Latest / Mission: 300 Podcast / Episode 98 - Mastering Your Goals: Embrace the 'How-To' Series for 2025

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Episode 98 - Mastering Your Goals: Embrace the 'How-To' Series for 2025 · Mission: 300 Podcast

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All right, everyone, welcome to the Mission 300 podcast 2025.
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This is the first episode that we are recording in this brand new year.
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My name is Jason here with Caleb, Brian, and David.
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And we are kicking off a brand new series that we are calling the how-to series.
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And it is a bit fitting. I'm sure everyone's already figured out their New Year's
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resolutions. And we wanted to get you a bit of a head start on not being a failure at them this year.
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And so we're starting what we are calling the how-to series.
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And the whole point of this is to
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give you guys some tools and to learn ourselves and figure some of our lives
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out ourselves on how to set your trajectory so that you'll actually move towards
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your goal instead of this burst of short-term motivation where you get really
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active and you do stuff for a short-term time and then you return to your default setting.
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And so there's a couple of things we want to go into on that,
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but I kind of wanted to give this example and maybe you guys can chime in on your thoughts on this.
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I know Caleb, you had something within the last year that really made this stand out to you.
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The biggest cliche possibly for New Year's resolutions, I'm going to go to the
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gym. I'm going to be more healthy.
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And we were talking about this before we were recording this episode on the
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right motivation. Are you trying to stop doing something or are you trying to
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start doing something because it's actually what you are. It's actually what you want to pursue.
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And a lot of people will say, I'm starting this resolution. I'm going to go
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to the gym. I want to be healthy.
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I want to eat better. But that's not really what they want to do.
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What they really want is just to not be fat and not be unhealthy.
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And so it's not that they're pursuing health. It's not that they're pursuing fitness.
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They just don't want to be something.
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And it doesn't take long for that motivation of, well, I don't want to be this
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anymore to run out because at some point you return to that default setting
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of I'm okay with what I am.
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And therein lies the problem because if what you are doesn't change,
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then your actions aren't going to have any long-term difference.
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So Caleb, you had something you wanted to jump in on that, which I thought was really helpful.
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Yeah, definitely. This is Caleb, by the way. I hope you guys are looking forward to 2025.
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I know I am with some different perspectives and everything,
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but I definitely resonate with the whole new year's resolution.
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I think there's a lot of people out there stronger than me. Like I think every
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year I'd be like, Oh, this year I'm going to hit the gym and I'd last about one, two days max.
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And then I'd be done with it. and I think like
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you said Jason it wasn't that I
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was motivated to get somewhere and have an objective
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I just didn't want to be where I was anymore which just turns into like a whole
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mess of back and forth and I never understood the whole fitness thing before
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last year when I completed the Appalachian Trail which required the most amount
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of physical effort I've ever put to anything in my life.
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And it kind of changed my perspective because on the trailer,
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it wasn't about the physical aspect, but it was about, I want to complete this goal that I have.
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And so the physical aspect was just one of the quote unquote mountains that
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I had to get over and go through to actually get to where I was going.
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And I think that's completely changed my perspective on fitness,
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eating healthy, even things like, like reading books or staying educated.
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Like, it's like, Oh, I don't want to be unknowledgeable.
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Like in conversations, I don't want to be uncomfortable where I don't have as
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much knowledge about this, or I don't want to be uncomfortable when I'm around people.
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And we're at the beach because I feel like I, you know, I don't have a quote unquote beach body.
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Not that that matters, but there is a part where you're uncomfortable.
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And I think that was the difference in the goals, actually, was I always wanted
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to be comfortable and not be uncomfortable.
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But I didn't realize you just have to choose you're uncomfortable because you're
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either going to be uncomfortable working out every day and eating healthy and
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not choosing to indulge yourself in food and different stuff.
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Or you're going to have to be uncomfortable in the fact that you're overweight
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and you're not healthy and you can't participate in physical things as well
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as other people and enjoy other aspects of life.
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And so I think it just never registered in my perspective. And to change that,
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I just, you know, had to do.
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Had to just start out doing something and go for it.
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And it had to be a bigger goal than just, I don't want to be overweight and unhealthy.
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Like that wouldn't have gotten me through the Appalachian trail.
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It was too hard to just have that as my reason.
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So I think that's how a lot of people, that's how I have always started out
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my new years before this year of, Oh, I just want to be overweight and unhealthy,
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or I don't want to be this or don't want to be this.
