Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 769: How Lateral Thinking and Curiosity Can Make You a Better Deer Hunter
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
- 0:04Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by first Light, creating proven
- 0:08Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First
- 0:13Speaker 1: Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
- 0:22Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by my buddy Tony Peterson to
- 0:25Speaker 2: discuss how lateral thinking and the fostering of diverse new
- 0:29Speaker 2: skills and pursuits, and maybe even learning how to play
- 0:32Speaker 2: the guitar can help you become a better deer hunter.
- 0:43Speaker 2: Hey guys, I got to interrupt the podcast here real
- 0:46Speaker 2: quick for an update about a special opportunity that I
- 0:50Speaker 2: think some of you might be interested in. Here's the deal.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Have you ever wanted to have a sit down or
- 0:57Speaker 2: discussion with myself and Tony Peterson to answer your very
- 1:02Speaker 2: own hunting questions. Did you ever wish that you could
- 1:04Speaker 2: send us a map of your hunting property and have
- 1:07Speaker 2: us pinpoint the spots that we think would be good.
- 1:10Speaker 2: Have us talk through our ideas on how you might
- 1:12Speaker 2: be able to access your property or your hunting locations,
- 1:15Speaker 2: or maybe where to put food plots or all sorts
- 1:17Speaker 2: of stuff like that. Well, guess what that chance is
- 1:21Speaker 2: available now as a part of meat Eater's auction House
- 1:25Speaker 2: of Oddities, we are auctioning off a one hour private
- 1:30Speaker 2: digital consultation. I guess it's an hour long zoom call
- 1:34Speaker 2: with me and Tony to talk through whatever you want
- 1:37Speaker 2: to talk about when it comes to white tails. We
- 1:38Speaker 2: will review your maps, take a look at your property,
- 1:41Speaker 2: answer any questions, spitball, strategize, We'll do it all. And
- 1:45Speaker 2: as a part of this thing, As a part of
- 1:47Speaker 2: this auction, this item which you can bid on, or
- 1:50Speaker 2: many others that are out there as well, like some
- 1:52Speaker 2: guided fishing trips, hunting trips, all sorts of different bizarre
- 1:56Speaker 2: things like a I don't know, like a fur covered
- 1:59Speaker 2: buyo harness, I think the beaver fur pillows. All sorts
- 2:02Speaker 2: of stuff over at the auction House of Oddities. But
- 2:04Speaker 2: this auction house is benefiting Meat Eater's Land Access initiative,
- 2:08Speaker 2: and this time around, the land Access Initiative is supporting
- 2:12Speaker 2: the ongoing legal fees. So the funds from these auctions
- 2:15Speaker 2: will go to help fund the ongoing legal fees of
- 2:18Speaker 2: the Wyoming Corner Crossing case and the outcome of this
- 2:21Speaker 2: case in Wyoming can be applied to twenty seven thousand
- 2:25Speaker 2: plus corner crossings across eleven Western states. So that means
- 2:28Speaker 2: if this thing finally gets finalized in our favor, it
- 2:31Speaker 2: could open up eight million acres of public land that
- 2:35Speaker 2: would finally clearly be legal for you and me to access.
- 2:40Speaker 2: So that's what we're doing here with this auction. If
- 2:43Speaker 2: you go over to Auctionhouseofodities dot com or just go
- 2:47Speaker 2: to the meat eater dot com and then you'll be
- 2:49Speaker 2: a find links there heading over to the auction house,
- 2:52Speaker 2: bid on this digital hunting consultation with me and Tony
- 2:56Speaker 2: or any of the other items, and help support this
- 2:59Speaker 2: Wyoming corner crossing case and let's open up eight million
- 3:03Speaker 2: acres of new public land for you and me. And
- 3:07Speaker 2: just a heads up on timing. The auction house is
- 3:09Speaker 2: open from now until April ninth, twenty twenty four. Now
- 3:14Speaker 2: back to the show. All right, Welcome back to another
- 3:24Speaker 2: episode of the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you
- 3:27Speaker 2: by First Light and their Camo for Conservation initiative. This
- 3:32Speaker 2: whole initiative means that a portion of every sale of
- 3:36Speaker 2: first Light Spectr cameo pattern, which is the white Tail
- 3:38Speaker 2: pattern that Tony and I wear out there all season long.
- 3:41Speaker 2: If you buy anything with that pattern on it, a
- 3:44Speaker 2: portion of that sale is going to go to the
- 3:46Speaker 2: National Dear Association, which I'm a fan of. Now today
- 3:52Speaker 2: we've got a different kind of episode for you. I've
- 3:54Speaker 2: got my buddy Tony Peterson with me to help with this.
- 3:58Speaker 2: And here's the idea. I kind of want to set
- 4:01Speaker 2: the stage for the conversation we're going to have here,
- 4:03Speaker 2: kind of lay out my pitch I suppose for you,
- 4:07Speaker 2: and then and then we'll see where it goes. But
- 4:09Speaker 2: here's the idea, the pitch I have. The concept I
- 4:12Speaker 2: want to consider today is this idea, This idea that
- 4:16Speaker 2: if you want to be the best possible deer hunter
- 4:20Speaker 2: you can be, you need to do other things than
- 4:25Speaker 2: deer hunting. If you want to have specialist level success
- 4:30Speaker 2: as a deer hunter, you know what we assume a
- 4:32Speaker 2: specialist has, which is like the very most deer hunting
- 4:34Speaker 2: success you could get. If you want to have that
- 4:37Speaker 2: kind of success, you actually need to be more of
- 4:40Speaker 2: a generalist. So this is kind of a backwards thought here,
- 4:45Speaker 2: But this is this argument that I have something that
- 4:48Speaker 2: Tony and I have kind of dabbled around the edges
- 4:50Speaker 2: and past conversations, but today I really want to focus
- 4:52Speaker 2: on this idea that to get better deer hunting, to
- 4:55Speaker 2: have more success, to have more satisfaction with this thing
- 4:58Speaker 2: that we talk about every week, actually want to and
- 5:02Speaker 2: should diversify our activities and our year. We actually should
- 5:06Speaker 2: think about adding in more seasonality to what we're doing.
- 5:09Speaker 2: We should actually consider some changes in pace. We need
- 5:12Speaker 2: to invest in different kind of activities that kind of
- 5:15Speaker 2: spark our mind in different ways, that challenge us in
- 5:18Speaker 2: different ways, and all of this kind of stuff. By
- 5:21Speaker 2: stepping away from your standard way of thinking about deer hunting,
- 5:24Speaker 2: the standard deer hunting things we do, it will actually
- 5:27Speaker 2: come back around and help us. That's the pitch. That's
- 5:30Speaker 2: the idea that I want to consider here, Tony. Before
- 5:35Speaker 2: I lay into like some of my inspiration for this,
- 5:38Speaker 2: the first thing I want to know from you is
- 5:41Speaker 2: does any of this resonate like, does this seem like
- 5:44Speaker 2: something that makes sense to you? Or do I sound
- 5:46Speaker 2: like I'm off my rocker?
- 5:48Speaker 3: No? Man, I've been pushing this message more and more
- 5:52Speaker 3: probably the last four or five years, as I just
- 5:54Speaker 3: realized it about myself that you know, I like a
- 5:57Speaker 3: lot of people who are listening to this, and I
- 5:59Speaker 3: know you have. It's easy to go real deep on
- 6:03Speaker 3: wanting to be the best white tail hunter ever. And
- 6:06Speaker 3: I'm only going to scout white tales. I'm only gonna
- 6:08Speaker 3: think about white tails. I'm only gonna hunt white tails.
- 6:10Speaker 3: And I don't think it makes I don't think that's
- 6:13Speaker 3: the recipe to make a good hunter in a lot
- 6:16Speaker 3: for a lot of people. And I think that being
- 6:18Speaker 3: a generalist and being interested in other stuff, not just
- 6:21Speaker 3: outdoor activities, not just we're not just talking fishing or
- 6:24Speaker 3: fast at hunting or whatever, but just having things that
- 6:27Speaker 3: challenge you, that keep you working toward goals and kind
- 6:30Speaker 3: of that that intermittent progress. I just I think it's
- 6:35Speaker 3: as I age, that becomes so much more evident to
- 6:38Speaker 3: me how important that is. You know, it's just a
- 6:40Speaker 3: long game thing.
- 6:41Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 6:42Speaker 2: And I think something that will probably come back around to,
- 6:44Speaker 2: but that I've been thinking a lot about, is this
- 6:48Speaker 2: just idea of having like my white tail mind always
- 6:53Speaker 2: on in the background while doing different things and so
- 6:57Speaker 2: engaging in a lot of different activities, but having that
- 7:01Speaker 2: white tail whisper in the back of my mind that's
- 7:03Speaker 2: whispering like, hey, this would actually work really good when
- 7:07Speaker 2: you're making decisions as a deer hunter, or Hey, this
- 7:10Speaker 2: kind of skills that you're building is going to be
- 7:12Speaker 2: very useful come October or November, whatever it is. And
- 7:16Speaker 2: like just kind of having that awareness on at all times,
- 7:19Speaker 2: even outside of deer hunting season, even when I'm doing
- 7:21Speaker 2: something completely unrelated to deer hunting. I think it's important
- 7:25Speaker 2: to kind of just have that awareness boiling in the
- 7:27Speaker 2: back of your subconscious so you can pick and grab
- 7:30Speaker 2: and choose and remember these different things or jump on
- 7:33Speaker 2: these little opportunities when they arise. I think all of
- 7:37Speaker 2: that stuff helps build this next level deer hunting ability.
- 7:44Speaker 2: I guess here's one thing that I've thought about. There's
- 7:49Speaker 2: like different levels or stages of growth as a deer
- 7:54Speaker 2: hunter that I think I've experienced at least, and I
- 7:57Speaker 2: imagine most people have this. You've got that first stage
- 8:00Speaker 2: where you're just trying to figure out, like what the
- 8:01Speaker 2: hell am I doing right where you just need like
- 8:04Speaker 2: a foundation of what is this stuff I'm looking at?
- 8:08Speaker 2: What are these things I'm trying to do? Where do
- 8:10Speaker 2: these things live? How do they operate? Like you have
- 8:12Speaker 2: to have a base level amount of knowledge, right, And
- 8:15Speaker 2: then there's like the second tier, which is like a
- 8:18Speaker 2: big one where like how do I become good at
- 8:20Speaker 2: this stuff? Like how do I really understand the nuance?
- 8:23Speaker 2: How do I really get to the two oh one
- 8:25Speaker 2: three oh one level? Stuff like this is that stage
- 8:28Speaker 2: where people go from just killing deer to like how
- 8:30Speaker 2: do I consistently kill you know, older deer? Right? And
- 8:34Speaker 2: I think a lot of people maybe stop there. But
- 8:37Speaker 2: then there's this next level that I think there's probably
- 8:40Speaker 2: two ways to go about getting there. I think there's
- 8:42Speaker 2: one level where there's the person who just wants to
- 8:44Speaker 2: be the specialist, the guy or girl who says, I'm
- 8:47Speaker 2: doing nothing else but deer hunting. I'm gonna spend ten
- 8:50Speaker 2: thousand hours becoming an expert in this thing and this
- 8:53Speaker 2: is the only thing, and that that might be one
- 8:54Speaker 2: way to do it, Like I can I can point
- 8:57Speaker 2: to some examples of that, But I guess what I
- 8:59Speaker 2: want to talk about today is a different way to
- 9:02Speaker 2: get there, which is this this way of pulling in
- 9:06Speaker 2: from the outside world that will then help you on
- 9:10Speaker 2: this inside whitetail world become better. And so part of
- 9:13Speaker 2: this this is a long, roundabout way of getting to
- 9:15Speaker 2: what I want to say here, Tony. But there's a
- 9:18Speaker 2: book I've been reading. It's called Range by David Epstein.
- 9:21Speaker 2: You've ever heard of that. So the book here is
- 9:26Speaker 2: I mean, it's right about what we're talking about here.
- 9:27Speaker 2: The book's called Range Why generalists triumph in a specialized world?
- 9:32Speaker 2: And the general thesis here is that there's if we
- 9:38Speaker 2: were to oversimplify, there's kind of two different ways or
- 9:41Speaker 2: environments within this world that we live in that you
- 9:43Speaker 2: could break things up. There's something that they refer to
- 9:46Speaker 2: some studies that point to kind learning environments, and kind
- 9:50Speaker 2: learning environments are kind learning activities are the kinds of
- 9:53Speaker 2: things where you know, there are clear rules, there are
- 9:58Speaker 2: clear patterns, there's very immediate and clear feedback, and you
- 10:03Speaker 2: can then, you know, operate in an environment like that
- 10:05Speaker 2: or in an activity like that and very clearly understand, Okay,
- 10:08Speaker 2: this is what you're supposed to do. I do the thing,
- 10:11Speaker 2: it worked or it didn't work, and then I adjust.
