This is Digital Podcaster host d by Dylan Schmi All right, I got this thing recorded Finally, or recording finally. So I'm coming to you live from an air stream in Idyllwild, California. And th setup to just recording this ha been such an adventure venture Not even talking totally right Also haven't talked that much i the last 48 hours to anybody o anything with my voice. So it' kind of fun. I guess I have t explain a little bit about wha I'm doing here in Idlewild. Wh I'm in an Airstream, why I' recording this, cetera, all tha good stuff. This will probabl be a longer episode, but migh find it interesting and helpfu for you on your own creativ path. So I am doing a thin where every quarter I take solo trip somewhere. And didn't take a trip last quarter which would have bee summertime. Because I gotte married. Life was extra busy But right before the las quarter, I did take a solo trip And I stayed in igloo in Joshu Tree. It was really fun b myself. And it was actually Christmas gift my wife gave m and I stayed in in igloo. And I It was weird. It was like hard It was hard to take the time fo myself. I was the whole time was like kind of felt a littl bit guilty that I was there. didn't really have much plans In an igloo by myself. It wa kind of weird. But I went o this like solo off roadin truck. I have a truck, fou wheel drive truck. So I took i off roading by myself, lik really deep into Joshua Tre National Park. And then thi time around, I am staying in. O yeah. Let me finish more abou that. So I'm in Joshua Tree, a an igloo by myself. And the ide came up of having an alter ego So I don't know where the ide came from. I was driving bac from going to this place calle salvation mountain. That's bee in a bunch of movies. And it' this artists like, I'm guess think in the 70s 80s 90s, an are even sure when he went ou to this random place, I thin New York called Slab City o that's what they call it. An it's been in the movie into th wild. It's really colorful, lik Painted Hills, be transforme into this thing. And it say Jesus is love. It's really cool But I was out there just kind o moseying around, doing my ow little adventure. And then I wa driving back. And I don't know I just had this like stron feeling of an alter ego. An what would an alter ego be fo me? And what could I do with a alter ego? Because I don't kno he just kind of fun idea like do the idea about parts. Like w all have different parts insid of us. We're not made up of jus one thing, right? We have on part of us likes this, or on part of us likes that. An integrating those parts is o course important. But what if had an alter ego, that part o that part was something that I' not currently and what woul that look like probably sound schizophrenic or something. Bu I go out to their slabs, Sla City by myself, the place is little sketchy by yourself. An I would never suggest anyone g out there by themselves especially at night, especiall if they're not able to protec themselves in any way. So I' driving back and I'm jus thinking about what my alter eg would be like. And it was lik the early ideas of formin digital podcasts are like didn't know exactly what it wa gonna be like, but I'm in thi igloo. And they said it had W Fi and the Wi Fi just worke terribly. So it didn't reall have Wi Fi barely had service, couldn't really view pictures i they if my wife sent them to me like I just couldn't downloa them. And this little iglo thing is so tiny. They were lik spiders in there, it took hour to get out there, it normall should take two and a half three hours from where I live. forget how long it took six o seven hours to get out ther just because of traffic. And was only there for the weekend And then and so I'm having thes like ideas, this downloads o what I what my alter ego woul be like so I made this whol list what is my alter ego dres like all these things. And started like creating thi picture of this person. And i was kind of like creating almos like a video game character o what this person was like, woul be like, and describing you personality, like creating person from scratch in vide games, yo can sometimes create your own character. And that's what I felt like I was doing it was like, what's his personality? What's his clothes, let's describe in detail of his wardrobe. All that stuff, which is interesting to think about others is this guy that wrote a book called alter ego. I think it's by Todd Herman. And I don't think I bought the book that weekend, but I was listening to an interview he did on YouTube about his book and I'm like, I don't really want I don't have time right now because I'm like so in the zone. I'm also out in Joshua Tree. I don't have time to read the whole book, but I do and I would like to get the summarized version and actionable steps of creating an alter ego so I was like listening to that while I was driving. And it just felt like I was driving a lot that weekend. And now that I think of it I've been driving a lot this weekend, which is funny because