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So I'm going and try and do something to
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not be this anymore but it's not enough of a reason to
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just not want to be something because you just
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don't want to be uncomfortable and you're going to be uncomfortable trying to
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become something that you're not comfortable being anyways that makes sense
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hey this is brian welcome back to 2025 caleb what changed for you on the trail.
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So when you're when you're making this decision obviously you took on the trail
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and you had to go do it twice because you hurt yourself in the first year and
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then had to go back and redo it,
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were you even thinking about fitness or was that more
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of a byproduct that came later so what was the
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the anchor point that took you to a change of
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paradigm yeah i wasn't even thinking about fitness
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and that was also i mean that was a huge
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consequence because i probably wouldn't have
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gotten injured the first time which led to me
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having to go back for a second time it just wasn't like in the
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crazy part is like too i knew it was important like
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i i knew to say like oh yeah yeah like i'm getting ready for the trail blah
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blah but in my head i was like oh i can just will power through it when it comes
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time to do it and even the like the honestly the second time around i prepared
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a little bit more but i still i don't know there was still something missing
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in my head that it was just like.
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I did not realize how physically taxing
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it would be because like the northern the second
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half is where it just gets brutal the first half prepared
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me for that luckily but i think the big paradigm shift was realizing
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okay one day if i want
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to come back and do a trail again like i
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have to stay in misshape physically so
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that way if i want to drop it all and go do something
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like this again or if there's something in my life that requires me to
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do something this physically challenging i want
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to be prepared i don't want to have to like this
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is how i want this is what i want my lifestyle to be like
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i want to be able to go hike 20 miles on a
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weekend to go see things that the
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average person wouldn't be able to see because they're not going to hike 20
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miles in a day like there's just things that i wanted
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that were more important than how i
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felt and me wanting to
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sit around all day and that's like translated to
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everything i think because it's like okay if
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there's something i want to do in the future i want to be capable of it
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so what do i have to do daily to make that a reality
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for myself and i think that's that was.
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The big change it wasn't like i want to be healthy
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because it's a good thing to do and I don't like the fact that people would
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think I'm unhealthy because then it shows that I'm
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lazy and shows that I don't care about stuff
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it was just like the complete mentality shift of
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the purpose of it all next week.
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We're going to be going into the how to want to so after this podcast the next
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one's going to be how do you even want to want to do something different like
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this but I want to kind of come back to what you're talking about because as
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we're getting ready to set our objectives and our goal,
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I was going to ask you, David, like when you're thinking about what do you want
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to be, because you've done this several times, whether it's been fitness or
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learning guitar or some kind of event, you tend to be someone that I've looked
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at that, wow, you say, I want to learn this.
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And then by the end of the year, you've learned it or you've done that.
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What are you setting for your year or kind of the direction?
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And why do you why are you picking that i've started a lot of hobbies and a
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lot of things i've gotten into running weightlifting music um,
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programming and a lot of different disciplines and a
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lot of these disciplines like for example guitar I never
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really just spent a bunch of time just learning
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scales so I never I don't think I've actually gotten like super great
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at guitar I've just kind of learned the fun stuff and I really enjoyed the aspect
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so it didn't really feel like something that I had to force myself to do but
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other things like running and
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weightlifting I kind of realized that I have to set myself a real goal.
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Like for example, in running, I had a friend just like, okay, let's run a marathon.
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And that was a solid goal. We had our training plan.
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And really, the objective is to stick to this training plan for 16 weeks until marathon day.
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And for weightlifting, it's like, okay, my goal is to work out six days a week
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every day every week for however long i can then now my new year's resolution
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because it's like okay what's my kind of goal here is.
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I found sylvester stallone's my
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same height and then i want to get to his 175
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weight 175 pounds weight and
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his percent body fat and stuff and so that's my goal
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it's like a physical goal and now i just
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have to plan how i'm going to get there and i found with especially hard challenges
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like my marathon or i did a 75 hard challenge which is more 75 soft but i found
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a friend that wanted to do it with me and we both did it and we both held each other accountable.
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And that accountability with a friend it develops such a fun relationship with
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that friend and develops such a strong bond with that friend during this time
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where you're both going through something and you both message each other each
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day that it's like today was a really hard day,
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and what we kind of did is we kind of had our chart because our goal isn't to
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get the objective that's the goal but our goal is to stick to the plan every
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single day until we get there.
