Episode 26--Billy and Brian Get Older, Set Some Goals, and Make a BIG Midlife Crisis Announcement!

In this week's episode, Billy and Brian try to remember what it's like to talk to each other without having a guest on the show;  get older (but better);  share their successes from Seasons 1 and 2 (and encourage you to do the same!); run down the list of outstanding Season 3 guests (with links included to their websites below!); outline their goals for the upcoming year; and make a BIG midlife crisis announcement!

Here's a list of our guests this season!  Click on the links for their websites, books, and Instagram!  

--Unlocking Your Best Self with Kristen Brown (@speakerkristen)
--How to Successfully Switch Careers with Dr. Dawn Graham
--Life Coaching with Jill Dahler (@jmdwellness and @jilldahler)   
--Outperform the Norm with Scott Welle (@scottwelle)
--Taking Healthy Risks with John Wessinger (@johnwessinger)
--Interrupting Impostor Syndrome with Teresa Sande (@fiercenotfears)
--The Language of Mindfulness with Brett Hill
--Rebalanced Thinking, Rebalanced Living with Tom Cody
--Finding Our Meaning and Purpose through Self-Journey with Dr. Yvette Erasmus (@dryvetteerasmus)

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Transcript

 Thank you for taking the time to listen to The Mindful Midlife Crisis Podcast. We hope you enjoy this week’s episode. If this episode resonates with you, please share it with your family and friends. We will do our best to put out new content every Wednesday to get you over the midweek hump. If you want episodes to be downloaded automatically to your phone each week, all you need to do is hit the checkmark, Subscribe, Like, or Follow button, depending on what podcast format you’re using. While you’re at it, feel free to leave our show a quick five-star review with a few kind words so more people like you can easily find our show. 

If you’re really enjoying the show and you want to help us out, feel free to make a donation to www.buymeacoffee.com/MMCpodcast. You can also access the link in our show notes. We use the money from these donations to pay whatever expenses we incur from producing the show, but, ultimately, we record the show for you, so if you keep listening, we’ll keep recording and releasing new episodes each week regardless. If you’d like to contact us or if you have suggestions about what you’d like us to discuss on future episodes, feel free to email us at mindfulmidlifecrisis@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram at @Mindful_Midlife_Crisis. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to the articles and resources we referenced throughout the show. Thanks again for listening. May you feel happy, healthy, and loved. Enjoy the show.

Welcome to The Mindful Midlife Crisis, a podcast for people navigating the complexities and possibilities of life’s second half. Join your hosts, Billy and Brian, a couple of average dudes who will serve as your armchair life coaches as we share our life experiences, both the good and the bad, in an effort to help us all better understand how we can enjoy and make the most of the life we have left to live in a more meaningful way. Take a deep breath, embrace the present, and journey with us through The Mindful Midlife Crisis.

Billy: Welcome to Season 3 of The Mindful Midlife Crisis. I’m your host, Billy, and, as always, I’m joined by my good friend, Brian on the Bass. Brian, how you doing over there, man? 

Brian: I am smashing, thank you. 

Billy: Oh, smashing.

Brian: Smashing.

Billy: Fantastic. It’s actually been a while since we’ve done an episode where it’s just the two of us —

Brian: Well, we’re in some big trouble then. We no longer have our guests to make us look good. 

Billy: I was going to say it’s probably actually a good thing that we’ve been getting guests as high quality as we’ve been getting, because we’ve spared them the two of us babbling on and on about nonsense. 

Brian: They’re a lot higher quality than we are. That’s a good start. 

1 That’s very true. That’s very true. And Season 3 promises to deliver as well. We’re going to run down the list of guests for Season 3 because you’re actually going to want to do some homework between now and our guests. You’re going to want to read their books, you’re going to want to check out their podcasts, you’re going to want to check out their websites, just get some background info, because we have some heavy hitters coming up.

Brian: Big time. I was going to say, Billy, I think you’ve upped your game for Season 3. Looking down the list of guests, I’m quite impressed. 

Billy: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I’m very excited. And for the most part, the guests that we’re getting are still local but yet are still top notch guests.

Brian: Oh, absolutely, yeah. 

Billy: We don’t have to go out — it’d be great to get Henry Rollins and Dave Grohl on the show but they have yet to return our calls and these people have returned our calls, and each and every single week, they deliver.

Brian: It’s pretty good. It’s been pretty fantastic. We have to thank all of our guests, past and future, right now too because it’s pretty amazing. I mean, the show wouldn’t be what it is without them.

Billy: Yeah, and it wouldn’t be without you, the listener, thank you so much for tuning in week after week. We really appreciate all the downloads. We’re going to kind of break down and celebrate some of our successes here today but before we do that, people are clamoring, Brian, the verdict is in, they want to know what’s new in science. Brian, what’s new in science?

Brian: So, quantum mechanics. When they get it figured out this far in some of these theories, there’s not a lot of new, you know what I mean? Like they know what to expect but what happens is they end up confirming some of their theories. In the case of one that happened recently was they’re studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. 

Billy: Okay, go ahead and say that again. They’re studying what?

Brian: Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. It’s a particle smasher. So all they do is they — it’s a big magnetic ring, essentially. And when I say big, I’m talking miles, like these things, small colliders are like 7 miles, big ones are 20, and that’s what allows them to get this energy up because what they do is it’s a bunch of magnets. Basically, you can think of it magnets on a rail and they fire the magnets at the right time to push the particle. That’s how they accelerate the particle in these magnetic fields. So they take a single particle and they get this thing whipping around this 20-mile ring of energy and just smash it into another particle traveling in the opposite direction. And then they look at what happened. So it’s kind of like putting the car back together after a crash.

Billy: Oh, okay. See, when you put it like that.

Brian: So they look at what happened and some of these particles only exist for nanoseconds but that’s why, when you see the pictures, you’ve seen the pictures of the detectors, it’s a small person standing in the middle and it’s like this eight-story weird looking ring with all these louvers in it, it’s because those are all detectors and they see what happened when those things collided. Yeah, it’s pretty interesting. But, anyway, getting back to the original point, what was confirmed is E equals MC squared. Yeah. They figured out that it was just another bit of data that bolster that they. They crashed two photons into each other and created matter — antimatter, I’m sorry. They created antimatter. That just proves energy mass conversion.

Billy: Got it. So if it’s antimatter, does that mean that it doesn’t matter?