I don't drive that much. I work from home and primarily And I used to travel a lot. But I don't I'm kind of in my place of work like I have my own office in the house, but I really have not much outside of that. And I'm not like going to a specific place where like, my ideas are born and all that stuff other than my office, which I have a lot of ideas born there. And so it was an interesting getaway in Joshua Tree and I think that was like last April or May, I believe it was. And it was really nice. Like the, the, the igloo was like straight out of Star Wars that look like that place where Luke Skywalker was like a kid. And I liked it. I liked it a lot. I don't think I would stay there again, though, because I don't know. It was like more of a place where you'd go with somebody. Funny thing is to like, there was only like one bed in igloo. It's pretty small. And you could sleep two people there comfortably. But that's it, Max. But around the igloo, there was like this barbecue. And like all these benches and chairs, and I'm thinking like, I guess you could entertain people there. But then one Pete one person sleeps there. But you know, one, I don't know. Like, it would just be like the floor. And then there's spiders. So who's staying at this place? I don't really know what it's used for. Also, there was an outhouse. There was no bathroom inside the igloo case you're wondering. And as my first time and since I think it was a kid using an outhouse. I think we had a family friend handout house years ago. And so yeah, so like a lot was born on that trip, a lot of ideas came to me. And then I was thinking I was mapping out I was looking at, like, my year. And I tried to look more at a high level of my calendar rather than looking at it like day by day and week by week, because it's hard for me to plan in vacations when I'm looking at it. So close up front, I don't know what's happening. And like a couple weeks, I have to either scroll through, or I'm just like, by chance looking ahead in my calendar. And I'm not the best at planning vacations. Because Because of that, because I'm only looking at like a day or a week at a time. It's so dry up here and the altitude is high, I have to keep taking, I have to keep digging the drinks. So I bought this like dry erase your calendar, where I could map out where I'm going to be in when and where I might be might be just like a mental thing. I might have some event thing I'm helping with or something going on someone's birthday, some some important event that like I just can't get away. So I mapped that all out. And I was like, Oh, this is a great weekend in October is a great weekend to get away so I didn't you know, have any plans of what I was going to do. And then sure enough, we get closer to the time where I need to schedule. What I'm going to do because it's now Thursday night, I'm watching the Dodger nlds game outside we set up in our backyard we first time we set up like a inflatable projector and we're just watching TV and watching the baseball game outside and it's like nighttime, and I'm just like, Man, this week's going by so fast. Also, my wife's asked me repeatedly, what are you doing for your solo trip? I'm like, I haven't done anything yet. I've just been so focused on whatever project I have in that moment. And that's basically why I don't quite schedule my getaway times. Because I'm so in the moment. So I'm just like looking at places on Airbnb. I'm just like, I don't know, started bookmarking places, and then looking Idlewild. And I saw this air stream and I was like, Oh, this place looks good. And then I like book it and then it gets accepted. And I'm just like, holy cow. That's tomorrow. I gotta go tomorrow. Well, I guess I got a pack tomorrow. Okay. And it's I learned my lesson last time kind of, I guess, not yet about how early I needed to leave because traffic getting out of LA is like terrible. Like I said, you go into Joshua Tree last time I had normally it take me like three hours most to get there. If I was leaving, like during like non rush non traffic hours and it took me like six or seven hours last time. It was just horrendous I get there. I'm just like tired of driving and just feels just a downer, I get in after all that traffic, you don't have time to go somewhere to eat. Because it's kind of a desolate place. There's not a lot of food options anyways. And at that point, you just want to get whatever and then relax. And so I'm like, Okay, I'll need to leave that I need to leave at what do they say I'll leave around noon or one. I thought yeah, I'll be fine, you know, really can't be that busy around 12 or one because last time I had left, right during peak hours, like five o'clock. So I get on the road at 1230 or one and right away traffic, just non stop traffic all the way there. And sure enough, it's the same exact thing as last time. And so I'm not really creative in traffic. It's like, constantly stop, go stop, go stop, go going under like, I don't know, 15 miles