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So the days that were especially hard, I found was kind of fun to put like an
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X if it was a really hard day and then a dash if it wasn't very difficult.
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And you have all these X's that you've done in the past to kind of encourage you.
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This is what you've done in the past to get to here. And you're going to throw all those X's away.
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And you'll find that over time, the X's will start turning into dashes.
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And so those are all the little ways that I've found to stick to doing hard things.
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That's something really interesting
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that I think this is great for every listener and for all of us.
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Your daily thought process wasn't on the big goal.
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It was on the rhythm or the discipline
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of the day. That was actually where all of your focus point was.
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And not what I'm not going to do, but what I am going to do.
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So if you say I'm going to read so many books, I'm going to whatever that list
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is, that becomes your driving force.
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And I think this is really interesting is what you just described is also how
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high-end athletes or high-end performers actually train.
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Because like you get into high end, anything, take a runner,
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for instance, their whole training is about how to breathe different,
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how to stride different.
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So when they're running, they're thinking, their focus is on a detail of how
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they run, not I'm going to win the gold, I'm going to win the gold,
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I'm going to win the gold, because they know if they,
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they may have an opportunity for that, but if they don't have this mastered, that isn't in reach.
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So their focus is on that daily rhythm. I thought that was very insightful.
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Jason, what is it like, and I'm kind of putting you on the spot here because
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this is really challenging. You got a big family.
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You also are running a business.
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You're also an associate pastor.
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And you have all these hats that you carry. when
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you're thinking about what you want to be or what
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you want to do how do you create
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a daily rhythm that goes around that when there's so much change and things
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taking place in your in your home and in your life how how do you do that or
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what are you looking to to to add that in Well, that's a really easy question to answer.
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A lot of caffeine helps for one. And it's a blessing that I've been able to
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build up a tolerance to coffee because that really makes things a lot more bearable.
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But one thing that's really helped me especially in the last couple of years.
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Is understanding that the stuff the the purpose behind the things i'm doing
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so even with some transitions that i've had in the last couple years as far
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as like running a coffee shop to whereas before working in an industrial manufacturing
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plant two completely different worlds.
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But because I could understand that they were both part of the mission,
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it wasn't something I resented and it wasn't something that I was looking for a way out on.
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And the same thing with family. I'm a big believer in when you become a husband,
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lean into being a husband.
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When you become a father, lean into being a, you're able to lean into them and
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understand this is part of who I am.
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This is part of my mission. And same thing with business or pastoring.
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In the church or outside of the church. This is part of what I am, and I get to do this.
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And that whole phrase, well, I get to do this, sometimes people use that as
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a, well, don't say that you have to do it, say you get to do that.
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And sometimes you can mentally trick yourself with that, and that's great.
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But there does come a point where if you don't actually see the thing in front
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of you as part of the mission and part of who you are, part of your development,
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then And you're going to resent it at some point, no matter how many tricks
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you try to play on yourself.
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And so that was the biggest thing for me was this thing in front of me here is part of what I am.
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And it's actually, it's not always fun.
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A lot of times it's hard work and it sucks and it feels very,
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you know, underappreciated.
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It feels like everything in my life is just pulling at me and need something.
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But knowing that this is
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part of the mission that
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God has for me and it's not a mission I resent it's
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actually what I want to do then each day
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becomes more of a I don't know I guess a flow in that so it's like we're training
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today okay cool training sucks a lot of times but look what I can do after I
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train it's like when you guys like Caleb with you in the trail and David running
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your 7,000 marathons and Brian, you run in your 10K now.
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It's not always fun, the physical downside of it, but there's an exhilaration to it too.
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And so that's my long-winded way of saying because or when you understand that
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you're pursuing what you are, then it's a lot easier for the body and the mind
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to come into alignment with that.
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And we've talked about that in previous episodes where it comes to the spirit,
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soul, and body aspect of who we are.
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And I think if we don't look at those as three competing things,
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then it's going to be a lot easier to hit goals and maintain things.
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So how do you choose your priority, Jason? Because you're talking about leaning
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in. So you've leaned into being a father.
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You've leaned into being a husband. You've leaned into being a pastor.
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You've leaned into becoming a business owner.
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You've leaned into becoming program leaders for your kids stuff.
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So you've leaned into nine things now.
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So it kind of looks like your tree has all these bends in it.