- 10:12Speaker 2: This would be stuff like chess, This would be stuff
- 10:15Speaker 2: like solving math problems. This is stuff like golf, I
- 10:21Speaker 2: don't know, different activities like that. And then there's what
- 10:26Speaker 2: you know. Epstein makes the argument in his book there's
- 10:29Speaker 2: a different kind of a learning environment, which is where
- 10:31Speaker 2: the world is trending more and more now. He originally
- 10:34Speaker 2: speaks to the fact that kind of the old world
- 10:36Speaker 2: was more of like that kind learning environment, like working
- 10:39Speaker 2: in a factory. It's like you take this thing, you
- 10:41Speaker 2: put it in this hole, and you move it down
- 10:43Speaker 2: the line. Right, It's like, just do this, do this,
- 10:46Speaker 2: do this, move it down. And now we're moving into
- 10:48Speaker 2: a new kind of world, which is what they call
- 10:51Speaker 2: a wicked learning environment and a wicked learning environment. I'm
- 10:56Speaker 2: just going to read you the quote here. A wicked
- 10:58Speaker 2: and learning environment are these activities where patterns are harder
- 11:01Speaker 2: to discern, and feedback is delayed or inaccurate. Information is
- 11:06Speaker 2: hidden even when it isn't. Feedback may be delayed, it
- 11:08Speaker 2: might be infrequent, it may be non existent. It may
- 11:10Speaker 2: be partly accurate or inaccurate. So sometimes in wicked learning environments,
- 11:15Speaker 2: the wrong types of behavior are reinforced. What is that
- 11:20Speaker 2: soundly to you? That sounds like deer hunting, right.
- 11:23Speaker 3: Well, it kind of sounds like war, but it also
- 11:25Speaker 3: sounds like deer hunting.
- 11:26Speaker 2: Yes, kind of sounds like war. But like if we're
- 11:29Speaker 2: if we're saying that which one of these two buckets
- 11:31Speaker 2: does deer hunting fit into? Man, it is not chess
- 11:34Speaker 2: like I know we like to say, like, oh, deer
- 11:35Speaker 2: hunting is a chess game, but it's not at all. Right.
- 11:37Speaker 2: We don't get to see all the pieces on the table.
- 11:39Speaker 2: We don't get We try something and we don't know
- 11:41Speaker 2: if this is the right thing, right. How many times
- 11:44Speaker 2: have we talked about asking why and we try to
- 11:46Speaker 2: figure out the why something happened, but we never really know, right,
- 11:48Speaker 2: there's no clear feedback, there's no accurate feedback. All the time,
- 11:52Speaker 2: we're dealing with a tremendous amount of uncertainty.
- 11:56Speaker 3: Yeah, we say something, the rules change all the time,
- 12:00Speaker 3: and we don't know until it's way too late.
- 12:02Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And so the argument in this book is
- 12:06Speaker 2: that wicked learning environments favor a generalist approach. It favors
- 12:12Speaker 2: not a specialized, narrow field of knowledge and expertise, but
- 12:15Speaker 2: a broader base of knowledge to pull from because it
- 12:20Speaker 2: allows something called lateral thinking. So the simplified version of
- 12:25Speaker 2: what lateral thinking is just like being able to connect
- 12:28Speaker 2: disparate ideas, being able to take an idea from one
- 12:32Speaker 2: world and apply it to another, taking a concept from
- 12:35Speaker 2: one realm and pulling into your world, like combining different
- 12:39Speaker 2: things in creative ways problem solving, right, And that I
- 12:43Speaker 2: think is what we're kind of trying to get at today.
- 12:47Speaker 2: I think that.
- 12:49Speaker 3: Does this make you think? Because immediately what this makes
- 12:52Speaker 3: me think of is guys like Andy May and Zach
- 12:55Speaker 3: Farrinbau who've hunted white tails in so many different environments
- 13:00Speaker 3: where that you know, maybe on paper don't seem like
- 13:03Speaker 3: they'd be all that connected, but because of the experience
- 13:07Speaker 3: doing it over and over in different places, it just
- 13:09Speaker 3: becomes easier everywhere.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I think a lot of what this does
- 13:13Speaker 2: the studies that I'm reading about in this book and
- 13:16Speaker 2: some others, it puts language to and validation to some
- 13:21Speaker 2: ideas that we've kind of thought, we believed. Like we've
- 13:25Speaker 2: talked about this a lot, right, You and I have
- 13:26Speaker 2: talked about the importance of hunting new places, doing new things,
- 13:30Speaker 2: you know, trying new approaches, and how all of that,
- 13:33Speaker 2: you know, can make you a better deer hunter. And
- 13:35Speaker 2: I think this is pointing to man, there's like higher
- 13:38Speaker 2: level studies and higher level stuff going on here that
- 13:42Speaker 2: points to, yeah, that being true, whether it be diversity
- 13:45Speaker 2: in your deer hunting or diversity in everything you're doing.
- 13:48Speaker 2: And again, like being able to pull from all of
- 13:50Speaker 2: those different places, being able to pull from all those
- 13:52Speaker 2: different activities, strengthening these different muscles hype like metaphorical muscles,
- 13:58Speaker 2: mental and physical in some case, and how all that
- 14:01Speaker 2: comes back and helps you as a deer hunter. Like
- 14:03Speaker 2: the thing is if you just do the same thing
- 14:05Speaker 2: over and over and over again, if you just hunt
- 14:07Speaker 2: the same way over and over and over to a degree,
- 14:09Speaker 2: you'll get better at that thing for a while. But
- 14:12Speaker 2: there's that plateauing, right, And we don't live in a
- 14:16Speaker 2: static deer hunting world, right. Things are always changing around.
- 14:18Speaker 2: It's the habitat is changing, hunting pressures changing, There's all
- 14:23Speaker 2: sorts of things that can go haywire. If you're not
- 14:26Speaker 2: able to stay up on that, if you're not too
- 14:28Speaker 2: able to adjust with the times, if you're not able
- 14:30Speaker 2: to be just as dynamic as the wild world is,
- 14:34Speaker 2: you're never going to enjoy the success that you probably
- 14:37Speaker 2: could have otherwise.
- 14:39Speaker 3: And I want to say something on that, because I
- 14:41Speaker 3: think you're making a really good point I think this
- 14:43Speaker 3: ties to what you said way at the beginning, where
- 14:46Speaker 3: you talked about having no matter what you're doing, having
- 14:49Speaker 3: this kind of background noise of white tail thought going
- 14:53Speaker 3: because I just randomly, like two nights ago, I was
- 14:57Speaker 3: laying in bed, just about to start reading, and I
- 15:00Speaker 3: started thinking about small mouth, like we're what what are
- 15:02Speaker 3: the best doing right now? And it kind of like
- 15:06Speaker 3: my wife walked in and I was like, I'm going
- 15:08Speaker 3: to ask my wife if she ever thinks about small
- 15:11Speaker 3: mouth any other time than when I'm like we should
- 15:13Speaker 3: go because right like she fishes with us, you know,
- 15:16Speaker 3: and like we we go up to the lake a lot.
- 15:18Speaker 3: And so I'm like, does she does it ever occur
- 15:21Speaker 3: to her to think about small mouth in March or
- 15:23Speaker 3: you know, April or whatever. So I asked her, I
- 15:25Speaker 3: was like, in any given month when we're not like
- 15:28Speaker 3: going to the lake, do you ever think about what
- 15:30Speaker 3: those small mouths are doing in our lake? And she
- 15:33Speaker 3: looked at me and she was like no, like why
- 15:36Speaker 3: why would I? And it just it kind of like
- 15:39Speaker 3: it made me think about how often you talk to
- 15:42Speaker 3: somebody who's a deer hunter, you know, like and I'm
- 15:44Speaker 3: kind of stereotyping here. But you know, maybe there's somebody
- 15:46Speaker 3: who goes up for the rifle opener and the you know,
- 15:49Speaker 3: up in the up at the cabin or whatever for
- 15:51Speaker 3: three days, and that's their hunt. They're probably not thinking
- 15:55Speaker 3: about white tails, like what what what are the deer
- 15:57Speaker 3: doing up there in march? And I think that so
- 16:01Speaker 3: when you talk about, you know, learning in this wicked
- 16:03Speaker 3: environment that we're going to get into here and and
- 16:06Speaker 3: becoming a generalist, I think one of the easiest things
- 16:09Speaker 3: for you to do is to start thinking about this
- 16:12Speaker 3: stuff more like just start just put some mental horsepower
- 16:16Speaker 3: to it. You can't always go out and scout. You
- 16:18Speaker 3: can't always be a part of it in that world,
- 16:21Speaker 3: but you can not even not even necessarily eat scouting.
- 16:24Speaker 3: You can be thinking about this more like why do
- 16:27Speaker 3: the deer do this? Or why do they do that?
- 16:29Speaker 3: Like I'll give you a quick example here before we
- 16:31Speaker 3: move on. I took one of my daughters out scout
- 16:33Speaker 3: turkeys just like a week ago, and we went and
- 16:37Speaker 3: sat and on this property we I have permission on
- 16:40Speaker 3: and that the owner has one redneck blind on this
- 16:42Speaker 3: food plot. It's a great it's great set up to
- 16:46Speaker 3: glass turkeys just it just is right. So we went
- 16:50Speaker 3: in there and sat and we watched a dough in
- 16:52Speaker 3: a fawn and then three bucks come out. Three shed
- 16:55Speaker 3: bucks come out, And what they did was they're at
- 17:00Speaker 3: that blind the whole time and feed in the corner
- 17:03Speaker 3: of the food plot and kind of move off and
- 17:05Speaker 3: browse and come back out. And then it got dark
- 17:08Speaker 3: and they went past, but they I was like, they're
- 17:11Speaker 3: still avoiding this blind, and like it kind of struck
- 17:16Speaker 3: me as like you know, when you hunt there, like
- 17:18Speaker 3: I hunted their Muzzloder season and of course the deer
- 17:21Speaker 3: is super kGy because they've been hunted out of their
- 17:23Speaker 3: whole bunch. But in my brain that sort of shut
- 17:25Speaker 3: off once the season ended, like I just assumed they
- 17:28Speaker 3: would get real comfortable again. But we were talking almost
- 17:32Speaker 3: you know, almost four well three and a half months
- 17:34Speaker 3: out from the gun season or the end of the
- 17:38Speaker 3: bow season, and those deer are still like that's the
- 17:41Speaker 3: danger spot. And it kind of made me realize, like
- 17:44Speaker 3: I wasn't thinking about that correctly, but they are like
- 17:47Speaker 3: they're still like we don't want to get close to there,
- 17:49Speaker 3: even though we haven't had any negative interactions with that
- 17:52Speaker 3: in months, it's still ingrained in there, and it kind
- 17:55Speaker 3: of it was kind of an eye opener to me.
- 17:57Speaker 2: Well, there's this kind of this thing that happens when
- 17:59Speaker 2: you put yourself in a different environment. In this case,
- 18:02Speaker 2: you were kind of in the same environment, but a
- 18:03Speaker 2: different kind of year or a different time of year. Right,
- 18:06Speaker 2: It's like if you allow yourself to go into a
- 18:10Speaker 2: different place in a different set of circumstances and then
- 18:13Speaker 2: kind of circle back to deer hunting while you're in
- 18:14Speaker 2: that different place, it like makes new things fire, It
- 18:18Speaker 2: makes new ideas pop out. I mean, this is like
- 18:23Speaker 2: a thing in writing, I'm sure in like all sorts
- 18:24Speaker 2: of creative and creative endeavors, right when people have like
- 18:27Speaker 2: writer's block, or people are struggling to write something new
- 18:31Speaker 2: or paint a new picture or whatever. It is like
- 18:33Speaker 2: a common practice is to you got to shake things up.
- 18:36Speaker 2: You've got to put yourself into a new environment. You
- 18:38Speaker 2: need to you know, create something new in your environment
- 18:42Speaker 2: mentally or physically to then you know, get your body
- 18:45Speaker 2: and brain thinking differently. And so I think that same
- 18:48Speaker 2: thing applies. So it's like in your case, scouting turkey's
- 18:52Speaker 2: hunting turkeys, whatever you had this pseudo epiphany because you
- 18:55Speaker 2: were in the deer hunting world but in a different time.
- 18:58Speaker 2: I think similar things might happen, Like when you're out
- 19:00Speaker 2: small mall fishing. I bet you when you're out small
- 19:02Speaker 2: mall fishing, there will be moments when you're out there
- 19:04Speaker 2: fishing and then all of a sudden you're like, man,
- 19:06Speaker 2: this is a lot like what deer do. And it's
- 19:09Speaker 2: kind of funny because I realized that small mothor we
- 19:12Speaker 2: you know, adjusting to this rock pile in a certain way,
- 19:15Speaker 2: and that's just how a buck's going to use structure
- 19:17Speaker 2: when he's traveling or I don't know what it is,
- 19:19Speaker 2: but like there's probably these different, like analogous things that
- 19:22Speaker 2: we can see or understand more clearly from our deer
- 19:27Speaker 2: hunting world when we look at them through the lens
- 19:30Speaker 2: of something different. And that's I think that's like the
- 19:33Speaker 2: whole thing that I'm hoping we can get at here
- 19:36Speaker 2: today is like how we can do that a little
- 19:37Speaker 2: bit better or examples of how we've done that at least,
- 19:41Speaker 2: and maybe that's useful for other folks.