Brian: No, antimatter is actually really dangerous too, because if at any time antimatter comes in contact with regular matter, it annihilates and releases all of the energy of both. That’s why you always hear Star Trek, their power in their big spaceships with matter-antimatter engines, that’s why, because it’s a pure mass to energy conversion. Just like a nuclear weapon is converting mass to energy. They haven’t converted energy to mass previously but now they have, but it’s antimatter.

Billy: So what ramifications does that have?

Brian: Just bolsters Einstein’s theory. 

Billy: Okay. 

Brian: It’s just saying, “Hey, we’re still on the right track with —” they just didn’t have the technology, that’s how far ahead of his time Einstein was. They could not physically build machines with high enough energies to test his theories. So, now that they can, they’re confirming this stuff. So, exactly, everybody thought, “Yeah, Einstein’s probably right,” but there’s a lot to be proven yet in his theories. But, again, they’re just at such energies, it’s tough to get there, or they need, like in the case of LIGO, which is the gravitational wave detector, it’s a gigantic piece of machinery, you know what I mean? And costs hundreds of billions of dollars — I wouldn’t say hundreds of billions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars to get these colliders done so the scale at which they need to test these theories is just currently being reached.

Billy: Well, it’s funny that you bring up energy because that’s really what this season is going to focus on is manifesting energy so that we can live our best lives. So, today’s episode, we’re going to treat it like it’s a vision board, okay? So, Brian, do you think Einstein had a vision board and that’s why he was so far ahead of his time?

Brian: No. His secret was only sleeping 10 minutes out of every hour.

Billy: Okay. I feel like we advise against that.

Brian: Yeah, maybe. There’s another side story right here. So what he used to do apparently is he would take these giant steel ball bearings and he would hold them in his hand and he would sit in a chair and he would drift off to sleep and hold the ball bearings so that his palm was facing down and he had a big metal pot down below his hand so as soon as he relaxed enough to get to sleep, the ball bearings would drop in the pan and wake him up and then he would write down what he was thinking. So he would be in that half-asleep, half-awake state and that’s where he said he got a lot of his creative ideas.

Billy: Interesting. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Billy: It sounds like he was experimenting with psychedelics without actually using the psychedelics. 

Brian: Yeah, he’s just putting his body through hell pretty much. He’s out there, man. He was ahead of his time.

Billy: Well, it sounds like Einstein was always working to be the best version of himself or always seeking out new ways to find new ideas, and like we said, that’s what this season is all about. 

Brian: Einstein didn’t have our show, Billy.

Billy: He didn’t.

Brian: You guys listening to this show have our show so don’t sleep with ball bearings. 

Billy: No, don’t do that. Don’t do that. Get a good night’s sleep and then listen to our show every Wednesday and be sure that you share it with other people who also need good ideas and also want to be the best versions of their selves. So, the way that we’ve kind of structured the show, and it actually has worked out rather beautifully, in my opinion, is that we took seasons 1 and 2 to get to know ourselves better and just have a better understanding of the basics. That’s why we did those episodes on the male brain and the female brain and that’s why we’ve talked about mental health and developing awareness and that’s why we talked about relationships and compassionate communication and all of those things. So we need to get those basics down first before we get into that deeper level. And I think that ties back into Einstein too, like Einstein was so far ahead of his time but we’re not at Einstein’s level, we need to learn the basics first. So we started with season 1 and season 2 just getting to know ourselves a little bit better and understanding the basics and I feel like we’ve done a good job in getting that message out to people. So, I’m a total data nerd and so I wanted to share some of our successes with you because I think it’s important for people to share their successes, big or small. So, here’s what we’ve got so far. We have published 25 episodes. Twenty-six if you count the two-parter that we did with Daleco James and Maurice Buchanon but we’re going to call it 25 episodes. So, very proud of that. We have so far over 4,800 episode downloads. We are almost at 5,000 downloads, which is about an average of 180 downloads per episode. Now, you might be thinking, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but Brian and I have talked about this before and I think I heard it from another podcaster by the name of Jordan Harbinger, he’s in the millions, he’s where we would like to be at some point in time, but he’s also been doing this for over 10 years. He’s been podcasting for a long time. He said that, listen, if you were giving a presentation and 180 people showed up, would you take those numbers? Hell, yeah. Brian, if you did a show at a bar and 180 people showed up? 

Brian: That’s a decent show. 

Billy: Yeah, yeah, that’d be a great show and, really, it just kind of comes down to who are the repeats that are coming back and, hopefully, you’ve subscribed. If you haven’t subscribed, go to whatever platform you’re using and subscribe to our show. Share it with your friends. We’ve had a lot of great people on and what’s interesting is that, a lot of times, it’s when we have the listeners be guests on our show, that’s when we drum up a lot of attention. Because the experts, people just know that they’re doing great things, but when somebody is like an average Joe and they come on and they share their story and then they share it out with other people, people tune in. They’re like, “Oh, wow, you did this cool thing. Let’s check it out.” So, we’re hoping to build our audience. That’s actually part of our goal here. Here’s what we have coming up on the horizon. We are actually hiring someone to build us a website since neither of us know how to do it nor do either one of us want to learn how to do it.

Brian: No, that’s not something that really appeals to me. I’ll stick with the microphone and leave that for somebody else.

Billy: Yeah, yeah. In fact, I liked today when I walked into Brian’s office, he actually had my microphone all set up and I really appreciated that. It’s really easy for me to just set up the microphone because Brian has the hard part of doing the recording and managing the equipment but neither of us are very interested in learning how to do a website. We’re looking for sponsors so you may start hearing some ads. Now, here’s the thing. If you don’t like ads, then go to www.buymeacoffee.com/MMCpodcast and make a donation. You can also find those in our show notes. That’s how we keep the lights on with this podcast right here. But we’re hoping to get sponsors and we promise that we’ll get sponsors who we believe in or have products that we use or that we would recommend to you. We’re not just going to get some random sponsor and we’re like, “Wait, who is this?” We’ll make sure that its people that we feel are legitimate or are doing great things. If you want, you could also just hand us money if you see us on the street. We cannot guarantee that that money will go directly to funding the podcast, but you can hand us money in the street. That is okay. I just want to give a quick shout-out to our good friend, Matt Hazard, my cousin, Luke, and Lee from the band, Grunge Unplugged, they have all made donations through Buy Me a Coffee. Thank you guys so much. We really, really appreciate it. We also have a Facebook group you can now join and I feel like — we started with Instagram, I don’t feel like people our age use Instagram much.

