:02
And you won't finish because you don't know what it
50:05
takes to build up to it knowing like
50:08
after doing the marathon do you think
50:11
there's things you would have changed in your plan like if
50:13
you could have told your self pre marathon
50:17
self to do something different is there
50:19
anything you think you would have like changed like mentally physically thinking
50:24
about it or anything like that I mean not really there's not much more that
50:29
I could have really done that i have done differently kind of just doing exactly what it says to do and.
50:38
I'm not giving up how did you find how did you find the plan that you went with
50:44
i think i spent about 20 minutes google searching google searching marathon
50:49
plan and then al higdon marathon plan
50:54
this many months so I just
50:57
downloaded it and my friend did the did that plan there's not that much to it
51:04
besides just willpower and getting I like how you how you just said there's
51:09
not much to it besides willpower like that's the thing that 100 of the people
51:15
in all the planet struggle with foreign.
51:20
Well, I guess when you already buy the tickets and the plane rides and the Airbnb
51:26
and everything for the place you're actually doing it, you kind of don't have
51:31
a choice other than to do it.
51:34
I wonder if there's something to that then. I mean, wouldn't some people say,
51:40
well, that's pretty irresponsible to spend all that money on this stuff and
51:44
you're not even sure if you're going to be ready for it in time.
51:46
Why don't you just wait until, you know, a few days or a week before the marathon,
51:51
then book all that stuff, because then you'll know if you're actually ready for it.
51:56
Yeah, I think, I mean, I found this one quote by Jordan Peterson that I think
52:02
about a lot where it's like, in order to get something done,
52:06
you not only need like a good desire,
52:09
but also like, say, for example, a mouse trying to get to cheese.
52:14
If you make it really hard for that mouse to get the
52:17
cheese it's it might just
52:20
not care about the cheese even though mice don't really eat cheese but for
52:23
the sake of the example it's trying
52:25
to get to the cheese but if you also put a cat behind the mouse and the cheese
52:30
that mouse is going to go through any possible thing to get away from the cat
52:35
and get to the cheese and i found like jordan peterson used that as an example
52:40
for like if you want to say i don't know run a marathon,
52:46
you have to also put something behind it of what behind what would happen if
52:52
you don't actually get the marathon a gift to set your own personal cat behind
52:58
yourself to force you to do it like that's the embarrassment or something that
53:03
would come out of it is probably.
53:05
Or the if you're doing it with someone and you have an accountability partner,
53:11
increases the embarrassment that comes out of it if you actually give up or
53:16
like you say for example if you're like okay if i don't get my life on the track
53:22
that i want it to be on then,
53:24
you picture what your life would be like if you didn't do like blank thing that you're trying to do.
53:32
And you have a sense of fear that's pushing you to do it.
53:36
And a sense of I want this. But if you just have I want this,
53:41
then the difficulty might get so might get to a point where it's like,
53:46
well, it doesn't seem like this thing I want is worth what it's takes to get to it.
53:54
That's good. That is such a great, great picture.
53:58
And I was just thinking of the Battle of Troy, that when they wanted Troy,
54:04
the city, but when they landed to conquer Troy, they burned all the ships.
54:11
And this has happened several times in history where the general will burn all of their own ships.
54:16
In other words, there's no way back.
54:19
So you either get the victory, but you're not going back.
54:23
And I like what David was saying with
54:26
that is such a that's such a great illustration and
54:29
Caleb you kind of mentioned it too I mean you quit your
54:33
job so you're going forward with something
54:35
that was in your heart to do being led to and it really had a lot in the beginning
54:41
to with your relationship with God that there were some things that you wanted
54:44
more of and this was kind of the direction you went but there's a cost now if
54:48
you don't do it like there's a lot at stake if you don't do it but there's a lot to gain if you do.
54:55
And I know that same is true with you, Jason, when.
54:59
It was time for you to move and you made a big decision and it,
55:04
uh, you've had a couple of those big decisions where the thing that you were
55:08
wanting was what you really wanted,
55:10
but then you had to burn a ship that was going to cost
55:13
you if you didn't actually go after the thing that you really wanted so
55:16
i think that is such a great picture right there of i david just yesterday he
55:24
did first or second backflip so went out in the grass and did a full backflip
55:31
which is kind of crazy because if you don't do that very often you kind of don't
55:35
know how it's going to turn out.
55:38
And i'm like this what he
55:41
just described was like the perfect illustration the backflip he's
55:44
all in to do the backflip but once you
55:47
start once your feet leave the ground you don't
55:51
get to undo the backflip it's like
55:53
you either go away or you you have a
55:56
problem you're gonna snap your neck if you bail out so you
56:00
can't bail out what you once you commit to the
56:03
thing that you're really wanting to and i think that is such
56:06
a life a life skill dealing with
56:09
our will so a great example
56:14
yeah i think that i think i think it's really healthy to do
56:16
that and in the right way but to to
56:20
set the deadlines and burn the ships or if we don't like that analogy of burning
56:26
the ships then telling the captain this is the date the boat's leaving the harbor
56:31
whether i'm on it or not so you have to be on it because it's leaving so whatever
56:35
metaphor you want to put in your head for it,
56:37
but you like setting those,
56:40
like you have to now.