- 19:43Speaker 3: Well, can we can we go down that little, small
- 19:45Speaker 3: old rabbit hole for a second, Yeah, because I think
- 19:49Speaker 3: one of the things that I've learned after fishing. You know,
- 19:51Speaker 3: I fished all over, but I fish one like a lot,
- 19:54Speaker 3: and you know when they school up in the summer
- 19:57Speaker 3: where the schools are. But you know, like in my head,
- 20:01Speaker 3: I go to this rock pile and if they're there,
- 20:03Speaker 3: we catch them. If not, I move on to the
- 20:05Speaker 3: next one, and they'll be there. And when you start
- 20:07Speaker 3: to break it down, you go, Okay, they live in
- 20:09Speaker 3: this I don't know how big of an area. It's
- 20:11Speaker 3: not like a huge area at least from spring through fall.
- 20:15Speaker 3: But they're not necessarily on that rock pile, you know,
- 20:20Speaker 3: postponed to the you know, getting their feedbags on in
- 20:23Speaker 3: the fall. You'll find them on there. Sometimes sometimes they're
- 20:26Speaker 3: just not there. They're over on that sand drop, and
- 20:29Speaker 3: it's you know, because a mental hatch or the crayfish
- 20:31Speaker 3: or molting or something. And I always think about that
- 20:34Speaker 3: with white tails, because we talk about them like that
- 20:37Speaker 3: buck beds in that swamp and he feeds in that field,
- 20:40Speaker 3: and it's like, yeah, two out of every seven days
- 20:44Speaker 3: he probably does that. But there are so many things
- 20:48Speaker 3: going on that where that might have been affected by
- 20:51Speaker 3: a predator, might have been affected by hunters, or it
- 20:53Speaker 3: just could be that they felt like going the other
- 20:56Speaker 3: way and browsing or whatever. And we kind of try
- 21:01Speaker 3: to boil this down to like there's a simple solution
- 21:03Speaker 3: to this, right he here's his bed. I know he
- 21:05Speaker 3: uses this, I know he feeds in that alfalfa simple
- 21:09Speaker 3: but they don't follow that, like they that pattern is
- 21:12Speaker 3: not like a day to day thing, especially if you
- 21:15Speaker 3: get outside of that summer pattern bleeding into the fall season.
- 21:18Speaker 3: You know, like if you get in past the first
- 21:20Speaker 3: couple of weeks of the September season, you know, if
- 21:23Speaker 3: you can hunt that, those patterns start to die real quick.
- 21:26Speaker 3: Those deer didn't probably move, but they're not they're not
- 21:30Speaker 3: following what we think is like an A to B
- 21:32Speaker 3: thing all the time. It's like so much more dynamic
- 21:35Speaker 3: than that.
- 21:36Speaker 2: So so can you you kind of said this, but
- 21:38Speaker 2: give me a little more detail. What what do you
- 21:40Speaker 2: do when you go to that first rock pile and
- 21:43Speaker 2: they're not there the way you were hoping they're going
- 21:45Speaker 2: to be? What do you do after that?
- 21:47Speaker 3: Go to the next most likely? So you always break
- 21:50Speaker 3: it down like we're we're looking for something quick, give me,
- 21:54Speaker 3: give me some kind of look right. So we're throwing
- 21:56Speaker 3: a top water, we're throwing a swim bait. We're not
- 21:58Speaker 3: We're not flipping jigs, dragging two tubes. It's like, fast,
- 22:01Speaker 3: give me a clue, what's going on? You throw it
- 22:03Speaker 3: over that rock pile fifty times and you don't get
- 22:06Speaker 3: a blow up and nobody picks anything up. Then you're like, okay,
- 22:09Speaker 3: now we need to change. Are they here and they're
- 22:12Speaker 3: just not looking up? So we need to flip it.
- 22:14Speaker 3: Go through there again. Now you don't get bit and
- 22:16Speaker 3: you're like, they're probably not here because they should be biting.
- 22:18Speaker 3: The sun isn't up yet, the conditions are right, then
- 22:21Speaker 3: it's time to move. Or you know, like it's it's
- 22:24Speaker 3: always I know you see this a lot, but it's
- 22:28Speaker 3: always like you have this idea. You're like, I'm going
- 22:30Speaker 3: to go out and do this. They're going to eat
- 22:32Speaker 3: this way, or I'm going to catch them this way,
- 22:33Speaker 3: or I'm going to shoot a deer this way, and
- 22:34Speaker 3: then you get out there and it's just never quite
- 22:37Speaker 3: what you expect. You're out, you're making a million little
- 22:40Speaker 3: decisions to just because it's just it just doesn't work
- 22:44Speaker 3: that way. Like as much as we try to set
- 22:46Speaker 3: it up to be like they always come into the
- 22:48Speaker 3: food plot. Now always kill them on Halloween, Like okay, well,
- 22:51Speaker 3: now you have an east wind and it's eighty five
- 22:53Speaker 3: degrees or whatever, like, it just doesn't work.
- 22:55Speaker 2: Yeah, how useful would it be for someone to take
- 23:10Speaker 2: that same approach you took when fishing for small moth
- 23:13Speaker 2: when they're not where they are or the way where
- 23:15Speaker 2: you wanted them to be in the first place. Take
- 23:17Speaker 2: that same approach and apply that to deer hunting. There's
- 23:19Speaker 2: probably a lot of folks that go and sit that
- 23:21Speaker 2: same rock pile and then just sit it again and
- 23:24Speaker 2: then set it again and don't know why am I
- 23:26Speaker 2: not seeing my deer here at the rock pile? Right?
- 23:29Speaker 2: But take what you just learned about what works in
- 23:31Speaker 2: small moth fishing, going to the next spot, testing a
- 23:35Speaker 2: couple different things. If you don't see what you're looking
- 23:37Speaker 2: for after those couple different tests, which might be a
- 23:39Speaker 2: couple sits, or looking for certain amounts of sign in
- 23:42Speaker 2: these areas or whatever it is, the way you're testing
- 23:45Speaker 2: the theory like you're talking about, and then moving to
- 23:47Speaker 2: the next metaphorical rock pile. That's a perfect example of
- 23:51Speaker 2: doing a non deer hunting thing and being able to recognize, oh,
- 23:56Speaker 2: this is a thing that could be applied to deer hunting.
- 23:58Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense when think about it
- 24:00Speaker 2: that way.
- 24:01Speaker 3: I'll do you one better on that, because this has
- 24:03Speaker 3: really been hitting home for me the last couple of years.
- 24:06Speaker 3: So if you if you think about what probably holds
- 24:10Speaker 3: back most deer hunters, it's that you know, probably this
- 24:14Speaker 3: is like the wird to hunt audience is probably a
- 24:17Speaker 3: weird does it doesn't entirely apply to them, but general
- 24:21Speaker 3: deer hunters want the hunt to happen where they want
- 24:23Speaker 3: it to happen. So they go to the stands they like,
- 24:26Speaker 3: They go to the spots they like, and they cross
- 24:28Speaker 3: their fingers and hope the hunt happens there. And when
- 24:31Speaker 3: it doesn't, they try it again, and they hope the
- 24:33Speaker 3: weather brings them in, or the seasonal timing or whatever.
- 24:36Speaker 3: I see so many parallels when I'm out bass fishing
- 24:39Speaker 3: to walleye fishermen that way, where it's like early season,
- 24:43Speaker 3: if you've got some current or something, you know like
- 24:46Speaker 3: they're gonna be they're going to be coming back from
- 24:49Speaker 3: where they spawn and stopping at this point, in this
- 24:51Speaker 3: point before they get into their summer pattern out on
- 24:53Speaker 3: the lakes, and you know then they're going to be
- 24:56Speaker 3: on a mud flat or a drop off or some
- 24:58Speaker 3: kind of reef or something. And so most of the
- 25:01Speaker 3: walleye fishermen I see, they come out for three or
- 25:04Speaker 3: four months and go to the same spots and they're
- 25:07Speaker 3: like they're either biting or they're not. So they're either
- 25:10Speaker 3: eating the worms I'm dragging or the minneros on a
- 25:12Speaker 3: jig or whatever, or they're not eating. Well, what I
- 25:15Speaker 3: started noticing the last couple of years is this like
- 25:19Speaker 3: shiner hatch going on in August. And what happened is
- 25:23Speaker 3: if I could find a bait ball, It's just like
- 25:24Speaker 3: fishing in the ocean. Walleyes northern is in Smallmouth are
- 25:28Speaker 3: just following them around, and oftentimes they're pretty shallow and
- 25:31Speaker 3: blown up on a wind blown island or shore or whatever.
- 25:35Speaker 3: So what's happening is walleye fishermen are going. The walleyes
- 25:40Speaker 3: are out here. They're either in ten feet of water,
- 25:42Speaker 3: twenty feet of water or whatever. And if I if
- 25:45Speaker 3: I'm catching them, they're here. If not, they're here, but
- 25:47Speaker 3: they're not biting. And I'm in a situation where I'm
- 25:50Speaker 3: not looking for them. You know, it's bright sun, it's August,
- 25:54Speaker 3: it's hot. They're in three feet of water, just gorging
- 25:57Speaker 3: on this you know here today, gone to morraw food source.
- 26:01Speaker 3: So all it is is like when you when you're
- 26:03Speaker 3: a white tail hunter and you're like, I've got three stands,
- 26:05Speaker 3: I hunt this farm and you go out there over
- 26:09Speaker 3: and over again, and you're like, once every ten years,
- 26:11Speaker 3: I get a shot at a big one and it's like,
- 26:13Speaker 3: the big ones are there. You got a Montreal camera.
- 26:15Speaker 3: You know they're there. So what's wrong. You're not going
- 26:18Speaker 3: to find them. You're you're only You're you're hoping that
- 26:21Speaker 3: it happens the way you want it to happen. But
- 26:23Speaker 3: that's not how it works because they know that they
- 26:26Speaker 3: know you want it to happen there because that's where
- 26:27Speaker 3: you always go. And I think we don't think about that,
- 26:30Speaker 3: so we go, all right, well I didn't kill him
- 26:33Speaker 3: on the opener. I'm gonna I'm gonna lay low during October.
- 26:36Speaker 3: I'm gonna come back in and he's gonna he's gonna
- 26:38Speaker 3: follow a dough in during the run. And yeah, sometimes
- 26:40Speaker 3: that happens, but to really be in the game. You
- 26:43Speaker 3: have to look at it and go, if it's not
- 26:45Speaker 3: happening for me, it's not because they're not here, you know,
- 26:49Speaker 3: like it's it's because they're avoiding me, or they're doing
- 26:52Speaker 3: something different. What is that? Like? How can you solve
- 26:55Speaker 3: that problem? And that's the parallel to all this stuff
- 26:57Speaker 3: we're talking about, is it's just like a series of
- 26:59Speaker 3: proper problem solving over and over and over again, you know.
- 27:03Speaker 2: So yeah, so there's there's certain activities that we can
- 27:06Speaker 2: do outside of deer hunting that will have that very
- 27:10Speaker 2: direct crossover. Like any kind of phishing I think is
- 27:14Speaker 2: very applicable. Any different type of hunting is very applicable.
- 27:20Speaker 2: I think there's like a heck, I don't know, any
- 27:24Speaker 2: kind of decision making based activity anything that like really
- 27:29Speaker 2: puts stress on you to make decisions under pressure analyzing data.
- 27:35Speaker 2: I mean, I know we said chess isn't a good comparison,
- 27:37Speaker 2: but to what degree it is. There's like a certain
- 27:39Speaker 2: amount of like predicting moves and strategic decision making like
- 27:44Speaker 2: that kind of thing. I think flex is a muscle
- 27:46Speaker 2: that helps you make better decisions as a deer hunter.
- 27:50Speaker 2: There's another kind of line of activities that are not
- 27:54Speaker 2: deer hunting related but really help with a lot of
- 27:57Speaker 2: deer hunting things. And it's something both you and I've
- 28:00Speaker 2: talked about some of the past. We're both pretty active
- 28:02Speaker 2: and now and that's just like running or physical fitness,
- 28:05Speaker 2: different stuff like that, right, And we've we've dabbled in
- 28:10Speaker 2: this a little bit. But I think I find myself
- 28:13Speaker 2: going deeper and deeper and deeper into this world and
- 28:17Speaker 2: finding that A I'm getting like more enjoyment out of it,
- 28:21Speaker 2: and B I'm seeing how it's translating into the deer
- 28:24Speaker 2: hunting world. The more I like allow myself to do that,
- 28:27Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Yeah, So I think the
- 28:33Speaker 2: last time we talked, I told you that I had
- 28:35Speaker 2: signed up for that Mountain Trail run thirty k right,
- 28:40Speaker 2: mm hm. So I've been training for that, and then
- 28:43Speaker 2: in training for that, I realized, like, oh man, that
- 28:45Speaker 2: thing's gonna kill me. I need to have like a
- 28:47Speaker 2: training race leading up to that. So now I'm signed
- 28:50Speaker 2: up for another trail half marathon that's like middle of
- 28:54Speaker 2: the road elevation game, but still a lot harder than
- 28:56Speaker 2: anything I've done in the past. So that's coming up
- 28:58Speaker 2: in a month and I'm actually like realizing that something
- 29:05Speaker 2: crazy happened. I don't know if you do this or not, Tony,
- 29:09Speaker 2: but for years I've just been like a road runner,
- 29:12Speaker 2: and then now I'm doing more and more trail running
- 29:16Speaker 2: and now I'm actually like really enjoying it. Like before
- 29:19Speaker 2: it was the thing I knew I should do, and
- 29:20Speaker 2: I did it and I liked it, but I kind
- 29:23Speaker 2: of didn't like where I was at. But now I'm
- 29:25Speaker 2: finding places where I can like just be out in
- 29:26Speaker 2: the woods, out in the hills or whatever, and that's
- 29:29Speaker 2: just like fun just being out there and noticing things.