Brian: No, I don’t think so. Not a lot, no. Everybody our age uses Facebook and then the kids use Instagram and then the younger kids use TikTok now.

Billy: Yeah, and actually I’ve learned that TikTok is pretty transgenerational.

Brian: Yeah. I don’t know a lot of old people on TikTok.

Billy: Okay, and just doing a little bit of market research, more people our age are using TikTok than I originally would have thought.

Brian: Really? 

Billy: Yeah. 

Brian: That’s interesting.

Billy: Yeah, so I don’t know if we got to get on TikTok, that scares me. I sound like an old man already. TikTok scares me.

Brian: I’ve downloaded it and I’ve never opened. Like I’m going to do it and there it sits.

Billy: Well, we know that a lot of you are on Facebook because you probably are following your racist dad or something like that or another ridiculous relative, but if you don’t like following them, you can follow us or you can like us and we’ll do our best to provide updates there. Our goal is to publish at least 90 total episodes of this podcast and hit at least 45,000 total downloads by the end of 2022. So that is, what are we, about 17 months away from there? We’ll call it 18 months. So that’s our goal is to hit those numbers. That’s approximately 500 downloads per episode, which is a huge jump from 180, but, again, we’re committed to doing the show. I like doing the show, Brian.

Brian: Yeah, me too. 

Billy: Good. Good. I’m glad because if you didn’t, I don’t know what I would do. I mean, I do have that microphone but it would — I’m always impressed with people who can do podcasts on their own and just sit and talk into a microphone. 

Brian: That’s pretty impressive. It is. It is.

Billy: I always feel so weird just talking into the microphone by myself so I’m so glad that you’re here. You have no idea.

Brian: Imagine how newscasters feel when you’re talking to millions of people through a camera.

Billy: But they at least have a co-anchor with them. 

Brian: Yeah, that’s true. 

Billy: And if I’m talking to the camera, there’s a cameraman. If I’m just talking to myself, I don’t know, I feel like those people on the street who do that. So, in season 3, like we said, our focus here is we’re manifesting the life that we want to lead into existence, all right? And trust me, I know that sounds pretentious. It may be even a little corny when people use words like “manifest,” but the more reading and research we do on this stuff, we’re finding that there’s actually something to it. And, for me, it’s all in the delivery of the message. If it’s super hokey or super out there, then I’ll probably going to tune it out. If you’ve gotten a flavor for who we are, you know that we’re just going to tell it the way that we see it and if it’s corny, we’ll throw our skepticism into it, but, at the same time, if we see that it works, Brian and I are both proof of purchase kind of people, like Brian’s a sciency guy, I’m a data kind of guy, and we have a great lineup of guests who are coming up here and they’re going to deliver that message in a palatable way for you to digest so you can shit out awesomeness. 

Brian: Wow. 

Billy: Yeah, that’s our goal this season.

Brian: Maybe we need to do a shirt with that on it. 

Billy: Oh, I like that.

Brian: That’s some good merch right there.

Billy: That is.

Brian: I shit awesomeness. People will be like, “You do what?” 

Billy: I like that. I like that. We need someone to get on that. We can start with the poop emoji.

Brian: Yep, that’d work, but like a gold sparkly poop emoji. 

Billy: Oh, yeah.

Brian: Yeah, ’cause then it’s awesome.

Billy: Yeah, because you’re shooting gold.

Brian: Right.

Billy: I mean, that’s what we do in this podcast. We just shit gold ideas.

Brian: We shit all right.

Billy: We are definitely full of shit.

Brian: That’s 100 percent.

Billy: All right. So here’s a quick rundown of who’s going to be on our show this season. 

Brian: Wait, Billy, who’s going to be on our show this season? 

Billy: Good question. Thank you for asking, and I’m going to include all of these names and their Instagram accounts and if they have books, I’m going to include that all in the show notes so make sure that you take a look at that because, again, you’re going to want to read up on these people, you’re going to want to follow these people, you’re going to want to get an idea as to what information they have out there for you to use so that you can live your best life. We fully believe in the messages that the people that we’re going to have on here share with their audiences. So, first up, next week, we have Kristen Brown coming in. Kristen is a podcast host of Energy NOW! She’s an author of several books and she’s going to be talking about how to unlock your best self. You can follow her at @SpeakerKristen.

Brian: She has a dynamic personality from what I can tell.

Billy: She has an amazing personality. She is a lot of fun. I can’t wait for you to catch that interview. And one thing that I have learned is that when people reach our age, they’re kind of in a transition with their career, like they’re getting maybe a little burnt out in their career or they want to explore something else and they just don’t know how to do that. So we’re bringing in career coach Dr. Dawn Graham. You can follow her at @DrDawnGraham on Instagram. You can also listen to her podcast, which is called Dr. Dawn on Careers. She has a book called Switchers and she’s just going to teach us how to successfully switch careers at this stage in your life. And then, from there, we’re going to bring on my friend Jill Dahler. She is a life coach and she actually transitioned from corporate America to opening her own yoga studio and becoming a life coach. And Jill very much tells it like it is. She’s just a very straight shooter. You’re going to enjoy her story. The next we have Scott Welle. He’s going to talk about Outperform the Norm and he’s got a podcast called Outperform. He’s got a couple books that deal with Outperform the Norm. He is a great motivational speaker. Looking forward to having him in. He actually spoke to my students a couple of years ago. It’s really great to have them in there talk about how to outperform the norm. We’re going to bring on John Wessinger and he has a book called Ride the Wave: How to Embrace Change and Create a Powerful New Relationship with Risk and that’s what he’s going to talk about is he’s going to talk about the importance of taking healthy risks. We will have Teresa Sande on the show and she is going to talk about overcoming impostor syndrome. I can’t wait to have that conversation with her. That’s something that I personally struggle with is impostor syndrome and, really, it just kind of comes down to do you believe in yourself enough and she’s going to tell us how to believe and make our best lives come true. We are going to bring on Brett Hill. I was actually on Brett Hill’s podcast, The Language of Mindfulness, and I will let everybody know when that episode is coming out. He’s going to talk to us about the language of mindfulness because we can have all of this great information from these amazing guests but if we don’t take the time to be mindful of all the information that we’re taking in, then that information can become overwhelming. And, of course, we’re going to finish off our season with two return heavy hitters, two of our favorites. Tom Cody is coming back. He’s going to talk about the book, Rebalanced Living, Rebalance Thinking, cannot wait to have Tom Cody back on. And then the last episode, we welcome back Dr. Yvette Erasmus and she is going to talk about finding our meaning and purpose through self-journey, which is going to be a very fitting discussion for us to have because I have some exciting news that I’m going to share later. So, we’re actually going to take a quick break, but while we do that, we have a little assignment for you, okay? So the teacher in me is coming out right now. I would like you to either text me and/or Brian, you can email us, you can DM us, send us something you’ve accomplished in the past few months and we would like to share it throughout the season with our listeners and our followers. We’ll always ask your permission to share whatever it is that you send us but everyone out there listening to this episode has done something they should be proud of, okay? And that could literally be, “I got out of bed and went to work when I didn’t want to,” or it could be, “I called in sick at work because I just needed to take some time to rest.” Nothing is too small. We want you to celebrate your accomplishments by sending them to us so that we can celebrate them for you. Send us an accomplishment. That might be something that starts your day off a little bit better. Maybe you’re having a rough day and you need to take some time to think about what you have accomplished. And the answer isn’t nothing. You have accomplished something, maybe just getting to work today was something that you’re proud of. Brian, what’s something that you’re proud of?