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If you're a tree per se, how do you folk, how do you become good at one?
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Like what is what are
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you what do you do this year to better yourself to be
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those those to facilitate that
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well one's understanding the priority level and
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and being okay with your priorities not being everyone else's so if i've got
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my marriage my family i've got ministry of being a pastor i've got business
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those all can't get all my attention at the same time and I have to decide to tell those things,
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you're not getting my attention right now at different times.
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And that's okay. It's not always easy, but you have to be okay with some branches
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being thicker than others at some times, if that makes sense.
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But understanding the ones that you don't give up on, because I've seen too
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many people for various motivations, you neglect the marriage branch because
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I'm focused on this and this and this now.
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And then that becomes a problem or you neglect the, Hey, you have kids that
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you're a father to branch and that withers after a while.
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And so with the caveat of don't do that because those are incorrect things and
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understand the other branches are there to support the branch or the main part of the tree.
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And then, like I said before, a lot of caffeine, because you'd be surprised
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how little sleep you actually need.
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So what are you implementing this year that betters those things?
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If I was someone that's trying to learn how do I manage all this stuff because
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I feel stressed and I can't give myself to this and yet I'm supposed to have
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a take care of my body better. I'm supposed to.
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When do I even have time to read my Bible besides the quick Twitter posts?
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How do how do I get all this stuff done when I have all these responsibilities
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and you're responsible for that?
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How do you not make those responsibilities become the
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weight on you and it's extracting from you
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versus you giving to it at some point you have to have something to give
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to it how do you develop yourself where you can give to that and you said something
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about setting healthy boundaries but there's sometimes your job will say you
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got to come in more at the same time your pastor saying hey i gotta have you
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for this at the same time your wife is saying hey when are we getting our date
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night and then your kid's saying dad you're never home,
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So all of those hit at the same time. Now, what do you do? So I'm kind of hitting
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it from that perspective of what you've learned to develop in yourself to have
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the fortitude to say no and to say yes.
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And to man, because some point you had to be stable to order to handle that.
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So that's kind of the question I'm asking.
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Well, that's that's probably the biggest thing, at least in my experience so
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far, is at some point you're saying no to one of the things.
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If you have a dozen things pulling at you, you're going to be saying no to some
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of them, either actively by telling the people, no, I can't do this,
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or passively by not being home.
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That's saying no to your home and your family responsibilities.
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And one thing I had to do quite a while ago was intentionally kind of,
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it's a change of mentality, I guess, where I'm going to start saying no to this
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thing and it's going to cost me.
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It's going to cost me time with this person it's going to cost me this status
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it's going to cost me this friendship it's going to cost me this time over here
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because when i say no to this,
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that is going to start to wither and there was actually a long time ago i had
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to do this with some friendships with people that i'd had for maybe well more
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than a decade at that time and this was a long time ago.
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I'm trying to be a little bit vague and non-specific.
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One, not give away my age and two, not spoil anyone else's secrets.
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But there's guys that I had known since college and high school.
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And we kind of had this, you have an established relationship dynamic where.
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You goof around a lot and just kind of everything's a joke.
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And I remember there was a time where I realized like, this is not what I am
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anymore. I can't keep this.
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So the decision point for me then was I'm saying no to these things that we
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do that are not serious, that are not beneficial, that are not helping me to grow.
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It's keeping me immature. It's keeping our friend group immature.
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So I'm saying no to these things now.
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And I ended up losing those friendships because of it, because I would just
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not be that person anymore.
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And so when you do that, you get invited to things less, you get included in things less.
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And I had to be okay with saying no to that and letting that go.
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And I've had to do the same thing professionally at times as well,
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where it's, especially in our culture, it's common to be like,
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wow, look at that person's sacrifice, time away from their family for the business.
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That's noble. It's not noble.
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It's in some situations it's wrong.
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So being okay with saying no and knowing that the backlash you get from letting
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those things go doesn't change who you are.
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And that's something that we've talked about a bit on this podcast before,
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because if those things have a sway over how you view yourself and how you see
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yourself, then then we're having a different conversation.
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Okay, so this brings us. Thank you, Jason. That was great, because that kind
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of brings us back into this initial question that we're talking about is the
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not saying I'm not going to do this anymore.
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Like your whole goal is I'm going to do, I'm not going to do something like
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I'm going to go to the gym.