- 29:33Speaker 2: And I've actually been trail running in some places that
- 29:35Speaker 2: I can deer hunt the public Liane, I can deer runt,
- 29:38Speaker 2: and I've been noticing like, oh, man, like look at that,
- 29:41Speaker 2: or I'm bumping deer off a little knowle. I'm like, huh,
- 29:44Speaker 2: interesting how they're betting here. And so it's another interesting
- 29:47Speaker 2: example of something that you know, I know, you preach
- 29:49Speaker 2: all the time, which just finding excuses to be in
- 29:52Speaker 2: the woods, finding any kind of excuse to be out there,
- 29:55Speaker 2: and you don't have to be dead set focused on deer,
- 29:58Speaker 2: but just being out there you have the opportunity to
- 30:01Speaker 2: have these little aha moments. You have the opportunity to
- 30:03Speaker 2: have these little discoveries, and that's been popping up my
- 30:06Speaker 2: deer in my running now more than I originally expected.
- 30:11Speaker 3: Well, I mean, look what you did there. Though, if
- 30:14Speaker 3: you want to talk about problem solving again, the first
- 30:17Speaker 3: problem you have is just how do I become a runner,
- 30:21Speaker 3: which is a hard one for most people to solve.
- 30:24Speaker 3: And then you start that and you run on a
- 30:26Speaker 3: treadmill or you run on the road, and you're like, okay,
- 30:29Speaker 3: I've gotten past the part where I'm of not being
- 30:33Speaker 3: a runner to being a runner, and then but you
- 30:35Speaker 3: still struggle, like it's still not like every day you're
- 30:38Speaker 3: like I cannot wait to go running. I mean, there's
- 30:40Speaker 3: a lot of times you're like this, I have to
- 30:42Speaker 3: solve for this daily to find this motivation or more
- 30:45Speaker 3: likely the discipline. And then you're like, okay, how do
- 30:49Speaker 3: I hold myself accountable If I sign up for this,
- 30:51Speaker 3: I'm not backing out. And then you discover along the
- 30:53Speaker 3: way you're like, well, it's actually a hell of a
- 30:55Speaker 3: lot more enjoyable to run through the woods than it
- 30:56Speaker 3: is on the road, and that's a hell of a
- 30:58Speaker 3: lot more enjoyable than running on a treadmill. And so again,
- 31:01Speaker 3: it's like, do something that challenges you at an incremental level,
- 31:07Speaker 3: that forces you to hold yourself accountable and it feeds
- 31:10Speaker 3: into everything else.
- 31:12Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's and that's exactly where I'm at now.
- 31:15Speaker 2: I'm the thing you just spelled out was exactly my trajectory,
- 31:19Speaker 2: like that I had, Like it was a struggle to
- 31:21Speaker 2: get like motivated to put on the running shoes and
- 31:24Speaker 2: go out for the run and do that stuff years ago,
- 31:26Speaker 2: and now like I am legitimately excited about it every time,
- 31:31Speaker 2: Like I'm looking forward to my next run. I'm looking
- 31:33Speaker 2: forward to a nine mile run with a bunch of
- 31:36Speaker 2: elevation gain, something I thought I never would want to do.
- 31:39Speaker 2: But that sounds like, man, that's gonna be great. That's
- 31:41Speaker 2: the best part of my day. And that just took,
- 31:44Speaker 2: like that incremental work. It took finding goals along the way,
- 31:47Speaker 2: it took challenging myself to do these things, and it
- 31:50Speaker 2: took like how do I find the version of this
- 31:52Speaker 2: that's enjoyable for me? And like you said, that's a process.
- 31:56Speaker 3: So you've actually gotten to a point because I I
- 31:59Speaker 3: feel like I don't know. With my running. I'm I'm
- 32:03Speaker 3: kind of at a I'm at a weird spot with it.
- 32:05Speaker 3: I'm running quite a bit, and but I'm like, I
- 32:09Speaker 3: do it because it makes me feel good when i'm done.
- 32:12Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not doing it because like during my
- 32:14Speaker 3: runs and like I'm not super happy, like it's okay,
- 32:17Speaker 3: Like I'm I'm not. I don't hate it obviously, but
- 32:20Speaker 3: it seems like you found you're at a better place
- 32:23Speaker 3: with it because not only are you you're anticipating it,
- 32:26Speaker 3: You're you're enjoying the process. And I'm sure it makes
- 32:29Speaker 3: you feel pretty good, you know, knocking another good run
- 32:32Speaker 3: out at the end.
- 32:33Speaker 2: Yeah, But I'm actually yeah, now, I'm actually like in
- 32:36Speaker 2: the moment just enjoying it. And I think there's two
- 32:40Speaker 2: things going on there. One is like it's been years
- 32:43Speaker 2: of building like a base. It kind of is back
- 32:45Speaker 2: to the deer hunting trajector, right, like you have to
- 32:47Speaker 2: have a long time of building that foundation to where
- 32:50Speaker 2: you just get it right enough to now be creative
- 32:53Speaker 2: with it. And so in this case, like the analogy
- 32:55Speaker 2: of running, for me, it's like just building a running
- 32:57Speaker 2: foundation so that doesn't hurt when you're running right, so
- 33:00Speaker 2: you can just like comfortably do it without it being miserable.
- 33:03Speaker 2: Like I'm I'm, I'm enough of a runner now that
- 33:05Speaker 2: it's not miserable to run. And then like the secret
- 33:08Speaker 2: sauce more recently has been like this is like so obvious,
- 33:12Speaker 2: but like go in a pretty place where there's not
- 33:14Speaker 2: a bunch of people and you don't need to worry
- 33:15Speaker 2: about getting hit by car. What on aha moment that
- 33:19Speaker 2: is and all of a sudden, like my run is
- 33:21Speaker 2: looking around like, man, this is beautiful. I like to
- 33:24Speaker 2: go hiking. I like to be outside hunting, Like this
- 33:26Speaker 2: is just being outside and getting a better workout. That's
- 33:30Speaker 2: like an easy win when you can make it enjoyable,
- 33:32Speaker 2: make it good for you, and also like you are
- 33:35Speaker 2: still building good habits that help you in so many
- 33:37Speaker 2: other things too, right, discipline.
- 33:40Speaker 3: Well for sure, And I don't I don't know do
- 33:42Speaker 3: you listen to podcasts when you run or do you
- 33:44Speaker 3: listen to music or what?
- 33:45Speaker 2: So I would say fifty percent of the time I
- 33:48Speaker 2: listen to a podcast or audiobook. I'm trying to do
- 33:51Speaker 2: more just no sound and just like thinking, so I'm
- 33:54Speaker 2: trying to I'd say it's a fifty to fifty now,
- 33:56Speaker 2: and I'm trying to encourage myself to do more no
- 33:59Speaker 2: listening so that I can have that like open space
- 34:02Speaker 2: to like think and you know, have those like free
- 34:05Speaker 2: association type moments happen.
- 34:07Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just curious because I when I left, I
- 34:11Speaker 3: love to listen to music, but I hate listening to podcasts.
- 34:14Speaker 3: When I run, I like listening to podcasts, but I
- 34:16Speaker 3: just if I listen to music, I tend to just
- 34:19Speaker 3: go in my head, like I can't zone out and
- 34:22Speaker 3: kind of take in the story or whatever. But I've
- 34:24Speaker 3: also found there's been times where, for whatever reason, I don't,
- 34:27Speaker 3: you know, my headphones are dead or whatever, but I'm
- 34:30Speaker 3: going running and I'll do that, and I'll be like, man,
- 34:33Speaker 3: I'm actually really enjoying this, just being able to think
- 34:38Speaker 3: through and kind of disassociate a little bit. And I
- 34:41Speaker 3: read something a long time ago when I was kind
- 34:43Speaker 3: of getting into this about how one of the biggest
- 34:46Speaker 3: mistakes people make when they try to like become a
- 34:48Speaker 3: runner or go to the gym and use the elliptical
- 34:50Speaker 3: or whatever, it is like it takes them too long
- 34:53Speaker 3: to settle into their routine on a daily basis. So
- 34:56Speaker 3: you know, you get there, it's like, oh, am I
- 34:57Speaker 3: going to log in a Netflix and watch a show?
- 35:00Speaker 3: Or am I going to try to find a podcast
- 35:02Speaker 3: now or something? And like, so what you find when
- 35:05Speaker 3: you when you sort of get into this habit is
- 35:06Speaker 3: like you're managing it. Like if I have a podcast
- 35:08Speaker 3: I really want to listen to, it makes me want
- 35:10Speaker 3: to run more. Like it was just dumb, but it's true.
- 35:14Speaker 3: And so you end up again you're you're solving for
- 35:16Speaker 3: a problem you anticipate. In case, my motivation isn't there
- 35:20Speaker 3: to just be like what can I do to make
- 35:23Speaker 3: this a little easier? You know, I look at this
- 35:25Speaker 3: like I've been doing a lot of work in the
- 35:27Speaker 3: white Tail Woods this winter because we've had such a
- 35:29Speaker 3: mild winter, and it makes me feel so good because
- 35:34Speaker 3: I'm I'm way ahead of where I knew. I had
- 35:37Speaker 3: a list of things I'm just gonna do, whether I
- 35:39Speaker 3: do them in May, June, July, or December, January, February, whatever,
- 35:43Speaker 3: and just getting to the point where I'm like, man,
- 35:45Speaker 3: I feel so set up for my little girls already
- 35:47Speaker 3: in Wisconsin on a lot of stuff and some of
- 35:49Speaker 3: the things I want to do and just those like
- 35:52Speaker 3: getting through those things, it helps you so much to
- 35:56Speaker 3: get to the next one and the next one and
- 35:58Speaker 3: understand what that process is, just for thinking about it
- 36:01Speaker 3: and planning around it and looking for that motivation.
- 36:04Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you brought up a couple of things that
- 36:10Speaker 2: I try to do in a lot of my deer
- 36:13Speaker 2: hunting world, and a lot of it stems from this
- 36:15Speaker 2: book called Atomic Habits. I know I've talked about. Have
- 36:18Speaker 2: you read that one? Yeah, so you know, in that one,
- 36:22Speaker 2: he just such a great job of pinpointing some of
- 36:25Speaker 2: those key ways to help you, you know, establish a
- 36:28Speaker 2: good habit or break a bad habit. And two of
- 36:30Speaker 2: the things you mentioned, make it obvious, make it easy,
- 36:34Speaker 2: make it rewarding. Like if you can do those things,
- 36:37Speaker 2: that really makes it more achievable, and it's going to
- 36:42Speaker 2: help you consistently do the thing you want to do.
- 36:44Speaker 2: So whether it's scouting, or whether it's shooting your bow
- 36:46Speaker 2: more often, or whether it's getting up in the morning
- 36:50Speaker 2: and going to the tree stand, like anything you can
- 36:53Speaker 2: do ahead of time, to make it obvious, to make
- 36:56Speaker 2: it rewarding, to make it easier. So like in the
- 36:59Speaker 2: case of going on to shoot, like I wrote, about
- 37:01Speaker 2: this in the Wired Dunt newsletter the other day. I
- 37:03Speaker 2: want to shoot more consistently. If you want to shoot
- 37:05Speaker 2: more consistently, ways you can do that are okay, Well,
- 37:08Speaker 2: you need to trigger something that reminds you, oh I
- 37:10Speaker 2: gotta go shoot. So okay, how about I hang the
- 37:12Speaker 2: bow right by the door and the back door, so
- 37:14Speaker 2: every time I walk it in out of the house,
- 37:16Speaker 2: I'm reminded, oh shit, I got to shoot today, and
- 37:18Speaker 2: then make it easy. Okay, so how about let's make
- 37:21Speaker 2: sure that you've got target right out the back door
- 37:23Speaker 2: close so that you don't even need to like, not
- 37:25Speaker 2: everybody can do this, but this is just an example.
- 37:27Speaker 2: Let's say there's a target right at the back door,
- 37:29Speaker 2: so you can see that trigger. Okay, there's the bow
- 37:31Speaker 2: I got to shoot today. All right, Well, I got
- 37:32Speaker 2: the target right there. I've got my arrows leaned up
- 37:34Speaker 2: here in the corner. Let me just grab them. I'll
- 37:36Speaker 2: get four arrows right now and just check that box.
- 37:38Speaker 2: At least get a little bit of a little bit
- 37:40Speaker 2: of a session in right now, and then make it rewarding.
- 37:44Speaker 2: So there's got to be some way, you know, to
- 37:46Speaker 2: reward yourself after that. So maybe man if as long
- 37:49Speaker 2: as I get my shots in today, I'm allowed to
- 37:52Speaker 2: do X or I don't know what it would be
- 37:54Speaker 2: in the case you made a good example, like when
- 37:56Speaker 2: you go run, you're allowed to listen to the podcast
- 37:58Speaker 2: you want to get caught up on. Like there's different
- 38:00Speaker 2: little tricks that we can incorporate to do the things
- 38:03Speaker 2: we know we should do, but sometimes they're easy to
- 38:06Speaker 2: slack on or easy to procrastinate on or whatever it is.