Brian: I got a bunch of audio edited last night.

Billy: Nice. 

Brian: Yeah. 

Billy: For what project?

Brian: For Gen X.

Billy: For Gen X? 

Brian: Yeah.

Billy: Nicely done. Nicely done.

Brian: So that was a small accomplishment.

Billy: Yeah. I’ll tell you what, a big accomplishment that I’m feeling right now, I’m feeling really good about the connections that we have made the past few months. 

Brian: Oh, yeah. 

Billy: I mean, like think about, we connected with Tandra Rutledge —

Brian: Great.

Billy: — who is just an amazing human being.

Brian: Amazing. 

Billy: And if you haven’t listened to those episodes on prioritizing and normalizing mental health conversations with your children and raising a child with ADD and ADHD, please go back and listen to those. Tandra is just amazing. But she has put me in contact here recently with the Minnesota Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and we’re hoping to partner up with them to do some volunteer work for their 2025 project that they have going on. She talked about that in that episode. Recently, I was featured in an Instagram article, Brian. Did you notice it? 

Brian: No, I did not. 

Billy: Yeah. The article was written by Melissa Morales and you can look it up on Off Mute with Mel and she’s got these great vignettes that she writes about people that she encounters and really what she’s doing is she’s just sharing people’s stories, because everybody has a story and she meets these beautiful people and she shares their stories in these very short Instagram vignettes and —

Brian: That’s kind of what we’re doing. 

Billy: Yeah, yeah. And I just love the work that Mel is doing. She’s such a bright soul in this world. So shout-out to you, Mel. Thank you so much for what you’re doing. And through her, I connected with another guy, his name is Kevin Palmieri and he hosts a podcast called Next Level University. Pretty much doing a lot of the same things that we’re doing. He’s trying to help people live their best lives. There’s a lot of people out there doing that, and those of you who are return listeners to us, thank you for choosing us. We really appreciate it. But don’t neglect these other amazing people who are out there too like Kevin. He’s given me some advice on some possible next steps for where we can take this idea in the future. So, one thing we’re going to talk about in this season, season 3, is that your network equals your net worth and I think we’ve talked about that before and the reason why I think that’s so important is because I feel like the connections we make moving forward are what keep burnout at bay. I mean, it’s something that Tom Cody talked about in episode 10 that if you’re feeling burnout, you can feel burnout at 25, 35, 45, 55 and, usually, it’s because of the people that you surround yourself with or the energy that you surround yourself with. So, I’m all about surrounding myself with amazing people moving forward and that’s why we have such an amazing guest list and, Brian, I know surrounding yourself with amazing people is one of your goals. So, when we come back, we’re going to talk about some of our future goals and how you too can use goal setting as a jumping off point for living your best life. Thank you for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. 

Thank you for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. If you’re enjoying what you’ve heard so far, please do us a favor and hit the Subscribe button. Also, giving our show a quick five-star review with a few kind words helps us on our quest to reach the top of the podcast charts. Finally, since you can’t make a mixtape for your friends and loved ones like you used to do, share this podcast with them instead. We hope our experiences resonate with others and inspire people to live their best lives. Thanks again. And now, let’s take a minute to be present with our breath.

If you’re listening somewhere safe and quiet, close your eyes and slowly inhale for four, three, two, one. Hold for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Slowly exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Let’s do that one more time. Inhale for four, three, two, one. Hold for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Slowly exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Go ahead and open your eyes. You feel better? We certainly hope so. And now, back to the show.

Billy: Welcome back to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. We hope you took some time to send us your accomplishments. We will post those on our Instagram, we will share those in our episodes, with your permission, of course. So, Brian, you and I have some big accomplishments coming up here soon. We are both just about to take another trip around the old sun.

Brian: So you’re Leo too?

Billy: Yeah.

Brian: Wow, two Leos, just strong Leos laying down a podcast.

Billy: That’s why this podcast has so much energy to it. 

Brian: You’re right.

Billy: Yeah, all the best people are Leos.

Brian: This is true. I can’t argue with you. 

Billy: You know, I was only four days old when Elvis Presley died. 

Brian: Oh, wow. I remember when Elvis died. 

Billy: Yeah, I like to think that even Elvis knew that there was only room for one king.

Brian: No, I’m sorry, I remember John Belushi. I was a little young for Elvis. I remember actually seeing a red screen back in the day on the old console tube TV, it was a red screen and it said “Breaking News” and they found John Belushi.

Billy: I didn’t remember John Belushi, I just remember Animal House, of course, is a classic but I never understood John Belushi’s genius, just like I don’t understand Einstein’s genius. But, yeah, so you’re turning 48.

Brian: Yeah. 

Billy: Excellent. I am turning 44. So, if you want, you can include birthday messages to both me and Brian as Brian’s birthday is the 1st —

Brian: Yeah, 1st.

Billy: — and my birthday is the 12th and then we have some other friends of ours who are also August birthdays. So, every year, my friend Mitch and I organize a meat sweats birthday luncheon and, in the past, we have gone to Fogo de Chão for lunch. 

Brian: Oh, that place is so good.

Billy: A little Brazilian steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis.

