Why You're Not Behind (Antarctica Taught Me This) | Episode 463

Why You're Not Behind (Antarctica Taught Me This) | Episode 463

If you’ve been staring at a goal that feels too big to carry, this live conversation is for you. We’re recording “untitled” on purpose, because life doesn’t show up neatly labeled and neither do the moments that test us.

We celebrate a major milestone for the Voices for Voices podcast and Voices for Voices TV: 461 episodes of conversations rooted in mental health, trauma recovery, and practical hope. Then we get honest about the trap of metrics and podcast analytics. Numbers can make you feel on top of the world one day and behind the next, but a snapshot in time is not the full story of your effort, your healing, or your future.

The turning point is a story about an individual who backpacked across Antarctica in brutal conditions and survived by narrowing his focus to one thing: make it to the next moment. We connect that mindset to neuroplasticity, the science that proves the brain can keep learning and rewiring at 20, 50, even 70. Along the way, we talk candidly about major depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism spectrum experiences, and why “small” steps like getting through the day can be real victories. We also close with a simple challenge about fear: look it in the eyes, and it often shrinks.

We’re a 501c3 nonprofit charity organization, and the mission stays simple: help people. If this hits home, subscribe, share the show with a few friends, leave a review, and support the work at lovevoices.org.

*Donate Today:  lovevoices.org

**Find our book here:

Amazon: https://voices-for-voices.org/3ZhJ6AW

Publisher: https://voices-for-voices.org/3LKL1uN

***Website: https://voices-for-voices.org/4byLXgb

Instagram: @voicesforvoices

TikTok: @voices_for_voices

Facebook: Voices for Voices

*Voices for Voices is a 501c3 nonprofit charity. All donations are 100% tax deductible.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Mobile Live With Lucy

3:01 Celebrating 461 Episodes

8:40 Metrics And The Feeling Of Falling Short

10:21 Antarctica Story And The Next Moment

25:26 Neuroplasticity And Lifelong Growth

28:52 Depression And Doing Today’s Work

30:39 The Mustard Seed And Hidden Potential

32:36 Fear Works Differently Up Close

35:46 Share The Show And Support The Nonprofit

#justiceforjustin #justiceforvoicesforvoicestiktok #VoicesforVoices #AntarcticaTrek #ResilienceTraining #AdventureLearning #ExtremeConditions #SurvivalSkills #MentalStrength #NatureChallenges #InspiringJourneys #OutdoorAdventure #PolarExpedition #GrowthMindset #ExploringTheUnknown #PersonalDevelopment #WildernessSurvival #LifeLessons #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #Episode463