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So I'm not fat, but you're really not wanting to go to the gym.
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You just don't want to be fat.
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So there's not a drive that holds you into those places.
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And Jason, you kind of said it, you're letting go. Wasn't, I need to be more mature.
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I don't want to be more mature, but I need to be more mature.
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So I'm not going to be around these immature people, But deep down,
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you're wanting to be around those people.
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You just know you need to be, you shouldn't be that way.
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Instead, you saw what you are. You saw what you needed to be in order to advance in life.
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And then that became the sacrifice that needed to be let go in order to step
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into more richer things and into more improved things.
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But you saw some kind of hope in that.
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So Caleb, you saw some kind of hope in completing the Appalachian Trail.
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So in all the pain of the early journeys till the end, you saw some kind of hope.
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And in the example with David, we always use the marathon, but there's just
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hundreds of different things. He has a hopefulness that, hey,
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I'm going to get there, but the journey of it.
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So focusing on the training becomes almost more of the focal point versus the end goal.
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The end goal will take care of itself, but mastering the dailies.
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So you kind of explained all that, Jason, in that from a relational human development
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point of view. So looking at this new year.
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What are some areas that you are considering adding that would bring out more
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strength of you, of your inner man, your makeup,
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your physical structure, in order to best handle what you're doing in life?
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So how do you look at that going into this year?
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One of the things for me is when it comes to relating with people,
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whether it's ministry or in our business here, even with my family,
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is being the active initiator in the direction.
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And I guess what I mean by that is this. I used to kind of think most people
24:45
would take initiative and take action if given the right opportunity.
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And I don't really think that's the case for most people. I think the vast majority
24:54
of people want and need to be led.
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And so being the active initiator in leading people and leaving less things
25:06
open to, well, what's the group think? Well, what's everyone want to do?
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For example, we had a new person start at the shop this week.
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And so we're going through their training and there's a couple of people that
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have been there for a year or two years that are great at training.
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And my initial thought was maybe just kind of let those people do all the training
25:26
because they've been there, they know what they're doing.
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But as I started thinking about it more, it was, I would see that play out and
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people don't take the initiative to train others.
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And so there had to be some kind of active moment of this is what we're doing.
25:44
This is how we're going to do it. And now you're free to go and run it.
25:48
And for me, that's one thing I'm really focusing on this year is being that
25:52
active initiator in leading and in where we're going and how we're getting there.
25:56
How do you develop that every day in all areas of your life what's like we can
26:03
you break that down like i'm gonna run a marathon because that's really what
26:06
you're saying because it will become.
26:09
Strenuous to do that in every area how do you train every day to make that a
26:16
part of your life where it becomes natural in the big events but you're deliberate
26:20
when it in the small one a couple of things that I've found are working for that is,
26:26
if I have the goal of, I want my kids to have,
26:31
the Bible on their mind, to be in the word.
26:34
And that's a good goal. And every parent has that goal.
26:37
If I get them a Bible and say, okay, here's your Bible, go. They might read
26:42
it occasionally, but am I directing them in that?
26:46
A real simple thing is, here's a verse of the day, read it during your school
26:50
because my wife homeschools the kids.
26:52
And so they're home during the day. They've got their books.
26:56
They've got plenty of stuff to read.
26:58
Am I directing them in what to read? Here's something from the Bible that we're going to study.
27:03
Or am I just leaving it up to them like, hey kids, here's a Bible.
27:06
Flip some pages and see where you landed and read that.
27:09
And maybe it'll stand out to you. Maybe it won't. Maybe it'll just confuse you
27:12
because you landed in Deuteronomy and you're eight years old, whatever.
27:16
And I found that really helps. Even that small amount of quote-unquote leadership
27:22
helps to spark so many new things.
27:25
I think for me, the thing I realized on the trail and then I realized now is
27:29
having the mentality shift where I act as if I am already that thing that I
27:36
want to be and not because it's like naive, like, oh, blah, blah.
27:40
Uh like if we take the example of david running
27:44
a marathon or me hiking the trail like i
27:47
think a lot of people on the trail would be like oh when
27:50
do you get to call yourself the big term is a through hiker like
27:53
you're doing the whole appalachian trail and there's people like you
27:55
don't get to call yourself a through hiker until you hit date the
27:58
last day and you're on the last mile like when do you get to call yourself a
28:03
marathon runner obviously it's when you run a marathon do you get to call yourself
28:07
a marathon runner like 13 miles in when you're halfway in or like at what point
28:11
and i think on the trail maybe it's different because it's a little bit more
28:15
long term but it was like okay,
28:17
I am a through hiker. What would a through hiker do every day?