- 38:11Speaker 2: And I think that it's funny we came to this
- 38:15Speaker 2: because of running, right, And I think that's why there's
- 38:18Speaker 2: like the whole this ties back into what I'm talking about,
- 38:21Speaker 2: Like we can learn how to get better at these things,
- 38:23Speaker 2: whether it being building good habits or being disciplined or
- 38:27Speaker 2: whatever it is, in something like running or some other
- 38:30Speaker 2: sport you might be doing. And oh, by the way,
- 38:32Speaker 2: that's all going to help you as a deer hunter.
- 38:34Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean this this probably sounds like BS, but
- 38:38Speaker 3: I firmly believe it. It's like we are masters of
- 38:42Speaker 3: lying to ourselves, you know, and like we're masters of
- 38:46Speaker 3: believing it, you know. But once once you know, you
- 38:49Speaker 3: get an injury and you can't do something or you
- 38:51Speaker 3: lose this spot to hunt or whatever, like you realize
- 38:55Speaker 3: like it's kind of just on you, like that. There's
- 38:58Speaker 3: so much in life that you know, there's kind of
- 39:00Speaker 3: this mentality out there a lot of times where it's
- 39:02Speaker 3: like I gotta blame the boomer generation or I gotta
- 39:04Speaker 3: I gotta like somebody else. It's somebody else's fault that
- 39:07Speaker 3: I am where I am at, right, But when you
- 39:10Speaker 3: talk about and you see this, I mean you see
- 39:11Speaker 3: a lot of shitty stuff in the white tail world too,
- 39:13Speaker 3: where it's like, well, if I had that guy's place,
- 39:15Speaker 3: or you know, like if I had those opportunities, it's
- 39:17Speaker 3: like you don't. And it's easy to sort of get
- 39:20Speaker 3: into that mentality, but really you just have to work
- 39:22Speaker 3: with what you have. And if you're holding yourself accountable
- 39:26Speaker 3: and not believing the lies that you want to tell
- 39:28Speaker 3: yourself to make life easier, I think good things happen
- 39:31Speaker 3: and it you know, we're so conditioned to want sort
- 39:34Speaker 3: of instant gratification and we're so conditioned to want like
- 39:37Speaker 3: that shortcut. But when you do something that there is
- 39:41Speaker 3: no way around it, Like if you're going to run
- 39:43Speaker 3: a thirty k in the mountains, there's no way around it,
- 39:46Speaker 3: like I don't care who your parents are, Like I
- 39:48Speaker 3: don't care what genes you're drawing off of, Like you're
- 39:51Speaker 3: just you don't start. You don't go from zero to
- 39:54Speaker 3: that quickly. That is a year line. It's like retirement
- 39:57Speaker 3: or anything else. Like, it's when you learn to hold
- 39:59Speaker 3: your self accountable and appreciate these like baby steps and
- 40:03Speaker 3: building up some discipline, it goes a long way. And
- 40:06Speaker 3: of course it feeds hunting like that's like, that's like
- 40:09Speaker 3: a foundational skill that you have to have to be
- 40:12Speaker 3: good at it.
- 40:13Speaker 2: Yeah, is there anything else on the fitness or running
- 40:17Speaker 2: side of things in your world that has translated into
- 40:22Speaker 2: you having a aha moment as a hunter or that
- 40:25Speaker 2: has particularly helped you as a hunter that we haven't covered.
- 40:29Speaker 3: Man, I'll tell you what. So I started working out
- 40:33Speaker 3: like ten years ago, right when I quit drinking, just
- 40:35Speaker 3: because I knew I needed something. I was terrible at it.
- 40:38Speaker 3: I was in terrible shape. And what I started doing
- 40:41Speaker 3: just just purely I didn't have any reason for it.
- 40:44Speaker 3: I started doing cardio and I started lifting weights. And
- 40:48Speaker 3: what I have found is I still there are times
- 40:52Speaker 3: where I'm like you, where I'm like I can't wait
- 40:53Speaker 3: to go run tonight, like it's the right weather and
- 40:55Speaker 3: I'm just feeling it. There's a lot of times like
- 40:57Speaker 3: I had this last night where I lifted in the
- 40:59Speaker 3: morning and I was like, I had a window where
- 41:01Speaker 3: I could do a run before I had to go
- 41:02Speaker 3: get my girls, and I did not want to do it.
- 41:05Speaker 3: I was like, I just and I forced myself to go,
- 41:08Speaker 3: and the first mile was torture, and after that I
- 41:10Speaker 3: felt great and I felt so good doing it. But
- 41:14Speaker 3: where I'm going with this is becoming a runner was
- 41:18Speaker 3: really hard. Becoming somebody who lifts weights consistently was pretty hard.
- 41:25Speaker 3: But what it feels like now is a freaking vacation
- 41:28Speaker 3: compared to my cardio days. And so this thing that
- 41:31Speaker 3: at one point in my life was was very hard
- 41:34Speaker 3: to do. You know. It's like it's humiliating going into
- 41:36Speaker 3: a gym where you don't know anybody and you've never lifted,
- 41:38Speaker 3: and you're you're super weak, and it's like you're you're
- 41:41Speaker 3: hyper aware that you're not like a lot of other people.
- 41:45Speaker 3: And so now like now when I look back on that,
- 41:48Speaker 3: like how far that I've come, Like, I'm like, that's
- 41:51Speaker 3: like a that is not even it doesn't even feel
- 41:53Speaker 3: like a workout the same way going for a six
- 41:57Speaker 3: or eight mile run does. And I'm like that, I
- 41:59Speaker 3: feel so lucky to get into a spot like that
- 42:02Speaker 3: in my life where just to get through that part
- 42:05Speaker 3: and now enjoy it so much because I'll tell you what, dude,
- 42:08Speaker 3: when I go hang stands or I'm working in the woods,
- 42:10Speaker 3: like I've been cutting down trees like crazy that time
- 42:12Speaker 3: in the gym, and you know, it directly translates to
- 42:15Speaker 3: like elk hunting really well, but white tails. You can
- 42:19Speaker 3: do a lot of physical labor out there, and just
- 42:22Speaker 3: the difference on uh, you know how I feel on
- 42:26Speaker 3: like a traveling hunt where I have to set up
- 42:28Speaker 3: a camp and carry stands in you know, we're often
- 42:29Speaker 3: setting up for camera guys and stuff. So it's like
- 42:32Speaker 3: that that is so beneficial to white tail hunting that
- 42:36Speaker 3: I didn't I didn't do it because of that, and
- 42:39Speaker 3: I didn't think it would matter at all. And I
- 42:42Speaker 3: tell you, like, I feel it all the time where
- 42:44Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm glad I go do that because it
- 42:46Speaker 3: makes this white tail work so much more tolerable.
- 42:50Speaker 2: Yeah, So what do you think is the I don't
- 42:54Speaker 2: know if I want to said prescription, But for lack
- 42:56Speaker 2: of a better term, what's the prescription here? Is the
- 42:58Speaker 2: thing like having a non hunting physical activity of some
- 43:02Speaker 2: kind that that pushes you, and that you can have
- 43:05Speaker 2: that you have to build some discipline around and that
- 43:08Speaker 2: in some way challenges you. Like is that if we
- 43:11Speaker 2: had to distill it down to a simplified thing, is
- 43:13Speaker 2: that the takeaway here? Like for us it's running and
- 43:16Speaker 2: you lifting, Is that kind of like the thing that
- 43:19Speaker 2: we've found has been like one of those outside spheres
- 43:23Speaker 2: of influence that's really helped us.
- 43:26Speaker 3: I mean when you when you just look at the
- 43:28Speaker 3: direction of a lot of white tail hunting, you know
- 43:30Speaker 3: there's side by sides and four wheelers and the easy paths,
- 43:34Speaker 3: and we were there is a there is a way
- 43:37Speaker 3: to make white tail hunting not very physically demanding, and
- 43:41Speaker 3: it just is and it's just a part of it.
- 43:43Speaker 3: And we we tend to kind of lean into that
- 43:45Speaker 3: and showcase that a lot. There's a lot of money
- 43:47Speaker 3: in that, you know, like advertising that. But for a
- 43:50Speaker 3: lot of people listening to this who are like I
- 43:52Speaker 3: would like to draw that iouad tag once or I'd
- 43:55Speaker 3: like to travel to Ohio or from Pennsylvania to wherever.
- 43:59Speaker 3: Just alone of even if you did twenty minutes a
- 44:02Speaker 3: day or thirty minutes a day of something is going
- 44:05Speaker 3: to make you more successful out there. And what it
- 44:08Speaker 3: does for you is it directly translates to being able
- 44:12Speaker 3: to do things better, like more efficiently, quieter, all that stuff.
- 44:17Speaker 3: But you're just more willing to do stuff, you know
- 44:20Speaker 3: what I mean, Like you're more willing to like you know,
- 44:22Speaker 3: I think about it this way. When you go on
- 44:24Speaker 3: a public land white tail hunt somewhere and you've never
- 44:26Speaker 3: been there, or you haven't been there in four years.
- 44:29Speaker 3: Usually you get there and you're like, I got a
- 44:31Speaker 3: way point here, I got a way point here, I
- 44:32Speaker 3: got a wait point here, and you're like, I'm going
- 44:33Speaker 3: to go in speed scout, speed scout, speed scout, figure
- 44:36Speaker 3: something out. And by the time you're like two or
- 44:39Speaker 3: three deep, like do I want to settle or do
- 44:42Speaker 3: I want to keep looking for that thing that's just
- 44:44Speaker 3: like this is it? And what I found for myself
- 44:48Speaker 3: is I just don't want to settle anymore. And it's
- 44:52Speaker 3: just easier. The better shape I'm in, the easier it
- 44:55Speaker 3: is for me to just walk into a spot that's
- 44:57Speaker 3: a mile off the road and go I don't like it.
- 45:00Speaker 3: You know, there's cattle in here or whatever, the ponds dry.
- 45:02Speaker 3: It's just it's not right. And just keep going till
- 45:04Speaker 3: you find it. That stuff's important.
- 45:06Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 45:18Speaker 2: Another facet of this pivoting a little bit, and this
- 45:22Speaker 2: is this is a little bit of like a yes
- 45:24Speaker 2: and a lot of these things we've talked about. I
- 45:27Speaker 2: used to not allow myself or or thought I should
- 45:32Speaker 2: not give myself the time to do some of these
- 45:34Speaker 2: things because it was taking away from the deer stuff
- 45:36Speaker 2: I should do. Right, Like, there's a certain set of
- 45:40Speaker 2: folks who would tell you, like, if you're not spending
- 45:42Speaker 2: all your time on deer, you're not dedicated enough, you're
- 45:45Speaker 2: not going to be as good as I am, quote
- 45:46Speaker 2: unquote right. And I found the opposite. I think one
- 45:50Speaker 2: of the things, in addition to having some kind of
- 45:52Speaker 2: physical habit that does the things we just talked about,
- 45:56Speaker 2: I think another suggestion I would offer people within this
- 45:59Speaker 2: world is to allow yourself the freedom to chase curiosities,
- 46:05Speaker 2: to run down rabbit holes, and if it's going to
- 46:08Speaker 2: take you away from deer hunting for a little while,
- 46:10Speaker 2: if it's a thing that happens in the fall and
- 46:11Speaker 2: maybe will take some of your time, I would argue,
- 46:14Speaker 2: do it. I think that chasing curiosities, chasing new ideas,
- 46:19Speaker 2: trying new things, even if in the short term it
- 46:22Speaker 2: might take away from your deer focus or your dear
- 46:26Speaker 2: time or something, I think in the long run that
- 46:29Speaker 2: can help both tangibly and I think intangibly with your
- 46:34Speaker 2: satisfaction too. You know, there's this idea. There's another book
- 46:39Speaker 2: I've been reading called Slow Productivity that Kell Newport, and
- 46:43Speaker 2: one of the big things he talks about is this
- 46:45Speaker 2: importance of seasonality in your life. And his argument has
- 46:51Speaker 2: basically been, you know, for thousands and thousands of years,
- 46:54Speaker 2: human beings evolved with a certain seasonality to how we live.
- 46:58Speaker 2: Right when, for you know, tens of thousands of years,
- 47:00Speaker 2: we were hunters and gatherers across the board, and there
- 47:03Speaker 2: was you know, there was an up and down. There's
- 47:06Speaker 2: an ebbing to the seasons in which there's times and
- 47:08Speaker 2: you were doing a lot, and there's times you weren't
- 47:09Speaker 2: doing so much, and there's times you did this kind
- 47:11Speaker 2: of thing, and then there are times that you did
- 47:13Speaker 2: this different kind of thing. And that was what we
- 47:15Speaker 2: evolved to do. And then even within the last ten
- 47:17Speaker 2: thousand years when the agricultural revolution happened, there was still
- 47:21Speaker 2: a certain seasonality for many, many, many many years as
- 47:24Speaker 2: we all lived with the ebbs and flows of that
- 47:27Speaker 2: agricultural up and down harvest, planting, et cetera. Winter. But
- 47:33Speaker 2: now last one hundred two hundred years since the industrial Revolution,
- 47:36Speaker 2: now it's like, you know, there's none of that for
- 47:39Speaker 2: most of us. It's cranking out every little unit of
- 47:43Speaker 2: productivity for as many hours as you can get away with.