per hour or less. I'm not creative in that I'm just listening to a podcast and just focused on what I need to do there. Also, I'm like, Okay, well maybe I'll call and reschedule some appointments that I needed to reschedule. I got the time. phone's not working. For some reason. My phone just would. I could listen to podcast but I wasn't able to make calls. Nobody could hear me on the other side. And I'm calling people and they're just like it's not bringing keep hanging up I'm just like alright restart my phone the whole thing nothing's working sitting in traffic hours going by it just nothing is opening up and I'm sitting there for like hours by now and it's six o'clock I've just been on the road and patrol I gotten one wrong lane and it set me back another 45 minutes right around where I was supposed to turn for some reason there was like this blocked off lane with like concrete on both sides like you could not get out of this lane I didn't see any warning about that either. And five miles down the road once I enter in this lane I'm like five miles down the road is where I'm supposed to get off but there's blocked off random lane with like concrete walls on both side sides is just for next 20 miles or something I'm like what what is this for and why is that? Why can't I get out of this lane? set me back like 45 minutes at least. And so I finally make it to the Airbnb get here it's six or seven hours by that point that I've been driving. Airbnb host wants to go over everything with me and I get it. I don't know she wants to really make sure I'm well taken care of. But I just got in here you're trying to find the place. It's dark. I'm in the forest. She's not here. She's like calling me phone's breaking up all that stuff. Okay, she's walking me through step by step. She wants me to start touching every light. I mean, she hadn't touched 12 lights or something around the whole place. I'm just like, she's okay. There's a light above the kitchen sink. Touch it. Okay. All right to your left there's a light above the stove, touch it. Okay. And I was like I'm just going I'm so tired by this point. I'm just going with it. I'm like, Okay, I'm doing all these lights and I'm just like I want to go to the bathroom. I just want to lay down I just I'm just just want to chill out for a minute and and Her phone's like breaking up so I can't even fully understand what she say and I'm just like this is a nightmare. This lady is just she I'm sure I know. She means well she's she's eating soup while she's talking to me I'm not a big fan of food noises when people are when I'm listening to people she's eating soup talking to me. This soup is amazed it's cutting out I'm just like oh okay all right this is how it's gonna be I'm just surrendering to the moment this is part of the trip this patient's This is patients so I What do I do I just go with it you can't do nothing lay down TVs at least work in Wi Fi is mediocre whatever. Just patience I'm just seeing Okay, the whole theme is patient so that's what it was last weekend last Sunday night I had a little bit of anxiety and it was just like patients it is just patients like on my phone wallpaper patients patients patients what what can I do here and what am I going to do anyways because I don't make any plans on these creative trips. I just I just go I just go with them but I'm not here to necessarily do anything I'm here to exist and whatever happens happens that's what's gonna be is gonna be and so it's funny I'm like really wanting to go somewhere and do something and there's really nothing I have planned there's nothing I'm going to do. What am I going to do once I get off the phone with her? I don't know. Turn on I don't I'm not big like TV show watch here, but I'll turn on the TV and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna watch I guess. So what do I do? Just watch TV relax. psych eyes are just like kind of tired I guess from focusing on the road focusing on just focusing on up until leaving. So I'm just like I just want to go home I do not want to go home. I mean, I kind of do I guess I just just didn't want to really be awake, tired, I guess exhausted. fall asleep. Guessing around 1030 or 11. And it's freezing. It's 40 degrees out here and I I wake up throughout the night. I'm just like, holy I gotta turn on the heater you got to turn off the heater gets too hot. Off and on off and on. And it's pretty overcast here. So I when I wake up in the morning, I'm like, Wow, it must be early. It must be like 6am and I normally get up around 730 and I'm just like, I wake up at like six and I'm just like, What? Oh man, I like I thought I woke up around six I wake up and I'm just like, wow, that was like kind of a long night of rest. And here I am waking up early I guess I'll figure out what I'm gonna do with the day I'll get started. And I look at my Washington's 930 and I'm like, Oh my gosh, now I feel late. Once again, panic sets in. I'm like, Oh no, I got to get to