28:20
Okay. Well, they would walk this many miles with an objective in mind of they want to get somewhere.
28:25
Okay. I may not have run a marathon yet, but what would a marathon runner do?
28:30
They would train like this, do like this because they are a marathon runner.
28:34
And then the time, the day the marathon comes, you just act out what you are.
28:38
And so I think for me, that's my big mentality shift for this year.
28:42
And specifically that's being a healthy person.
28:46
And so it's like, you know, normally I would be like, Oh yeah,
28:49
to be healthy. I just don't eat junk food. Don't look at the junk food. Don't think about soda.
28:54
Don't, don't think about that fast food burger. Just don't, just don't.
28:57
And then I thought about not thinking about it so much that that's all I think about.
29:01
And so the mentality shift is, Oh, I am a healthy person. What does a healthy person do? Okay.
29:08
Yeah. I would love to cook that, grill that steak tonight
29:11
myself no like unnecessary additives
29:15
and crap like that that are all in the food like making food
29:18
at home there's no there's no point in me eating out because what's
29:21
the point of that i'm a healthy person it's like it almost
29:24
makes the desires for these things sure they may be there in some ways but it
29:28
shifts the mentality towards like well that's not part of who i am even if you're
29:33
on day one i think that like sets you up for success because you're not trying
29:37
to up like we've been saying run away from this thing i'm just acting like i already am that thing.
29:43
And the thing is you will not look like that thing in the beginning like that's
29:47
what made the trail so hard for the first probably i mean brian knows the first probably like,
29:53
like half of it i was like i am not a hiker like i was comparing myself constantly
29:58
to all the other hikers who were really like already elite level like they're
30:03
pushing 20 miles a day i don't know see this, see this person one time.
30:06
And they're like, all right, my name's Speedy McGee. See you later, man.
30:10
And I was always like, I'm just not a through hiker. Like I'm not cut out for
30:14
this. This is not who I am. Blah, blah, blah.
30:18
And I would have like, I would have never obtained that goal.
30:22
And then it was just slowly becoming that thing because I did it every day.
30:28
The daily grind that wasn't easy.
30:30
And it was the mentality of near the end.
30:33
It was like, when I got to the last third, it kind of started becoming a reality.
30:37
Cause I was like, wait a second, I'm getting so close to being done.
30:42
I've been worried about being a through hiker this whole time.
30:45
And I've missed out on all the things that through hikers get to enjoy on the entire trail.
30:50
So I think it's like, if you can get over that hump right in the beginning and
30:53
say, okay, like I'm going to act as if I'm a marathon runner this year,
30:58
what would a marathon runner be doing on the daily?
31:02
And I may not like look like that, but if I can be pushing towards that,
31:07
like for me, it's definitely the health thing.
31:09
And that's how that mentality has helped so
31:12
much because even though you may
31:14
not succeed like in every little thing you're
31:17
not like giving up once you prove quote-unquote prove
31:20
yourself wrong you're still pushing forward because you're like okay well the
31:24
thing i just did wasn't really who i
31:27
am like me just eating that like burger
31:30
at a fast food place okay that wasn't really who i am i
31:33
need to get like back into the mentality of
31:36
who i really am and so shifting back into that makes like the little bumps you
31:41
know not not objective ending or goal ending because you still have this mentality
31:47
of okay i'm becoming who i am and acting as if i am that thing and i think that's
31:53
even like the mentality you see of like.
31:56
Caleb and joshua in the bible when they're
31:59
like go and see the giants in the land they're like you know
32:02
of course i'll use that example because the name but they're
32:05
like well they know god has given them the land even
32:08
though the reality looks different and so they're like well
32:11
god's given this to us so we can go take it and the
32:14
other spies are like no no no there's giants there blah
32:17
blah blah so i think that's like the difference in mentality for
32:20
our lives is and to other people may
32:23
seem naive and you know you do have to have a
32:26
reality check because you don't want to just say you're that thing and
32:29
you know i can give a million caveat caveats to
32:33
that but like when you
32:35
get it it makes sense and you know when you're actually being
32:39
that thing or not having that mentality of okay who am i and i should act that
32:45
out because that's who i am and anything that i do that's not that is simply
32:49
not who i am and so i just don't do that The picture of with the other spies
32:55
that came back said, we can't do it.