Brian: They just pretty much wheelbarrow meat directly into your face.

Billy: It’s my favorite. 

Brian: Yeah, it’s good. 

Billy: And then, this year, we are doing Pittsburgh Blue in Edina. So what we’d like to do is we like to get about five, six, seven of us together and then we order probably about four steaks and then we ask them to slice it up and we do a steak tasting. 

Brian: Oh, that’s cool. I’m glad you said Edina because I would have shown up straight in Maple Grove. 

Billy: Oh, yeah, yeah, we’re going to go — yeah, we’re going to go to Edina because we’re very fancy. You know, Edina —

Brian: Cake eaters.

Billy: Yes. Sorry to all of our Edina listeners out there. Who are we kidding? 

Brian: They like it. 

Billy: They do like it or they’re probably too fancy for us. We’re a little too blue collar for them.

Brian: Maybe we’re a little too Plymouth for them.

Billy: I like that. I like that. All right. Only Twin Cities people are laughing at that joke right there. 

Brian: Right, they’re like, “Well, I don’t get it.”

Billy: We have international listeners and they’re like, “I don’t understand what these guys are talking about. I’m just gonna turn them off.” All right, please don’t, we’ll stop talking about it. Okay. Let’s get back here. So we are talking about goals in this segment right here and, Brian, I asked you, what are some short-term, long-term goals that you have?

Brian: When you asked me that question, I kind of thought about blanket goals because I have a lot of small — I’m a goal setter so I do a lot of small goal setting stuff but, in general, I want to hang out with the cool people in the cool places doing something fun and making money while I’m doing it.

Billy: So what are some of the small goals that you set so that you can actually do those four things?

Brian: Boy, let’s see. I haven’t had a chance to even think about this because being you asked me, it was not too long ago.

Billy: Yeah, I kind of sprung this on you.

Brian: And it was in the middle of work so I haven’t had much time to think about it. I’m like doing all this other shit. So, let’s see. What are some small things? I go to work every day, I go to band practice, that sort of stuff, you have to practice to get good at what you’re going to be doing so, obviously, I consider work practice.

Billy: What was the goal with the band that you’re starting up?

Brian: I want to play the big shows. I want to do some bigger shows. So, theaters, the festival stuff in the summer, that’s really what I’m after. That’s the fun stuff.

Billy: Excellent. And those would definitely chalk off all four of those bullet points right there —

Brian: Exactly. 

Billy: — if you were doing a festival shows.

Brian: Hanging out with cool people doing fun stuff. Yeah.

Billy: Yeah, that’s awesome. You know me, I’m very meticulous in my approach to things so I made SMART goals and I think —

Brian: Oh.

Billy: Yeah. So if you don’t know what SMART goals are, it means that they’re specific, they’re measurable, they’re actionable, they’re realistic, and they are time sensitive. So I made these SMART goals right here. So, one, I want to strength train at least twice a week. Now, I’m pretty good about that but I’m not always consistent about it. So if I went, I probably will go like eight times a month or something like that, which on average works out, but there might be a time when there’s two weeks where I don’t work out at all and then I’ll pop back into it.

Brian: I’m on a tangent here for a second then because this is interesting and I’m very curious about it, because this pertains directly to my physical health as well. Two times a week. I’m really surprised to hear you say that, because usually I’m four.

Billy: Yeah, I’ll tell you that a lot of my goals are fitness related so I’ll show you what I mean by that. So I want to practice yoga at least 30 minutes a week. I do a reset recovery corrective exercise workout at least once a week. I want to continue doing that. Because like when you’re sitting at a desk job or something like that or just over the years, you have all these bad postural habits, so I’m working to correct those. And then I want to foam roll at least four days a week and I want to mobility train at least four days a week and I want to do at least 20 minutes of high-intensity interval work or low-intensity steady state or just like maybe play a sport or do some other miscellaneous fitness a week, so just like 20 minutes a week, something along those lines. So, for me, strength training, that’s important to me but then that other stuff too, I want to be able to move my whole body. I want to be able to hike when I’m 60, 70 years old. So I’ve dialed back a little bit on the strength training because I kind of lift like a bro so I do the deadlifts and the squats and that sort of stuff, but some of the research says you can get away with doing that twice a week and then incorporate some of that other stuff. So I’m okay with just doing the twice a week.

Brian: You got to watch the repetitive stuff, that’s what does the damage, right? 

Billy: Yeah, exactly, exactly, and that’s why throw in that reset recovery corrective exercise too to kind of get that back. I’ll be honest, I haven’t been great about meditating and so I want to get back into meditating more regularly. I’m kind of hit and miss with it, I’m a little spotty with it, so I want to be able to meditate at least 15 minutes a day, four days a week, right around there. And during the school year, I will always meditate in the morning and I would meditate in the evening and now I just kind of meditate in the evening and that’s ridiculous because I have more time to meditate. I think the reason why I don’t is because I’m not as stressed in the summer but I —

Brian: You don’t use it as much. 

Billy: Well, yeah, but I think the thing is, you do need it. 

Brian: You should be consistent. 

Billy: Yeah, I should be consistent with it and I shouldn’t just be using meditation when I’m in crisis or when I am stressed. I should be doing it because I think that’s a common default is that one of the tenants of meditation is gratitude and I don’t think we extend gratitude as often as we should and I don’t think we celebrate successes, that’s why I wanted everybody to send us their successes here. I think we don’t do that enough. I don’t think that we’re reflective on what’s positive. It’s really easy to default to whatever is negative. 

Brian: Oh, and a lot of people do it, yeah.

Billy: Yeah, and I’m one of them and I spin narratives in my head all the time and so I feel like it’s really important for me to make sure that I take the time to meditate and allow one of those meditations to extend gratitude to the amazing experiences that I have had in my life, to the amazing opportunities that are afforded to me, and really just appreciate the good that is out there rather than constantly thinking about what I don’t have or who I have wronged.

Brian: Can you ever really be thankful enough? Gratitude is one of those things that you could do it continuously and it’s a very positive thing so do it a lot. You could never do it enough.

Billy: Yeah. And I also think too like if you’re thinking to yourself, “I can never ever extend enough gratitude,” that’s all right. Don’t let that be deficit —

Brian: Don’t stress out about it.