- 47:46Speaker 2: And that doesn't just apply to work. That applies to
- 47:48Speaker 2: our hunting too. I think, I think a lot of
- 47:50Speaker 2: times we look at our deer hunting as if we
- 47:53Speaker 2: are a factory trying to pump out filled deer tags. Right, So,
- 47:59Speaker 2: let me read a quote from this book about this
- 48:01Speaker 2: idea of seasonality, and kind of it's talking about work,
- 48:07Speaker 2: but sub in deer hunting. So he says the problem
- 48:11Speaker 2: with the virtual factory, and he's talking about knowledge workers
- 48:13Speaker 2: like people walking working in offices twenty four to seven.
- 48:16Speaker 2: The problem with the virtual factory, however, goes beyond the
- 48:19Speaker 2: fact that it makes us unhappy. It's also ineffective the
- 48:22Speaker 2: process of producing value with human brain, the foundational activity
- 48:26Speaker 2: of many knowledge sector roles can't be forced into a regular,
- 48:30Speaker 2: unvarying schedule. Intense periods of cognition must be followed by
- 48:35Speaker 2: quieter periods of mental rejuvenation. Energized creative breakthroughs must be
- 48:40Speaker 2: supported by the slower incubation of new ideas. So what
- 48:44Speaker 2: he's getting at here is, if you want to be
- 48:45Speaker 2: able to have your best ideas, if you want to
- 48:48Speaker 2: be your most creative self, if you want to be
- 48:50Speaker 2: your best version of yourself as a deer hunter, someone
- 48:52Speaker 2: who's able to be effective, who's able to make those decisions,
- 48:55Speaker 2: who's able to problem solve. Having these periods of slow down,
- 48:59Speaker 2: having these periods where you try new things, having these
- 49:01Speaker 2: periods where you step away from the usual, all of
- 49:05Speaker 2: that creates an environment where you do have this space
- 49:08Speaker 2: to all of a sudden think of these new things,
- 49:11Speaker 2: or the space to come back to deer hunting and
- 49:14Speaker 2: be rejuvenated and ready to dig that next step or
- 49:17Speaker 2: to do that next hard thing, or to you know,
- 49:20Speaker 2: if you came off of learning how to do X,
- 49:23Speaker 2: Y and Z, all of a sudden, you come back
- 49:25Speaker 2: to deer hunting next week and you're like, Hey, there's
- 49:27Speaker 2: this thing I learned while I was learning to surf
- 49:30Speaker 2: that actually has a whole lot of applicability here in
- 49:33Speaker 2: the deer hunting world. So I think that that's another
- 49:35Speaker 2: concept I kind of want to throw out there for
- 49:39Speaker 2: us to think about, kind of related to that whole
- 49:42Speaker 2: idea of like chasing different ideas and carry out curiosities.
- 49:47Speaker 2: You know, my son is really getting into climbing, like
- 49:50Speaker 2: early stages, but he's like really geeking out on like
- 49:54Speaker 2: rock climbing. We were just in Joshua Tree National Park
- 49:57Speaker 2: and we kind of went there because he's like really
- 49:58Speaker 2: fixated on this kind of thing. He's constantly wanting to
- 50:00Speaker 2: pretend like he's climbing the walls and stuff. And so
- 50:03Speaker 2: we're there in the park and climbing boulders and do
- 50:06Speaker 2: all this kind of stuff, and I realized, like, Okay,
- 50:08Speaker 2: I'm going to have to learn to do all this
- 50:10Speaker 2: stuff because like I just need to make sure he's safe.
- 50:13Speaker 2: Like I need to make sure that I know enough
- 50:15Speaker 2: to hang with him enough to help him safely navigate
- 50:18Speaker 2: this until he's like old enough. So I'm going to
- 50:22Speaker 2: be picking up a new hobby and figuring out and
- 50:24Speaker 2: taking lessons and doing all that. And I used to
- 50:27Speaker 2: say I would use in the past, I say like,
- 50:28Speaker 2: oh man, you can't have more hobbies, you can't have
- 50:30Speaker 2: new things you're learning. But I think now like it's
- 50:34Speaker 2: going to be a net benefit. It's going to push
- 50:36Speaker 2: me in new ways. I'm going to learn new things.
- 50:38Speaker 2: It's going to challenge me mentally and physically in different ways.
- 50:41Speaker 2: And it might take me a couple of weekends away
- 50:44Speaker 2: from the woods or something. But my argument to you,
- 50:48Speaker 2: Tony is that I think that's actually going to circle
- 50:50Speaker 2: back and be good.
- 50:52Speaker 3: Just for a second here, So you're telling me and
- 50:55Speaker 3: all of the listeners that you're about to become a
- 50:58Speaker 3: rock climber.
- 50:59Speaker 2: I don't know if I would call myself a rock climber,
- 51:01Speaker 2: but I'm going to learn how to rock climb and
- 51:03Speaker 2: attempt it. Yeah, all right, buddy, what do you think
- 51:10Speaker 2: about that?
- 51:10Speaker 3: You see, Well, I'm I have a weird thing with heights.
- 51:15Speaker 3: I used to be super scared of heights and then
- 51:18Speaker 3: climbing into trees over and over and over again. I'm
- 51:21Speaker 3: not you know, treacy and heights don't bother me at all,
- 51:25Speaker 3: you know, like being up on the roof of a house,
- 51:26Speaker 3: you know, cleaning the gutters whatever, don't bother me at all.
- 51:29Speaker 3: But I have a window where I hit a certain height,
- 51:31Speaker 3: and I'm like, this is not for me. Everything in
- 51:34Speaker 3: my being is like you just you're not supposed to
- 51:36Speaker 3: be here. So it's it's curious for me to hear
- 51:39Speaker 3: somebody who's like, ah, my little boys wants a rock climb,
- 51:42Speaker 3: so I'm going to just do that. I'm like, man,
- 51:44Speaker 3: more power to you, buddy. I think I mean, it
- 51:47Speaker 3: looks amazing, Like I think it's I think that's an
- 51:49Speaker 3: amazing activity to get into if you're wired for it. Yeah,
- 51:53Speaker 3: I'm just it is not what that'd be like if
- 51:55Speaker 3: you were like, hey, I'm going to just go take
- 51:57Speaker 3: a bath with a bunch of spiders, I'd be like,
- 51:59Speaker 3: that's exactly the opposite of anything I want to do.
- 52:01Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all gonna have some limits. Yeah, I mean,
- 52:04Speaker 2: there's certainly gonna be a max. Like we're out there
- 52:07Speaker 2: in the parks where we were in Joshua Tree for
- 52:10Speaker 2: half a week and then Red Rock Canyon for half
- 52:12Speaker 2: a week there in Nevada, and there's people climbing all
- 52:15Speaker 2: over the place, and like, I'm watching there's like some
- 52:17Speaker 2: people on some of these walls. They're like hundreds of
- 52:19Speaker 2: feet tall, like they're way up there, and a couple
- 52:22Speaker 2: of times I'm like, Okay, that's more than I could
- 52:25Speaker 2: ever see myself doing. But like there's people doing something,
- 52:27Speaker 2: you know, don't know, climbing up there, fifty sixty seventy
- 52:32Speaker 2: yards up, you know, one hundred feet up, one hundred
- 52:35Speaker 2: and twenty feet up, Like I think I could do that,
- 52:39Speaker 2: and I can. Like it's something I've seen from Afar
- 52:41Speaker 2: from a long time, like just being active in like
- 52:43Speaker 2: the outdoor recreation world, and like I've always admired that
- 52:45Speaker 2: and thought like that looks really cool. But I'm you know,
- 52:48Speaker 2: a little bit nervous about it and just knew like
- 52:50Speaker 2: it's a little bit intimidating, not just like the height stuff,
- 52:53Speaker 2: but I mean, like there's all this gear you gotta get,
- 52:55Speaker 2: got to learn how to do all this stuff, gotta
- 52:57Speaker 2: learn the techniques and then physical different kind of physical
- 53:01Speaker 2: challenge than anything I've done. But I guess having my son,
- 53:06Speaker 2: who's like really getting into it now has been like
- 53:09Speaker 2: just that little extra nudge. And now I think I'm
- 53:12Speaker 2: just at a place where I'm I guess I'm just
- 53:16Speaker 2: recognizing how much value taking on these new things is
- 53:19Speaker 2: giving me. Like I can now look back and see,
- 53:21Speaker 2: like what the running thing and now the trail running
- 53:23Speaker 2: things done in my world is like added so much,
- 53:26Speaker 2: and like before that was like the fly fishing thing
- 53:28Speaker 2: coming into my world. And I think all these things
- 53:30Speaker 2: like I know it's all going to circle back and
- 53:33Speaker 2: help with my number one. And so that's why I
- 53:35Speaker 2: guess I'm more willing to push outside of the norm
- 53:38Speaker 2: because I see like it's it's it's it's filling the
- 53:43Speaker 2: cup that then gives me more fuel for the rest
- 53:46Speaker 2: of it, If that makes sense.
- 53:47Speaker 3: Dude, I wholeheartedly endorse you doing as much dangerous stuff
- 53:50Speaker 3: as possible. All I see is just my chance to
- 53:53Speaker 3: move up the totem pole at me just a little
- 53:55Speaker 3: bit more.
- 53:58Speaker 2: I wrote you into my will Tony. Don't worry, the
- 54:01Speaker 2: keys are all yours.
- 54:03Speaker 3: But no, I love it, buddy, It's just not for me.
- 54:07Speaker 3: There's some dangerous things that I would love to do.
- 54:10Speaker 3: That's not one of them.
- 54:11Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't have to be like the curiosity or
- 54:13Speaker 2: the new thing doesn't have to be something dangerous, right,
- 54:16Speaker 2: you did A foundation's podcast recently about Goblin Mode, about
- 54:23Speaker 2: your Goblin shelfs. I know you thought nobody would see this, Tony,
- 54:26Speaker 2: but I did. Can you elaborate on what this is
- 54:32Speaker 2: and it's relevance to our conversation?
- 54:35Speaker 3: So where this came from is and I feel so
- 54:40Speaker 3: stupid for kind of not recognizing this and myself or
- 54:44Speaker 3: specifically one of my daughters. Both of them do this,
- 54:46Speaker 3: but one of them is really into this. So when
- 54:48Speaker 3: I was last fall, when I was hunt with Steve
- 54:51Speaker 3: down in Oklahoma where we were hunting every you know,
- 54:54Speaker 3: like every once in a while you'd find like a
- 54:56Speaker 3: turtle shell in the woods, you know, obviously from a
- 54:58Speaker 3: time when it flooded and this pain turtle died or whatever.
- 55:01Speaker 3: And he was picking them up for his kids, and
- 55:05Speaker 3: I was picking them up for my kids, not even
- 55:07Speaker 3: you know, you just see it. You're like, that's cool,
- 55:08Speaker 3: put it in your pack, bring it home. Yeah. And
- 55:10Speaker 3: then I, you know, I found a shed antler when
- 55:12Speaker 3: we were blood trailing his buck. And what I realized
- 55:15Speaker 3: is I gave them to my daughter and she's like, oh,
- 55:17Speaker 3: these are so cool. And then we did this Meet
- 55:20Speaker 3: Eater Live event, you know, in December and Kevin Murphy
- 55:24Speaker 3: brought us swamp rabbit skulls, you know, and I'm like,
- 55:27Speaker 3: I don't as one does, right Anyway, I throw that
- 55:32Speaker 3: in my pack and I bring it home and I'm like,
- 55:34Speaker 3: my daughter thought it was so cool. So then we
- 55:36Speaker 3: were looking up swamp rabbits and just you know whatever,
- 55:39Speaker 3: we went down the like rabbit hole. So it got
- 55:42Speaker 3: me thinking when I went into her room for something,
- 55:45Speaker 3: and I was like, man, she has a lot of
- 55:48Speaker 3: like just stuff from us being out in the outdoors
- 55:51Speaker 3: that I didn't know she picked up or agots or
- 55:54Speaker 3: fossils or you name it. And I read about it
- 55:59Speaker 3: just random on something and it was like, oh, that's
- 56:01Speaker 3: a goblin shelf. And I was like that is like
- 56:04Speaker 3: it's such a cool concept because we don't think about it.
- 56:06Speaker 3: I mean, I'm looking in your like you've got a
- 56:08Speaker 3: bunch of shed antlers, and you're like we all kind
- 56:11Speaker 3: of have this. Most of us have this version of
- 56:13Speaker 3: ourselves where we like just find cool stuff and keep it.
- 56:17Speaker 3: And when you think about that, that not only is
- 56:21Speaker 3: that sort of the spice of hunting that you don't
- 56:23Speaker 3: think about that makes it really cool, right, or fishing
- 56:26Speaker 3: or whatever, like just being outdoors is like just the unknown,
- 56:30Speaker 3: Like you might find something that just whatever works for you.