32:56
They said, we see ourselves as grasshoppers.
32:59
We are grasshoppers on our own site. In other words, they couldn't see themselves more.
33:03
And for the listener, it doesn't mean, oh, I'm a marathon runner, so I'm fast.
33:08
No, you may not be fast. we're not talking about whether you're winning a medal
33:11
at it but you're you're you're doing you're you're able to step into doing the
33:19
thing the the actions and the the daily habits.
33:24
That will make you something and i david i i ran that first 10k which is the
33:30
first thing i ran in my whole life like i i running was just like a foreign
33:35
thought to me that's why i played goalie in high school.
33:39
I really had nothing to do with because I thought I was a better goalie.
33:42
It's just I didn't want to run.
33:44
And so I became very good at it, so I wouldn't have to run.
33:48
But David taught me something of focusing on when we were training for this
33:54
10K, which I kind of got bribed into doing that I didn't want to do.
33:59
So I had to go change. A, I had to go change my attitude about it because I
34:03
didn't want to do it. And I kept saying I don't want to do it, but I'm having to do it.
34:06
And it's like, no, I got to go get this right. I want to do this.
34:09
Let's shift the mentality.
34:12
But then when David said, just focus, this kind of indirectly,
34:16
but through conversation, watching him and learning from him of how he trained,
34:21
just focused on your heart rate every day. Just run your heart rate.
34:25
And I think this has a metaphor that's much bigger. We run our heart rate.
34:30
You're on the trail, Caleb. You can only physically go as far as you could physically go.
34:35
So you, you, you manage the, what you could physically do, but in time of,
34:40
of the dailies, pretty soon, what you could physically do today was a whole
34:46
lot more than what you could physically do at the beginning of the trail.
34:50
Because things began to change. You started losing weight.
34:53
You started understanding more things. You started understanding how to take care of your feet.
34:58
And I think this is such a great picture because in the 10K,
35:02
if I managed my heart rate, I would get to the goal.
35:07
Because it's just about how can I endure the whole thing.
35:10
And just from the first time I ran it in a test run to the end was a 10-minute
35:15
difference. And my heart rate never changed for the whole thing. So is for the whole race.
35:20
And I think this is really important in the picture when we're setting up what
35:24
we're to do is if we take your idea, Caleb, not your idea, but the truth of that.
35:30
Listen, I'm going to go do this. So I need to be that person.
35:34
You're not comparing yourself to another marathoner.
35:38
You're not comparing yourself to another through hiker. You're comparing yourself to you.
35:43
You're a through hiker. Now, what are you going to do with it?
35:47
So you learn from other people and you create daily habits.
35:50
So what you did every day was far more important than what you accomplished
35:55
in tendex or what you were going to accomplish in the future.
35:59
It's just what you were doing that day.
36:03
And I think there is this kind of an idea that I want to be something.
36:11
And we're trying to say, when I get there, now I can say I am that.
36:16
And that really is an external fake motivator.
36:20
Who are you saying that to? Who are you proving it to?
36:24
So none of this real change takes place in proving something.
36:28
But it does take place in saying, God, you've given me something.
36:33
You've given me a physical body. You've given me these opportunities.
36:36
You've given me these things, these areas of life to improve in.
36:40
What am I doing with it? And if you can give it to me, you can trust me with
36:45
it. So I need to develop it.
36:47
So now we can see why Hebrews chapter 12 says,
36:52
we lay aside the weight and the sin that ensnares us and we run with endurance
36:57
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
37:01
of our faith, who for the joy set before him, he endured.
37:04
So in other words, we start seeing a joy in how we run each day and we push
37:10
ourselves. How much more can we do? What can we develop?
37:14
How much can I improve in that area? But you don't go beyond what you could
37:20
do that your heart can do.
37:22
Because once we push our heart, we get worn out and then we crash.
37:27
Now we don't want to run anymore. But if you can keep your heart at the right
37:31
pace, you will start getting faster, more improved.
37:35
You'll start getting better. my goal spiritually for this year is.