what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to do. But I'm gonna do something I got to get there. I got to get to this place. What place that place of doing something. So the theme is so on point with this whole trip has just been patients and trying to find that patients and the things that keep popping up testing that patients because I wake up and I'm getting texts from people who have just asked me questions and I'm just thinking I need to start my day. Everyone's already started their day, and just having to relax and just thinking to myself, there's no way I need to go. There's nothing I need to do. I just want I just need to exist. That's all just existing as an If you're having compassion on myself that that's okay, just existing is fine. And yeah, so what do I do I keep on keeping on with my day, do a little bit of work on the computer, post a video to Instagram chat with my wife just a little bit. And I am like, you know what I'm gonna go around it just go for a little drive and then head to the town that's like down the mountain. And then right next to it, there's like this place called Baker's, it's right off the 10 freeway. And they have really good Cherry Coke, like, not a big Cherry Coke guy, but it's just one of the most memorable places I've ever had that has a good Cherry Coke. They had like the shots of flavor in it. And I'm not even a big coke guy. And so I'm like, you know, I'll just go there. And my got the amount of traffic around this place. I'm in the most random desert town, it feels like the town of Beaumont. The amount of traffic in this place was blowing my mind invited me to thought it was like Los Angeles, the 405 freeway. On a regular weekday people trying to go home five o'clock, the amount of traffic was insane. And I'm like, really? like where are these people going there? This is such a deserted open town it looked like yet there was traffic everywhere. Everywhere. I wanted to go just super slow. So what do I do not okay, here's another patient's test. I'm just going to surrender. And I'm just gonna go with the flow and just have patience. That's all I can do have patience. And I guess it's I wouldn't say it's easy or hard. It's hard for me to like judge that, because it doesn't really feel like a scale. But I guess, I guess I would say it's hard. I mean, when you want to go somewhere, do you want to do something and then you just keep getting like a delay. That's not always fun. Because you know where you want to go, you know what you're going to do? You're trying to get there. And it just hit with some type of roadblock. And that happens for all of us in all sorts of different ways. And we're talking about a trip, I don't even know where I'm going as far as with this story, or where I'm going on this trip. Like I'm just here existing. I didn't have no plans. And that's the point. I had someone reach out to me on Instagram and said, No, when you do these breaks, or these creative breaks, like hyperfocus is good. Like on these retreats. I think she called them what do you what do you what do you like, plan? Or how do you plan these retreats and I'm thinking like, what and what I responded was I don't I don't worry about any hyperfocus I don't really focus on anything, my goal is to not focus like it's almost to lose focus. And let any ideas come to me that come to me. And more just be open to receiving what I need, what ideas come. And what that looks like, for me, I guess on this trip is just patients, which is powerful, which has been a theme lately is patience. And it's not easy. It's not easy at all. But yeah, and it's kind of this like, somber feeling almost lately, because when you're not practicing patience, it feels kind of like you're in a rush everywhere. And you're not really sure if you ever going to end up there, it's kind of patience is in a lot of ways, maybe the opposite of anxiety. With your anxiety, I feel like I'm always like, I've got to get there I got to get there, I got to get there and then I'm practicing patience, it's all end up where I'll end up I always think of like an archetype, at least in Southern California for that is like the mountains type people or surfers who are just very go with the flow and I like to think of him go with the flow. I am in some aspects but also when I have an idea I really want to execute on that idea. If I know what I want to do, I just want to go do it right now. Because part of me is afraid that I'm going to forget that idea and then not be able to implement that idea. Which is like to me a scary idea. I know exactly what I want to do and I know exactly what it's gonna look like and I want to do it now so I don't lose that energy behind doing it. And that's like hard for me to have those ideas and then not be able to implement them and that's something that I do regularly because if I'm home I can knock an idea out I can do something and I'm like a really I'm a really great executer at ideas and things that come up which pays off well because workwise I can