56:43
You just have to. You can't not do it after you quit your job to do it.
56:46
You can't not do it after you've booked the flights, booked the hotels and told
56:51
everyone in the world that you're doing. You have to do it now.
56:54
A couple of summaries that I picked up from you guys. One, there needs to be
56:59
a direction and a why you're doing what you're doing.
57:01
And it doesn't have to be anything more than I just want to see if I can do
57:05
it. Like that can still be the why.
57:07
It's not about it doesn't need to be a big spiritual thing. It doesn't need
57:10
to be a life or death thing.
57:13
But there's a why but then there's is
57:16
a cost to doing your why and you
57:19
have to consider that cost and be willing to
57:22
pay it so it's not like you know what i'm saying
57:25
like i could say i want to lose
57:27
weight but if i don't really have to lose weight i probably won't lose weight like
57:31
you can you have to have something that gets burned or something a cost to that
57:36
point but then you guys also mentioned too is you do need a map and we need
57:42
some kind of markings on the map to know what are the next steps so i would
57:46
say kind of like david with his plan for the marathon there's,
57:50
this is how i trained it doesn't mean he couldn't modify it but he saw a map that someone had,
57:55
mapped out for the goal he was doing caleb you had a map of you you're going
58:01
to go your own pace your reasons are different for your journey,
58:05
but you know where you're heading to.
58:08
It's not just north. So now you know to go north, but now you need a map of
58:12
how can you actually logistically go north.
58:15
So now you kind of go down that.
58:18
And then the final thing is, you know, God speaking to you.
58:22
And I know that gets troubling for a lot of people because they're like,
58:25
well, I don't hear from god or you're weird that you're saying god's saying
58:28
that it's not a voice that comes out of,
58:34
the sky and it's this deep voice that just starts speaking.
58:38
I'm not saying it cannot be that. I'm just saying that isn't generally how he speaks.
58:44
He usually speaks to something in your heart that you know needs to come out and you know it's right.
58:51
You know it's not just what you feel like. It's not dealing with a feeling.
58:55
It's usually something that takes you to a place beyond yourself.
58:59
Like it's, I don't care if it's a new job, moving to a new city,
59:03
taking on a new challenge. It takes you beyond yourself.
59:06
So you discover something about yourself and you know, it's right.
59:12
And Caleb, I know you have a relationship with God for a long time.
59:15
So you kind of start getting used to what that sounds like.
59:18
And you know, there's a track record to that, that voice.
59:21
So you can say, yep, this is the next direction I need to go down.
59:26
But I like how that all picks puts together. But I think it's helpful if you
59:31
take all of these pictures of you talked about suffering you talked about the
59:38
challenge you talk about the risk i think this is the best biblical example of.
59:45
Suffering, suffering by not doing nothing and just living and the world falling apart.
59:53
That's what it's going to do to you until Jesus returns.
59:55
It's just going to fall apart on you. I mean, that's just, that's the nature of what we live in.
1:00:01
But the suffering you guys said, and I like what you said, Caleb,
1:00:05
on a couple of podcasts ago, you can either choose hard or hard will choose you.
1:00:12
And so that when you're going out on the trail, what you're really suffering
1:00:17
is the bringing out more of what you really are.
1:00:22
And everything's against that from coming out.
1:00:25
And so when you look at like a biblical suffering,
1:00:30
it's usually, it's almost always because someone stepped into an arena that
1:00:36
brought more of who they really are out and everything began going against that.
1:00:42
But you're the one deliberately stepping into that arena.
1:00:45
David doing the marathon is a small picture. He's wanting to do it,
1:00:50
but the pressure to, well, all the tickets were purchased.
1:00:54
I got a friend running with me. I got to do this.
1:00:57
That was suffering when it came to the point where Or he had a couple concluding
1:01:03
times of, I hate running, which I have a feeling he's probably not going to
1:01:08
be running in the near future.
1:01:12
But he did it. But I think those are the things that we discovered.
1:01:15
And those are the things that hold us when we choose a career.
1:01:20
When we choose, you know, we think these are just fun things,
1:01:23
but this is real life over here.
1:01:25
No, this is all real life. Like these principles that you guys just talked about,
1:01:30
whether it's running a marathon, whether it's going on a hike,
1:01:33
whether it's choosing a new location with your young family,
1:01:36
whether it's and giving up a job, whether it's choosing.