Billy: Yeah, you just say, “Hey, you know what, I’m just gonna do it more regularly.” It’s kind of like fitness, like you could look back and say, “Oh, gosh, I haven’t done this and I haven’t done that. I haven’t lifted, I haven’t walked, and if I start now, it would be so hard.” Yeah, it would be really hard, but imagine if you just started doing that now, a year from today, you might be a completely different person. Not even might, you would be a completely different person. And I can tell you, I’ve told this story before when I was regularly meditating years and years and years ago that when I went back into my classroom, my students saw it, like they said to me, “Mr. Lahr, you sound like you are in a better mood.” And you may be able to process through some of the stress that you have, you might be able to process through future stress, you may all of a sudden recognize just how good you really do have it, like if you’ve got running water and you’ve got a roof over your head and you’ve got meals coming to you, man, you’ve got it really good. 

Brian: Absolutely. 

Billy: And that’s not to diminish any of your other compliments and say that, “Gosh, I should be more grateful,” it’s not to make you feel bad if you haven’t been grateful, it’s just to create awareness for you to be like, “Hey, you know what, there are days when I have it really good and I’m gonna acknowledge the good in my life a little bit more regularly.” And I think if you did that more consistently, you’d find that, wow, you feel a lot better emotionally, mentally, physically. Take some time, recognize those things. And then the other thing that I want to do is I want to write at least 100 entries in my five-minute journal that my Gentleman’s Guide to Inner Work coach Lecia Fox gave me. I want to write at least 100 journal entries in it. Now, there’s 365 journal entry slots for it. I’m not a journal writer so I figure if I write in there a third of the time, that’s a pretty good start. Now, obviously, I want to shoot for 365 but 100 is a good, realistic, attainable number for me to hit. So, now, the big news here that I want to share is that my last goal in the next year, so between August 12, 2021, and August 12, 2022, I want to visit at least five different countries —

Brian: That you haven’t been before? Or just five different countries?

Billy: Well, five different countries, it would be great if they were five countries that I haven’t been to before. How about this? Five different regions.

Brian: Oh, okay.

Billy: I want to go to five different regions that I have not been to before and I have an opportunity to do that. So, I’m going to extend some gratitude right now. I am actually taking a year-long leave from my job to do some traveling, to focus on this podcast, and to figure out what else this life has to offer me and what other opportunities are out there beyond what I’ve been grinding away at for the last 20 years.

Brian: You’re kind of like Caine from Kung Fu, you’re just going to walk around and have adventures.

Billy: Yeah, yeah. So that’s — and I feel extremely fortunate. I understand the role that privilege plays in that as well. So we’re going to take a quick break and then when we come back, I’m going to talk about what my plan is for that adult gap year. Thank you for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. 

Thanks for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. We will do our best to put out new content every Wednesday to help get you over the midweek hump. If you’d like to contact us or if you have suggestions about what you’d like us to discuss, feel free to email us at mindfulmidlifecrisis@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram at @Mindful_Midlife_Crisis. Check out the show notes for links to the articles and resources we reference throughout the show. Oh, and don’t forget to show yourself some love every now and then too. And now, back to the show.

Billy: Welcome back to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. Brian and I are talking about SMART goals and we’re talking about future plans and I’ve got big future plans coming up. We’ve teased it a few times. If you follow us on Instagram at @Mindful_Midlife_Crisis, you know what the plan is. And that plan is to take a leave of absence from my job for the next year and do whatever I want. When I say it like that, it sounds selfish or it sounds —

Brian: You look pretty happy when you said it.

Billy: But I am so happy. It’s like, “What should I do with that time?” and I am very much somebody who knows what the next 15 minutes of his life is going to look like. I’m very structured. And what’s crazy is I have no idea what the next 15 months of my life are going to look like. Not a clue. And I’m at ease with that. And three years ago, I would not have been at ease with that at all, like that would not be something that I would be able to get to. So I feel really good about finding meaning and purpose through self-journey, that’s what Dr. Yvette Erasmus is going to talk to us about and that’s what this trip is all about. 

Brian: I got it. We have to get a code word, Billy. We need a code word now, okay? In case you end up hallucinating in a yurt somewhere, you need to text me a certain word and I’ll come get you.

Billy: Do you think though that — I’m not going to have cell service in a yurt.

Brian: Okay, send a pigeon, whatever you do, we got to have a code word. 

Billy: Do you think I’m going to be coherent enough to send you a code word? 

Brian: Yeah, we’re going to pre-program it and so all you have to do is hit Send and then I’ll be like, “Oh, Billy’s in trouble. Let’s go get him.”

Billy: Oh, man. All right, we’ll come up with a code word.

Brian: How about “smashing”? 

Billy: Smashing? Yes. 

Brian: Okay. 

Billy: Yes. If I send you —

Brian: How are you doing, Billy?

Billy: And I say I’m smashing. 

Brian: I’m on a plane. 

Billy: Yes. 

Brian: Okay, deal. 

Billy: Wait, are you just on a plane to anywhere or —

Brian: No, I will find you. I’ll be like, “Oh, Billy’s in trouble.”

Billy: Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I hope that I don’t get into those kinds of situations. I’m not a big “Let’s go trip some balls” kind of guy. 

Brian: You don’t want to take ayahuasca.

Billy: I will say this. I would be curious —

Brian: To do one of those —

Billy: — to do ayahuasca spiritual journey but I don’t need a Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing kind of experience. 

Brian: Oh, no, he just pretty much did everything that came his way. He was like, “Yeah, I’ll take that and put it in my body.”

Billy: Yeah, I don’t need anything like that. So, my original plan was to go to Southeast Asia for five months so I was going to leave in January of 2022 and I was going to go to Thailand and I was going to bounce around from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, fly on down to Krabi and then over to Phuket and I wanted to paddleboard off the coast of Asia in the Indian Ocean because that’s a big bucket list item for me is to paddleboard off the coast of every continent and in every ocean.

Brian: But you decided not to do that? You decided to say Phuket.

Billy: Well. 

Brian: Yes, thank you. I’ll be here all night, folks. 

Billy: Beautiful, well executed. 

Brian: Thank you.

Billy: No, none of those countries, only Phuket, only the island of Phuket in Thailand is open. They call it the Phuket sandbox. Thailand is not open. They are not allowing people in. Japan is not letting anybody in. Singapore and Malaysia are not letting anybody in, and South Korea is doing 14-day quarantine. So, I didn’t want to do that. And I am nervous that COVID is going to get in the way of this because as we’re recording this today, numbers are on the rise, but I did buy a ticket to Portugal and I’m going to go to — I’m flying to Lisbon and then I’m going to take a train up to, it’s called Aveiro. They call it the Venice of Portugal so it’s got all these canals and stuff like that and they’ve got the gondolier boats over there and that —

Brian: Italy’s on my list. Scotland and Italy. 