37:41
Is to every day have my
37:45
mind on god all day
37:48
and that's it it's this one sermon
37:50
series the power of imagination and it really just kind of
37:53
puts in perspective that like most of
37:57
the people in the old testament and the new testament didn't have
38:00
a bible as accessible as we did so how did they become
38:03
so spiritually mature and i think generally it
38:06
just comes from the idea of having your mind on god all the
38:10
time 24 7 whatever you're doing
38:13
and even if it's in the back of
38:15
your mind if you don't get the time to get your 40 minutes of or 30 minutes
38:20
of devotional time that day it's like yeah but i was still with god all day
38:25
and i still had this relationship with god i think that's more important than
38:28
the devotional so that's my goal for the year that's good.
38:36
Real quick plug david that you said
38:39
there was a sermon or a series on the power of imagination
38:42
you listened to yeah who is it by uh it's by andrew so a couple thoughts that
38:51
really stand out to me in this podcast was number one the change of pursuing
39:00
something bigger so i can become,
39:02
to I am and then working what
39:06
you are every day to an improvement level because you know it will produce something
39:12
so you don't have to worry about what it produces you know it will so you can
39:16
just be that in your every day the other thing is like Jason you were talking
39:22
about you showed kind of the.
39:25
Changes, the character goals that you have implemented to be an initiator.
39:31
And so now we have kind of our soul and our mind being set forth in a goal process.
39:37
So we're talking about physical goals.
39:39
We're talking about soulish goals or mental goals.
39:44
And then we have the spiritual goals, which David was talking about.
39:47
And I think this is really important is all three work together.
39:51
And some people say, well, our physical body is kind of the,
39:54
from a Christian perspective, is really our problem, so we just focus on developing the spiritual.
39:59
And I think we're a little naive because we're supposed to renew our mind,
40:02
so our mind needs to conform to what our spirit is saying, and then our mind
40:07
dictates what our body's going to do.
40:09
So in the reality, if you're not really working all three, now granted,
40:14
the one is the most important is your spiritual, because that's the eternal
40:17
part of you, and your soul. but your physical body is going to be changed.
40:22
But the reality is the mastering of your physical body produces a strength inside your spirit man.
40:28
So we're creating that. So when we're talking about setting goals or pursuing
40:33
a dream or pursuing something, we're pursuing it because of what's in us and
40:38
what we are that we're just bringing out versus trying to do something so we can become.
40:43
And that idea has to be changed because if you're trying just to become something.
40:48
You will really never let go of the gravity of what you're trying to get away from.
40:54
But if you already are something, you can grow out of the gravity of what was
40:59
holding you back. And that can be kind of a fertilizer.
41:02
The manure that you're in now can be a fertilizer to the growth of where you're trying to go.
41:08
But it's from the inside, from our spirit man, that grows to the out.
41:12
Spirit man, renewing the mind.
41:14
The mind tells the body, this is what we're going to do. and all of a sudden
41:17
your hope and your direction changes.
41:20
If it's an external motivator, we can be inspired by things.
41:24
But if it's only to be that, if I am X, Y, or Z goal, then I will have arrived.
41:32
You will always find yourself trying to get, you will always be trapped by the
41:36
gravity of the thing you're trying to change.
41:40
So let it come from the inside. Think about all three parts.
41:45
All right, we're going to wrap it up with that. I just want to leave you guys
41:48
with this one thought because I know from experience that it can make you a
41:53
little hesitant at times when to chase after something, when you realize what
41:57
you're going to have to give up, especially when you're accustomed to those things.
42:00
I mean, the little metaphor that came into my mind is we have a really nice garden here.
42:05
We have a couple acres in the country and I love this garden.
42:08
My wife and my kids and I, we all work in it and we'll grow a variety of different things.
42:13
It's been bonding for our family. It's been really good for us all.
42:16
And it's just a great little garden. And if someone told me to dig up my garden
42:21
and destroy it, I'd be like, no, you're stupid.
42:24
If someone told me there are gold bars buried underneath your garden,
42:28
I would have a lot less hesitation of ripping that dirt out.
42:32
Because I understand that what I'm digging after and what I'm going after is
42:37
so much more valuable than the things that I have to leave behind.
42:40
And so I hope that helps somebody out there. Because when you realize what God
42:45
has put in you and you focus on that, then it really, it really doesn't matter
42:50
what you have to let go of.
42:52
It's, it's not that worthwhile in the first place in the long run.
42:56
So we appreciate you guys tuning in here to a great new year until next time,
43:01
keep the faith and stay in the fight.