I'm highly productive and highly I can get a lot of things done that most people can't but there is you know seasons inside of a day and there's there's there's times for things there's times for rest there's times for there's times for executing and there's a time for it depends on what you're executing to write Can you execute rest can you execute relaxation? And so yeah, I thought I would share this because I was also like to bring the microphone not gonna bring the podcast equipment and see but how could I not because this is becoming part of my life now is documenting this and I have always looked at podcasting is a possible way to capture the transcriptions of life in a different way. It could write, love, not a big writer. So, podcasting is another way I could just do what I'm going to do and just capture it as I go. So here I am in this Airstream this Airstream is a nice thing must have been, I'm gonna guess this thing. It was probably like$50,000. It's pretty new. Like it's got to be brand new, I would say it's the 2021 or 2020. This thing is not refurbished or something. There's no way. It's got all the bells and whistles. There's just one thing with the lights. I don't know what light it is, I got to find that out. But it's got this high pitch sound when like, it just, it sounds like it's turning off, and then it turns back on. Drives me crazy. Drives me a little mad, but I check out here tomorrow. I'm going to head home early or late tonight. I don't know, depending on what my wife is up to. And yeah, it's interesting, like took so long to get here. And then today, I just sat in so much traffic. And one could say that I didn't really get much out of the whole trip. Because what what the heck was I doing this whole time. But on the flip side, I would say I've learned exactly what I need to learn so far in this trip. And it's not over yet. I still have tonight. But yeah, just spending some time with myself has been really powerful. And I don't really know exactly what's going to happen next on this trip. Because I just go with the flow. There's literally no plans and what thought I have I just go with it. So the sun's setting here now it's 515 in the evening. So I'll probably go for a little walk just to capture maybe look around and stuff whatnot. But yeah, no real plans. I got a GoPro to shoot some video footage. I thought it would be cool to add more of a B roll style footage. I don't really know what I'm gonna do with that yet. But sure, whatever I do with it will be pretty cool. post that online. Yeah. So that's kind of my, my thing for now. Let me just make sure I hit all my notes. Yeah, and what's next? I honestly don't know. I might record another podcast while I'm here. I might not. But either way, if it's meant to be it's meant to be. And I hope that you maybe were inspired by what I'm sharing here to take some creative breaks. Or to maybe implement something like that in your own life doesn't always have to be like going to the forest to get something. Another thing I've been doing is meditating. Right after I wake up in the morning I saw a YouTube video i think is Andrew Opperman Huberman who talks about he's like a neuroscientist, I think he talked spoke about something about like how our brain reorganizes or traumas and our, all of our experiences and everything while we're sleeping. And if we wake up, we need like time to kind of heal from those experiences while we're sleeping that we're not even always aware of. And if we open our apps right away, right, when we open our eyes, then you're gonna set yourself up for more stress and anxiety and depression. Because your brains just not handling things quite well when you kind of bypass the brain coming online more. So he had suggested meditating and I or something like that meditating. So I had done that for years and I had taken a break from it because I just kind of felt like I didn't really wasn't in that season, but then I kind of never got back on it until recently, where I'm doing meditation for 20 minutes right after I wake up and then going into 20 takes about 20 minutes of doing morning pages Julia Cameron, the artists way the book, she has a thing called morning pages where you just free write three pages non stop. So I use like a college ruled notebook, and just write that, and those two things back to back, take about 40 minutes. And I'll usually make coffee in between the meditation and the morning pages, so that the coffee cools down around halfway into the morning pages. And it's a nice way for my brain to come online, not stressed. And I do it all before looking at my phone, which overall has just been really nice. So that's what this trip has been like. That's what this week has been like and I look forward to sharing more after however this goes or I might record another podcast while I'm here. We'll see. We'll see. I hope you're all doing great. And wherever you are, you're able to find some time for patients if you need that. I'll talk to you soon.