Billy: Yeah. And then, so that’s just a day trip, and I’m going to go to Porto. So, everything I’ve read about Porto is that it’s the best city in Portugal. 

Brian: Wow. 

Billy: Yeah. So I’m going to spend about two weeks in Porto.

Brian: Who said that? The Chamber of Commerce from Porto?

Billy: Yeah, they put out a lot of YouTube videos with a bunch of young millennials who like to travel, but then I’m going to head back down to Lisbon. I’m actually going to live in Lisbon for a month. 

Brian: Wow. 

Billy: Yeah. So I’m going to stay in Lisbon for a month and then I’m going to go down to Lagos, that’s where the Algarves are and Algarves have all these beautiful caves and cliffs along the Atlantic Ocean. 

Brian: I don’t know any of those words you’re saying.

Billy: Yeah. Caves and cliffs?

Brian: Yeah.

Billy: So, yeah, so I’m going to head down there and spend about two weeks there. And if I can, my next journey is going to take me over to the Cinque Terre in Italy so I’m just going to go down those five towns. Are you familiar with the Cinque Terre? 

Brian: No.

Billy: They’re five very small coastal towns and they are all literally within walking distance from one another. So there’s a Cinque Terre trail and you just get on the trail and you can walk from one town to the next town to the next town to the next town to the next town. 

Brian: Wow. That’s pretty cool. 

Billy: Yeah, yeah. So whenever you see the stock photos of cliff side homes in Italy with brightly colored like red, yellow —

Brian: I know exactly what you’re talking about. That’s the Cinque Terre? 

Billy: That’s the Cinque Terre.

Brian: Oh, super cool. 

Billy: Yeah. Usually those are like Corniglia, that’s usually the town is and that’s the third one in and it’s way up on — it’s the most rocky of the five. And then I’m going to go over, because the closest airport from the Cinque Terre is Pisa and I’ve been told don’t go to Pisa.

Brian: Don’t go to Pisa?

Billy: But I’m only going to go there for a day so I can take the tourist picture.

Brian: Billy, what’s wrong with Pisa? 

Billy: I guess it’s over tourist —

Brian: Oh, okay, so it’s just touristy, not necessarily there’s something wrong with it, just touristy.

Billy: It’s touristy. I’ve not heard good reviews of Pisa.

Brian: Well, that is interesting because they got that leaning tower there. 

Billy: They do, so I’ll take the ridiculous photo because why not.

Brian: You have to. Which one are you going to do? 

Billy: I’ll probably just find someone to take a picture of me and then I’ll pick the one that’s the best and post it. 

Brian: Oh, okay. 

Billy: Yeah. So I’ll do that. And then from Pisa Airport, I can fly to Valencia, Spain, hopefully. 

Brian: Pizza sounds good right now, I’m kind of hungry. Anyway, continue. Valencia, Spain. Valencia. 

Billy: It is a national cheesecake day today. 

Brian: Oh, well, hello there. 

Billy: Yes. So I’m actually on my way to Muddy Paws when we are done with this because they have cheesecake slices. Very delicious. 

Brian: Oh, yes.

Billy: Cheesecake at Muddy Paws. 

Brian: Yep. 

Billy: But, yeah, so then I’m going to fly to Valencia, Spain, and do about five days there. Go to Madrid for five days. Go to Seville, I think it’s pronounced Sevilla down there. 

Brian: Yeah, Sevilla.

Billy: But I’m going to need to brush up on my Spanish and my Italian and my Portuguese —

Brian: They’re almost the same.

Billy: — very similar, yes. And then I’ll go back to Madrid and then I’ll fly back to the States. Now, my best friend lives in Fort Lauderdale, he lives in Parkland, so I could fly into Miami and spend some time with him and then be back to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Now, that’s only late November. I still have a lot of time left before the next school year starts because I might go back to my job at my high school. I won’t go back to that dean position, that has been decided. I will not go back to that dean position. 

Brian: Oh, wow. 

Billy: But I would consider going back to the classroom. If Southeast Asia isn’t open, then I might just get into adventures as I make my way west. My sister lives in Seattle so I could get my car and just swoop around the southwest and go down to Texas, over to White Sands National Park, to Albuquerque, visit some friends in Phoenix, go to Joshua Tree, maybe go up to Yosemite, maybe go up to Lake Tahoe. 

Brian: Tahoe’s great. 

Billy: I’ve never been.

Brian: Oh, my God, so nice. I’ve done Tahoe before and it is so gorgeous. 

Billy: And then take Tahoe over to the coast and just drive up the California-Oregon-Washington coast and stay with my sister for however long she lets me stay with her.

Brian: A lot of cool stuff up there too in that Northern California, it’s just amazing. 

Billy: But then if I can get over there and Southeast Asia is open, then I can fly from Seattle to Bangkok, or if South Korea is open, maybe I’ll just go over there. Tokyo is number one on my bucket list and has been number one on my bucket list since I was six years old. 

Brian: Do you think the Japanese are going to open it up for you?

Billy: I don’t know. If you’re a listener in Japan, could you please work on getting me some sort of visa that allows me into the country? 

Brian: That would be helpful. He really wants to go bad, guys.

Billy: I really, really would appreciate that. In fact, I would consider becoming a citizen of Japan. 

Brian: Wow. Actually, I should put you in touch with a friend of mine who lives over there right now. 

Billy: I would actually love any connections that anybody has to any of these places. 

Brian: I will do it. I’ll give you his information right after this and I’ll start a thread with all of us on it so you can ask him questions. He lives there and has lived there, he’s an expat, and I think he’s been there for 10 or 15 years. 

Billy: And here’s the thing, I could go back to my teaching job here in Minnesota but I could teach anywhere.

Brian: They are ravenous for English teachers in the rest of the world, as far as I’ve understood. 

Billy: And the reason why I’m choosing to do this journey now is because I’ve been saying for years that I wanted to travel abroad, that I would consider teaching overseas, but I always had my dog, and I didn’t want to take my dog overseas, she was getting older and I just wanted to spend my time with her. So then she passed away in April of 2020, which was actually good timing, as bittersweet as that was.