- 56:32Speaker 3: You know, you're on the beach and you find a
- 56:33Speaker 3: shark's tooth or whatever. But then I started thinking about
- 56:37Speaker 3: the times we're out there and how how easy it
- 56:39Speaker 3: is when I'm with my daughters for us to get
- 56:42Speaker 3: distracted from the mission and you know, walk up that
- 56:45Speaker 3: ravine on the hillside and look for fossils, and then
- 56:48Speaker 3: when you're doing that, you're like, oh, here's a deer
- 56:49Speaker 3: crossing I never knew was here. And so it kind
- 56:52Speaker 3: of just got me thinking, I'm like, man, if you
- 56:54Speaker 3: if you kind of open yourself up to the curiosity
- 56:58Speaker 3: of just not being like I have to go skull
- 57:00Speaker 3: so this, this, this and this, and that's my day
- 57:02Speaker 3: done or my weekend done. But if you're like, I'm
- 57:03Speaker 3: gonna just go explore, Like I'm just gonna go, like
- 57:06Speaker 3: maybe maybe twenty percent of my mission is just to
- 57:09Speaker 3: see this area I might deer hunt, but being real
- 57:12Speaker 3: open to just whatever kind of trips my trigger and
- 57:16Speaker 3: keeps me out there. And I think that that is
- 57:18Speaker 3: like an intangible to a lot of really good hunters.
- 57:25Speaker 3: Is they just they're just looking at the world out
- 57:28Speaker 3: there a little bit different than like, you know it
- 57:31Speaker 3: take take like an over the counter elk hunt. A
- 57:33Speaker 3: lot of people go out there and they're like, I'm
- 57:35Speaker 3: gonna blow this bugle on every ridge I can until
- 57:39Speaker 3: one sounds off. And you might do that the entire
- 57:42Speaker 3: ten days you're there and not get a single response.
- 57:45Speaker 3: And so you're like, that's a failure because I went
- 57:48Speaker 3: out with this plan and it didn't work. But if
- 57:50Speaker 3: you go out there and you're like, I never get
- 57:52Speaker 3: to be in the mountains, you know, like I you know,
- 57:54Speaker 3: you know how it is. I'm like, I spend maybe
- 57:57Speaker 3: ten days a year in the mountains, and I find
- 57:59Speaker 3: so much cool stuff, just like plants and you know,
- 58:02Speaker 3: bear claw markings on the trees and whatever. And when
- 58:05Speaker 3: you kind of go into it that way, and you're
- 58:07Speaker 3: like you become a part of that environment in a
- 58:10Speaker 3: way that's just like a little bit different than just
- 58:12Speaker 3: like I gotta get in here killing el can get
- 58:14Speaker 3: out and it leads to good stuff, like just looking
- 58:18Speaker 3: for rocks leads to good stuff. And so I think
- 58:21Speaker 3: going goblin mode is it's a good idea. That's why
- 58:25Speaker 3: I wrote about it.
- 58:26Speaker 2: Love I love it and I love that it's it's
- 58:30Speaker 2: it's uh super nerdy first off, and the fact that
- 58:34Speaker 2: you call it Goblin mode and that you talked about
- 58:36Speaker 2: it in that podcast. You even reference something about Lord
- 58:39Speaker 2: of the Rings and Gollum in there, which I loved,
- 58:43Speaker 2: and it really added to your sci fi fantasy persona
- 58:46Speaker 2: that you're developing here within the Mediator universe. You're becoming
- 58:50Speaker 2: like the Gandolf of the Mediator Crew, which is kind
- 58:52Speaker 2: of interesting.
- 58:53Speaker 3: Dude, I'll take it. Hey, I learned a term for
- 58:57Speaker 3: flat earthers the other day. You know what it is?
- 59:00Speaker 3: A furf?
- 59:03Speaker 2: That's great? Like that, Yeah, another part of you that
- 59:09Speaker 2: people don't know as much about that I'm kind of
- 59:11Speaker 2: interested in unpacking here. In addition to Spaceman Gandolf sci
- 59:16Speaker 2: fi fantasy, Tony is guitar Tony, music man, Tony. What's that?
- 59:26Speaker 2: What's that about for you? What role does that play?
- 59:28Speaker 2: How is that in any kind of way relevant to
- 59:31Speaker 2: you as a hunter.
- 59:32Speaker 3: It's challenging, man, I am. I am not a natural
- 59:36Speaker 3: musician at all. I can't play by ear. I mean
- 59:40Speaker 3: I could a little bit now, but like a real
- 59:43Speaker 3: bass level like I music for me. I love music
- 59:49Speaker 3: so much but playing music. Writing music is like a
- 59:54Speaker 3: it is so hard for me. It does not come natural.
- 59:59Speaker 3: And so so, just as an example, my one daughter
- 1:00:02Speaker 3: who really goes hard on the goblin shelf thing. She's
- 1:00:05Speaker 3: I'm teaching her guitar right now, and she picks it
- 1:00:08Speaker 3: up so much faster than I did, and I just
- 1:00:12Speaker 3: look at it and like it's it's not effortless. She's trying,
- 1:00:15Speaker 3: but it's just she's just more naturally inclined to it.
- 1:00:19Speaker 3: And so for me, just loving music and loving the
- 1:00:22Speaker 3: idea of playing guitar, it's it's one of those things
- 1:00:26Speaker 3: that I can do any I do it almost every
- 1:00:29Speaker 3: day in my life to some extent, playing acoustic or whatever.
- 1:00:32Speaker 3: But it is just kicks my ass consistently, Like it
- 1:00:37Speaker 3: is just hard for me. And I love that because
- 1:00:40Speaker 3: I know, you know, it's just like if you look
- 1:00:43Speaker 3: at going out on public land and killing a big buck,
- 1:00:46Speaker 3: you know how hard that is. Like I don't care
- 1:00:48Speaker 3: what state you're in, you know, it's it's just generally
- 1:00:52Speaker 3: not that easy. But there are people who can do
- 1:00:55Speaker 3: it consistently, and they can they can take different paths
- 1:00:59Speaker 3: to get there. And I always look at that and
- 1:01:01Speaker 3: I go if if why not me? Right, Like, why
- 1:01:05Speaker 3: not me? Like when I see an eight year old
- 1:01:07Speaker 3: on YouTube who can play guitar better than me, I'm like,
- 1:01:09Speaker 3: why not me? And it just it forces me to
- 1:01:12Speaker 3: just keep keep working at it. And I think again,
- 1:01:15Speaker 3: I think that you know, and you alluded to this earlier.
- 1:01:18Speaker 3: We have pretty easy lives a lot of us, Like
- 1:01:21Speaker 3: if we if we have the free time to hunt
- 1:01:23Speaker 3: white tails a lot, and you can listen to a
- 1:01:24Speaker 3: podcast a lot, like your life is probably better than
- 1:01:27Speaker 3: a lot of people in the world, you know, but
- 1:01:30Speaker 3: without some level of challenge, like without without us being
- 1:01:35Speaker 3: like I'm going to put myself in an uncomfortable situation
- 1:01:39Speaker 3: and just like try to advance myself somehow, you just atrophy.
- 1:01:43Speaker 3: I just believe that. And so, like guitar has been
- 1:01:46Speaker 3: one of the most frustrating things for me ever. I
- 1:01:48Speaker 3: mean it literally is like when I first started bow hunting,
- 1:01:51Speaker 3: and I was like, I don't know if I'm ever
- 1:01:53Speaker 3: going to kill one. And then you know, when I
- 1:01:55Speaker 3: finally started doing that, it was like, You're never going
- 1:01:58Speaker 3: to kill a big one, you know, Like it it
- 1:02:00Speaker 3: was like an almost almost unattainable thing. And so for
- 1:02:04Speaker 3: a guitar. For me, I'm like, if I hear a
- 1:02:06Speaker 3: you know, a song by tool or something like that
- 1:02:08Speaker 3: sounds so amazing, I'll never be able to play it.
- 1:02:10Speaker 3: But sometimes if you sit down and you work at it,
- 1:02:14Speaker 3: like over time, and you build like the parts of
- 1:02:16Speaker 3: it real slow, it becomes something that you can actually do.
- 1:02:20Speaker 3: And I love that about music.
- 1:02:22Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I can see. I can see that being
- 1:02:27Speaker 2: both a way to challenge yourself and also a way
- 1:02:30Speaker 2: to lose yourself in something which I think has a
- 1:02:33Speaker 2: lot of value, Like activities in which you are forced
- 1:02:36Speaker 2: not to think about anything else. Is that the case
- 1:02:38Speaker 2: with guitar for you?
- 1:02:39Speaker 3: One hundred percent? I mean, if if you set out
- 1:02:42Speaker 3: to learn something new, it is a very specific kind
- 1:02:45Speaker 3: of task, right if you like if I if I
- 1:02:48Speaker 3: have a big writing day where I have some deadlines
- 1:02:51Speaker 3: or something, and I will hit a wall with writing.
- 1:02:53Speaker 3: I've learned this about myself where I have X amount
- 1:02:57Speaker 3: of words that I can get out and then I
- 1:02:59Speaker 3: got to do something else, And a lot of times
- 1:03:02Speaker 3: I'll go, you know, turn on my electric or I'll
- 1:03:06Speaker 3: go upstairs and play one of my acoustics for just
- 1:03:08Speaker 3: like twenty minutes and I won't I won't think about
- 1:03:11Speaker 3: I'm not learning anything new, I'm playing something I know
- 1:03:13Speaker 3: or just messing around, and it is a mindless It's
- 1:03:15Speaker 3: sort of like at certain points during a run where
- 1:03:18Speaker 3: you don't think about the run at all. You're just
- 1:03:20Speaker 3: kind of in your head like your flow state. Yeah,
- 1:03:22Speaker 3: you're you're out somewhere else. And for me, I can
- 1:03:25Speaker 3: come back to the computer and write again, and it's
- 1:03:28Speaker 3: just like it's just like a reset moment, and it
- 1:03:32Speaker 3: is very important for me because there are times where
- 1:03:35Speaker 3: I'll try to push it and it just does not work.
- 1:03:38Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely have the same kind of thing.
- 1:03:41Speaker 3: For me.
- 1:03:41Speaker 2: It's like when I find myself in that kind of
- 1:03:44Speaker 2: spot where I'm blocked or just kind of hitting a wall,
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: it's always like you got to shake it up physically,
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: change your body, it changes your mind, and so it
- 1:03:52Speaker 2: might be go for the run or just go out.
- 1:03:53Speaker 2: Like yesterday, I just same thing I was writing and
- 1:03:57Speaker 2: just needed to like get outside and shake myself out,
- 1:04:00Speaker 2: and so I just went out in the backyard and
- 1:04:02Speaker 2: shot hoops for fifteen minutes, just like a kid. There's
- 1:04:06Speaker 2: like a little kid like shooting hoops and like running
- 1:04:08Speaker 2: around like by myself. I thought to myself, like anyone
- 1:04:10Speaker 2: who's watching this grown adult at like one in the afternoon,
- 1:04:13Speaker 2: and my hoop is lower because my kids are like
- 1:04:15Speaker 2: my son's like trying to get better basketball, So it's
- 1:04:17Speaker 2: like a lower hoop. There's a grown man at one
- 1:04:19Speaker 2: o'clock in the afternoon run around the court shooting like
- 1:04:23Speaker 2: it might be a little weird, but it was just
- 1:04:25Speaker 2: what I needed to kind of reset the gears, and
- 1:04:29Speaker 2: I was able to sit back down the desk and
- 1:04:31Speaker 2: do the thing.
- 1:04:32Speaker 3: I love that I love thinking about you doing.
- 1:04:35Speaker 2: That back to learning something new, though I wish that
- 1:04:41Speaker 2: I could remember the exact details, but I know. I
- 1:04:44Speaker 2: read about some studies that it pointed to the value
- 1:04:48Speaker 2: of being a beginner at something again and how a
- 1:04:51Speaker 2: lot of folks don't do that, Like they they's become
- 1:04:53Speaker 2: adults and they learn their thing and they learn their job,
- 1:04:57Speaker 2: and they just do the same thing forever. And they
- 1:05:01Speaker 2: talked about how that really causes you to stagnate in
- 1:05:04Speaker 2: so many ways. But if you can foster a beginner's
- 1:05:08Speaker 2: mindset again, and if you can flex and exercise those
- 1:05:11Speaker 2: like beginner learning muscles, it helps with everything else. So
- 1:05:16Speaker 2: without remembering the specifics the basic gist of these studies,
- 1:05:19Speaker 2: and the argument is like, by consistently tackling new things,
- 1:05:23Speaker 2: like this year, I'm going to learn to climb, Next year,
- 1:05:25Speaker 2: I'm going to learn the piano. Three years from now,
- 1:05:27Speaker 2: I'm going to try to learn how to scuba dive.
- 1:05:29Speaker 2: Like by doing that kind of stuff, it like helps
- 1:05:33Speaker 2: your synapses fire and connect differently. It makes future learning,
- 1:05:37Speaker 2: It makes whatever other tasks you're trying to do cognitively,
- 1:05:41Speaker 2: it makes it easier to do those things because there's
- 1:05:43Speaker 2: something special going on in your mind when you're learning
- 1:05:46Speaker 2: something new, and if you're working those muscles, and the
- 1:05:49Speaker 2: only way you can work those muscles is by doing
- 1:05:50Speaker 2: the new thing, that then translates to everything else. I
- 1:05:54Speaker 2: think I should have found these studies to be'll speak
- 1:05:56Speaker 2: to because that perfectly proves the kind of idea we're
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: discussing here, which is like man adding in these new things,
- 1:06:03Speaker 2: learning a new hobby, whatever, it's going to come back
- 1:06:07Speaker 2: and make you mentally or physically more prepared to do.
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: In this case, the number one deer hunting focus for
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: a lot of us.
- 1:06:16Speaker 3: Well, I mean, dude, on that point, really, how many
- 1:06:19Speaker 3: people have you talked to when you're like, oh, I'm
- 1:06:22Speaker 3: going to X state or Y state to hunt and
- 1:06:24Speaker 3: people are like, why you have white tails right here? Yeah,
- 1:06:27Speaker 3: I mean that happens all the time, or you know.
- 1:06:29Speaker 3: I mean that's a message we've been preaching a long time.
- 1:06:32Speaker 3: When you when you go somewhere new, when you leave
- 1:06:34Speaker 3: the home farm, that's when you grow. Like that's that
- 1:06:38Speaker 3: and it does something for you that you're just not
- 1:06:40Speaker 3: going to get from that place. You've hunted a lot,
- 1:06:43Speaker 3: and we so often look at it as only a
- 1:06:46Speaker 3: means to go kill something bigger and not be in
- 1:06:49Speaker 3: a different environment and not get better at this, And
- 1:06:51Speaker 3: I think that's a huge mistake, Like I think, and
- 1:06:54Speaker 3: I don't know how again, Like I don't know how
- 1:06:57Speaker 3: you get people to understand that without just like go
- 1:06:59Speaker 3: do it, Like just go see what that's like and
- 1:07:02Speaker 3: you'll realize. But you can't. You can explain that to somebody,
- 1:07:05Speaker 3: but they're not going to understand it, Like why if
- 1:07:07Speaker 3: I can kill one hundred and sixties at home, Like,
- 1:07:09Speaker 3: why would I go somewhere and hunt one hundred inched
- 1:07:11Speaker 3: to year? Like doesn't make any sense? And it's like
- 1:07:13Speaker 3: because that's not what it's about.
- 1:07:15Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's all about But number one, that's not
- 1:07:19Speaker 2: what it's about. But number two, my argument to that person,
- 1:07:22Speaker 2: if they want to stay with that mindset, is that
- 1:07:24Speaker 2: it will still help you kill your one sixties more
- 1:07:26Speaker 2: effectively in the future.
- 1:07:27Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:07:28Speaker 2: Well, back to that idea, like lateral thinking, like the
- 1:07:31Speaker 2: only way you can get new wells of knowledge to
- 1:07:35Speaker 2: pull from to help you in your original thing. The
- 1:07:38Speaker 2: only way to do that is to put yourself into
- 1:07:39Speaker 2: new situations, new environments, so you can pull these disparate
- 1:07:43Speaker 2: ideas together. The stuff you learn the big Woods maybe
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: will help you in Iowa. The stuff that you learn
- 1:07:49Speaker 2: in the swamps of Florida very well, my hub help
- 1:07:52Speaker 2: you in northern Michigan. I mean we both experienced that.
- 1:07:57Speaker 2: I've I've experienced that, like that year I did the
- 1:08:00Speaker 2: deer country thing, like really pushing what I tried, Like man,
- 1:08:03Speaker 2: so many of those things have translated back to my
- 1:08:06Speaker 2: usual in ways I never would have expected. There's there's
- 1:08:10Speaker 2: a whole lot that can be learned by putting yourself
- 1:08:12Speaker 2: into these new worlds.
- 1:08:13Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, and that's totally true. And it's also it
- 1:08:18Speaker 3: sort of highlights some of our blind spots too, Like
- 1:08:22Speaker 3: what we think we know, like, I know that you're
- 1:08:24Speaker 3: heading down to fish down in the ocean here next month.
- 1:08:28Speaker 3: I am too. And the first time that I ever
- 1:08:31Speaker 3: fish was in the ocean was down in the Keys
- 1:08:34Speaker 3: and my wife and I went on a little vacation
- 1:08:37Speaker 3: and I wasn't going to fish. And when we got there,
- 1:08:40Speaker 3: there was a fishing pier. We walked out on it.
- 1:08:42Speaker 3: There was fish everywhere, and she's like, just go to
- 1:08:45Speaker 3: the tackle shop. Just do what you gotta do, because
- 1:08:47Speaker 3: I know what's coming.
- 1:08:48Speaker 2: She could see.
- 1:08:49Speaker 3: Dude. I drove down to that tackle shop and just
- 1:08:51Speaker 3: bought like a cheap combo whatever. And I and the
- 1:08:54Speaker 3: guy working there, he said, well, where are you staying?
- 1:08:56Speaker 3: And I told him and he was like, buy these
- 1:08:59Speaker 3: jigs by some shrimp. Drop them to the bottom. You'll
- 1:09:02Speaker 3: catch fish all day long. I'm like, dude, I know
- 1:09:04Speaker 3: how to fish. Don't worry. But I bought the stuff anyway,
- 1:09:07Speaker 3: just whatever. So I go out there and I walk
- 1:09:10Speaker 3: out on that pier and I'm like, I know how
- 1:09:11Speaker 3: to catch fish, and so I do what I do
- 1:09:14Speaker 3: and I cast and I caught a barracuda on the
- 1:09:16Speaker 3: first cast, and I was like, see, like I know
- 1:09:19Speaker 3: what I don't and then dude, I could not catch
- 1:09:21Speaker 3: a fish. Just it was like that one barracuda who
- 1:09:24Speaker 3: was waiting there to make me look like I knew
- 1:09:26Speaker 3: what I was doing. And then finally I'm like, I
- 1:09:29Speaker 3: don't know. So I did exactly what he said and
- 1:09:31Speaker 3: it was non stop fish after that, and I was like, Oh,
- 1:09:37Speaker 3: there's plenty to learn in this stuff that, you know,
- 1:09:39Speaker 3: like we think we think we know, Like you know
- 1:09:42Speaker 3: how it is. You talk to people who have a
- 1:09:44Speaker 3: good place to hunt and they kill big deer and
- 1:09:46Speaker 3: they're like experts, I can do it anywhere, and I'm like,
- 1:09:49Speaker 3: I bet you can't. You know. I sat in a
- 1:09:53Speaker 3: tree stand one time filming a show when I was
- 1:09:54Speaker 3: at bow Hunter and the camera guy we were talking
- 1:09:58Speaker 3: about public land whitetail hunting. I was it was, you know,
- 1:10:02Speaker 3: this was like ten years ago and I was on
- 1:10:04Speaker 3: like a good run and a bunch of states, and
- 1:10:07Speaker 3: he was like, yeah, I could do that if I
- 1:10:09Speaker 3: had the time, and I was like, and I didn't
- 1:10:11Speaker 3: know that much about him. So as we kind of
- 1:10:13Speaker 3: got to know each other, at one point he called
- 1:10:16Speaker 3: his dad, who had they hunt in southwestern Wisconsin, and
- 1:10:20Speaker 3: at that point you could bait. And he was telling
- 1:10:23Speaker 3: his dad to go put out corn by his stands,
- 1:10:25Speaker 3: and I was like, well, do you, like, do you
- 1:10:27Speaker 3: hunt anywhere else? He's like, well, no, we just hunt
- 1:10:29Speaker 3: down there on the farm. And I was like, I
- 1:10:31Speaker 3: don't think you know what you're talking about that, buddy, Like,
- 1:10:34Speaker 3: but it's you know, in your head, you're like, well,
- 1:10:35Speaker 3: I killed deer here, so I'm I'm a good deer hunter.
- 1:10:40Speaker 3: And man, you know what it's like when you get
- 1:10:41Speaker 3: out of your comfort zone, it's real easy to suck
- 1:10:45Speaker 3: so much like, it's real easy to be so bad
- 1:10:48Speaker 3: at it. But that's part of the.
- 1:10:50Speaker 2: Process Exhibit A and B right here. Mostly you know
- 1:10:57Speaker 2: in the screen, in the screen, you're A just so
- 1:10:59Speaker 2: you know so.
- 1:11:00Speaker 3: In my head that you're AI B until you fall
- 1:11:03Speaker 3: off a cliff then I become here.
- 1:11:04Speaker 2: Yeah. So with that in mind, let's uh, well, I
- 1:11:10Speaker 2: guess do you have anything else major within this world
- 1:11:13Speaker 2: of topics that you want to cover that we have
- 1:11:14Speaker 2: and yet or should we like wrap a.
- 1:11:16Speaker 3: Ball in this? We can wrap her up, buddy.
- 1:11:19Speaker 2: All right? So I feel like I'm going to try
- 1:11:20Speaker 2: to list like the big takeaways I'm remembering here like
- 1:11:25Speaker 2: I think number one, it's the big theme here is
- 1:11:30Speaker 2: give yourself permission to do new things, to try new things,
- 1:11:34Speaker 2: to let yourself out of the white tail only box
- 1:11:37Speaker 2: or the white tail the way you always have box.
- 1:11:39Speaker 2: I think be tackling new challenges physically and mentally. Both
- 1:11:44Speaker 2: can push you in new ways, can help you build
- 1:11:46Speaker 2: discipline or strengthen physical or mental muscles that are going
- 1:11:51Speaker 2: to help you as a deer hunter. I think number
- 1:11:53Speaker 2: three it's always keeping white tail mode kind of active
- 1:11:56Speaker 2: in the back of your mind though, when you're doing
- 1:11:58Speaker 2: these things as much as possible, so that you're open
- 1:12:00Speaker 2: to these new ideas, so that you have the opportunity
- 1:12:03Speaker 2: to have these like lateral thinking moments like I talked about,
- 1:12:06Speaker 2: where you can connect the dots between what you're doing
- 1:12:09Speaker 2: is on your small moll fishing trip, or what you're
- 1:12:12Speaker 2: doing when you're playing chess with your buddy, or what
- 1:12:14Speaker 2: you're doing when you're playing the guitar, and all of
- 1:12:17Speaker 2: a sudden you have this aha, like, oh man, this
- 1:12:20Speaker 2: is the kind of thing that's actually gonna help me
- 1:12:21Speaker 2: as a deer hunter. This is this is the way
- 1:12:23Speaker 2: to solve that problem more. Man, that's a different way
- 1:12:26Speaker 2: to approach the my access problem or whatever it might be, Like,
- 1:12:31Speaker 2: You've got to put yourself into new environments, both literally
- 1:12:35Speaker 2: and figuratively to grow to get better. We need change,
- 1:12:40Speaker 2: we need diversity, we need seasonality in our year, even
- 1:12:45Speaker 2: to allow yourself like the mental space to come back
- 1:12:48Speaker 2: to deer hunting, cot contrott and ready to go. I
- 1:12:53Speaker 2: think those are like my big takeaways from this, and
- 1:12:55Speaker 2: hopefully like my thought with all this was that through
- 1:12:58Speaker 2: some of these examples of our own lives, it would
- 1:13:01Speaker 2: either inspire folks to try some new things or help
- 1:13:03Speaker 2: them realize, like, oh, this other stuff I've got it
- 1:13:07Speaker 2: is pretty valuable. I should do more of that. Or
- 1:13:09Speaker 2: I can challenge myself in new ways, or I can
- 1:13:12Speaker 2: convince my wife or husband that this is an okay
- 1:13:14Speaker 2: to keep doing because it's helping in this kind of way.
- 1:13:18Speaker 2: That's what I think we're trying to get here. Did
- 1:13:20Speaker 2: I miss anything? What else did you add?
- 1:13:23Speaker 3: The only thing I would say is any anything like
- 1:13:25Speaker 3: this just understanding how important baby I know it's cliched,
- 1:13:29Speaker 3: but baby steps matter. Like you, you're just not going
- 1:13:32Speaker 3: to jump the line man like on anything that's worthwhile
- 1:13:35Speaker 3: to do. It just takes. It takes a lot of repetition,
- 1:13:40Speaker 3: Like you have to understand that, like whether it's you know,
- 1:13:43Speaker 3: stacking up white tail seasons until you finally start getting
- 1:13:46Speaker 3: things right, which is a multi year deal running whatever,
- 1:13:50Speaker 3: just just the act of doing it, like committing to
- 1:13:53Speaker 3: it daily, weekly, whatever. It doesn't have to be you know,
- 1:13:57Speaker 3: forty hours a week, like twenty minutes a day matters
- 1:14:00Speaker 3: a lot to a lot of stuff.
- 1:14:03Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, very true. All right, buddy, Well, thanks for
- 1:14:08Speaker 2: joining me for this winding surprising. I don't know what
- 1:14:12Speaker 2: else you would say to describe this conversation, but we
- 1:14:16Speaker 2: we established that you like you have to pleate guitar.
- 1:14:18Speaker 2: You're into the Lord of the rings. You were throwing
- 1:14:25Speaker 2: out Lord of the rings references. You had this whole thing.
- 1:14:28Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure you're pegged now. Anyways, we're gonna wrap
- 1:14:31Speaker 2: it up before you can dispute that any further. Thank
- 1:14:34Speaker 2: you for joining us.
- 1:14:35Speaker 4: Everyone.
- 1:14:36Speaker 2: We appreciate you tuning in. Take this permission slip to
- 1:14:39Speaker 2: go try new things, to explore new areas, to bring
- 1:14:43Speaker 2: in new ideas back to your white tail world. Take
- 1:14:45Speaker 2: advantage of that, get out there, get outside, challenge yourself
- 1:14:49Speaker 2: and until next time, stay wired Ton