Brian: She was very courteous to you, even in death.

Billy: She was and very sweet, because that’s who she was as a little dog. But it actually gave me a whole year to plan out this leave and plan out this trip. Now, obviously, COVID is getting in the way of what my original plan was but that happens. How do we adapt? And keep in mind, this is a privilege to do this kind of traveling. But I could have been disappointed that I’m not doing what my plan A was, but, boy, plan B, C through Z, all are really amazing experiences. 

Brian: Well, I would look at it this way, Billy. You didn’t get to plan one trip, you get to plan two. 

Billy: Yeah. And what’s interesting is I really have no expectations about where I go. And, again, that’s so unlike me because I oftentimes walk into a situation with an expectation, I definitely am guilty of assumptions, and —

Brian: Aren’t we all?

Billy: Yeah, and so, ultimately, what I really want to get out of this trip, because a lot of people ask me, “Why are you going?” and my typical response is because I can, and what I want to get out of this trip is I just want to be open to whatever comes my way. I’d like to make new connections that add to my self-worth and, really, I really just want to learn to love myself more and believe that I’m deserving of happiness. And that’s a real struggle off for me because I’m such a perfectionist and I’m so persistent about my pursuits and I have high expectations of myself and I have high expectations of others and I have high expectations of the experiences that, a lot of times, it just gets in the way of being open to whatever comes my way. And I think whatever energy we put out into this world is what comes back to us and that’s really going to be a recurring theme throughout this season. How do we unblock and then tap into the positive energy around us? And I know that sounds corny, I get it, I get it, because I felt that way for a long time too, that when people would talk about energy, I’m like, “That’s so dumb,” and I would tune out. There’s something to it and the research that we’ve looked at, it really sheds light on that and the more I reflect on who and what I’ve prioritized and surrounded myself with in the past, I’ve realized just how toxic I allowed myself to be at times and, at the same time, I can’t change any of that. So I also know that I need to let go of those mistakes and I need to forgive myself for those mistakes and move on so I can be the best version of myself. And I’m excited to first talk to all of the amazing guests that we’re going to have coming on this season. A lot of it is for me selfishly, I’ve picked these guests because I want to get into the right headspace going into this journey with love and contentment in my heart so that I can report back to all of our listeners during season 4 about my experience and share with you what I’ve been learning and how I’ve been growing from them. 

Brian: So you’re going to come back and we’re going to have this giant organ intro for the first episode and you’ll have flowing robes and you’ll float into the room. 

Billy: I’m going to — how many doves do you think you could fit in this office? 

Brian: I’ve been asked that before and it’s 42.

Billy: But the cleanup is hell.

Brian: Yeah. How much time you got? 

Billy: Yeah. But if you’re also wondering, like, okay, well, what’s going to happen with the podcast while you’re overseas, Brian and I are still going to record episodes, like we’ll just be in different time zones. Just so you know, 4 p.m. is 10 p.m. in Portugal. 

Brian: Okay, so there’s a six-hour time difference. 

Billy: Yes. I think that’s about what it is. So, yeah, I’ll —

Brian: So that’s not bad. We could do — yeah, like you’d be doing it later, I’d be doing it early. 

Billy: Yeah, exactly. So we’ll be just fine. That’s why Jesus invented the internet. 

Brian: That’s exactly right. I know, I was telling people that. 

Billy: Yeah. So we’re going to be able to stay connected and we’re going to be able to update you on those travels. And here’s the other thing too. It’s not going to turn into a travel podcast.

Brian: Oh, it’s not?

Billy: No. 

Brian: Okay. No travel podcast. 

Billy: Well, I feel like people are going to want to know what’s cool, like we talk about food and restaurants all the time on this show so I will definitely talk about what’s good and what’s cool in the places that I’ve been to, but I also want to talk about the people that we meet, I want to talk about the experiences that I’m having.

Brian: You want to relate more to how the travel has changed you personally rather than, “Hey, what’s out there?”

Billy: Correct. And the other thing too is this: I don’t want people to think that you have to travel around the world in order to have an awakening or to have some enlightenment. You could have enlightenment lying in your bed. You could have enlightenment or an awakening practicing mindfulness. You could have an awakening on the drive to work. You don’t have to go on this journey. I’m just choosing to do it because it’s something that I have always wanted to do and I’m not married, I don’t have kids, I don’t have those responsibilities, I have the flexibility in my job to take this leave, that’s what I mean when I’m talking about privileges. And so I’m not going to feel guilty about those privileges. I have felt guilty about being such a privileged person in the past and, right now, I’m going to simply go about living these experiences and being grateful that I get to have these experiences and not take them for granted. Now, Brian, I am going to miss you. 

Brian: Likewise, Billy, I’ll miss you.

Billy: On a scale of one to ten —

Brian: Yeah, but we’ll still talk.

Billy: Yeah, we’ll still talk, but, here’s the thing, it’s your face.

Brian: I know, I’m pretty fucking sexy, I know this. People tell me that all the time. 

Billy: No, you are devilishly handsome. 

Brian: I know this.

Billy: On a scale of one to ten, how much are you going to miss me? 

Brian: Wait, one to ten?

Billy: Yeah, where one is you won’t miss me at all and ten —

Brian: Okay, you got to elaborate.

Billy: Yeah, ten is where you will complete — like you can’t live without me. 

Brian: You want to know exactly?

Billy: Give me an estimate. 

Brian: No, let’s go exact. 

Billy: Okay. 

Brian: 8.04629Q. 

Billy: That’s — you’re going to miss me a lot. 

Brian: That’s a lot.

Billy: I feel like it’s the Q that takes it to the next level right there.

Brian: Yeah, it really does that, yeah, it’s a quadratic equation.

Billy: So if you really want to follow what the self-journey is going to look like, follow us on Instagram at @Mindful_Midlife_Crisis. Join, follow, like our Facebook page at Mindful Midlife Crisis Podcast. If you have suggestions for me on what to do or what to eat or what to see or what to experience in Portugal or Italy or Spain or if you or someone you know lives in Portugal, Italy, or Spain, DM us or email us at mindfulmidlifecrisis@gmail.com. Let’s make a connection because that’s what this season is all about is making connections, unblocking our energy, and living the best lives we have left to live. So, for Brian, this is Billy, thank you for listening to The Mindful Midlife Crisis. May you feel happy, healthy, and loved. Take care, friends.