Transcript

Mobile Live With Lucy

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes 0:04

We have just started a live. We are live. It took us like five seconds or so. Welcome to our live. I guess we can call it our mobile live. We titled this one Untitled. Why do we do that? Because sometimes we don't know exactly what topics we're gonna get into. So instead of picking one topic, we just say untitled. And that way we can go over any topic, really. And as you can see, I have our pal with us. She likes to to move around and do some exploring. Don't you? Oh yeah. This is one of the one of the ways you like to do your exploring, huh? You like to perch yourself on my back, on my shoulders, and say, hey, I wanna be on camera. I wanna be on camera. Why don't you put your camera on me? So since I can't see down here, I'm gonna just climb right on up. And this is Lucy. Hi Lucy. Thank you for joining us. So she's just gonna be hanging out up here. I didn't know this was a thing that pets would do. That they would I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to do a screenshot with that. That's so cool. What Lucy Yeah. So we yeah, we put this as untitled uh because we're gonna cover a wide range of titles and topics. So let's start with the first topic. And this will kind of just morph from here. We just finished today. Or did we today? Was it yesterday? I don't know. One of the days uh where we just dropped episode number four hundred and sixty one. And so you'll be seeing that uh everywhere, every everywhere that you download podcasts. If you can Etsy on it, you can voices for voices on it. So you can watch us, you can listen to us, and with a catalog, a portfolio of 400 and 60 episodes, we have quite quite a few to choose from. And because we have quite a few to choose from, there are many that you would like, and the contacts on your phone would like. And since we are in getting into the the end of March 2026, that means we're not there yet. We haven't, we're not at the end. Yes, we're closer to the end. We're closer to the end than the beginning. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because there are so many ways to so many ways to measure anything. You're you're gonna use no matter what you go into. You know, college, university, or not, math is gonna be something that is looked at. For instance, time. What time is it now? What time do we have the next thing? What time uh what time is my alarm set for tomorrow? Uh that's just time. And so there's there's different numbers to uh associate with shows and everything. And one of the things that we look at, while we know we're not picking up every single analytic that's available, or no, we do pick up every analytic that is available, and because we pick up every analytic that is available, say cheese analytic that is able to be found, we sometimes share that information, sometimes we don't, because we know there's so many other numbers, metrics that we're not able to get, we're not able to find for one reason or another. And and so the way we look at things, and I and I guess the way now that I'm speaking out loud about this, it's been in my head, that's why these are helpful to have have these lives as well, is so I and we have voices for voices, and yeah, it's mirrored. My t-shirt's mirrored, so it actually says voices for voices, but can't see that because it's backwards. Big deal. Doesn't matter. What matters is that what we do is important to us, that's what matters. Just like what matters to you is what you do. Whatever that whatever whatever it is that you do, a multitude of things. And so when we look at some some numbers, we can be like, yeah, look at these numbers, they look great. And then on other days we can look and go, oh, we're falling short. But are we really? That perked up Lucy's attention. She's like, no, we're not falling short. We're not falling short, and you're not falling short either. Because there are points of time where we look at things. And it's a point in time where we say, here's where we're at right now. Here's where we're at tomorrow. And so it's a point in time. I like bringing up this particular story. Brought it up in uh one of our one of our episodes of the Voices for Voices show. And it's been a it's been uh it's been a couple years, at least, since this story broke. It's not on it it's not about me, but it relates to all of us, I think, because the story goes a little bit like this There's an individual that wants to basically backpack across Antarctica in kind of the most treacherous weather and the most treacherous season that there is. And this individual makes the preparations, prepares the the best way he knows how, and begins. And inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, centimeter by centimeter. This individual starts trekking eastward little at a time, little at a time, little at a time. And I don't know if he had this in his mind or if this came out of the um the excursion of what what he what he picked to do. Anyways, so he's very uncomfortable, cold, windy, cold, windy food, right? Trying, and this is what amazes me, even to this day, is the the the food aspect, is how little an individual can actually consume in these super harsh conditions and yet continue moving forward. So this individual is trekking eastward, eastward, eastward. And what he says afterwards because right, you know, you know, the thank thank the good Lord that he made it. He made it all the way across. And so right, that's the top line story is, you know, hiker trucks, you know, the the west to east, end to end, Antarctica. But it's it's it's more than that. And when you say, well, what do you mean it's more than that? Well the body is able to do only what the body's able to do. Same with our mind. But what I've learned over the last several months with the guests that we've had on, and I've fallen victim to this, uh, is I say like the body's able to do what the body's able to do externally. And then we hit like a crescendo or a peak, age-wise, you know, muscle mass, all these metrics, numbers. But the mind were able to continue growing and learning and researching. It's called neuroplasticity. That's what I would that's what one of our guests taught us on a recent episode. Excuse me, hmm. On a recent episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Please reach out, 25 contacts, let them know about the show. Won't be disappointed. Promise you that. Nobody that takes it seriously. We go through tough topics, we go through easy topics, we go through life topics. And so I found out that the brain, never too late to have neuroplasticity. What that basically means is our brain can continue to grow and modify. Whether we're two years old, whether we're 20, whether we're 50, whether we're 70. I thought that that was not a thing. Right? We see all these hacks that are out, like chips and tricks. Well, if you take this vitamin, or if you do this, then you can do that. And and so I I don't know. I guess I I just had it in my mind that, well, you know, at some point the brain just stops learning, I guess, is the best way to put it. And then it doesn't. And so let's go down to that story on Antarctica, this individual. And so at his press conference afterwards, you know, ask tons of questions, tons of questions. You know, one of them's like, how'd you do it? How'd you make it? You know, all these conditions, blustery conditions, conditions that right now doing the show, like I'm kind of getting the chills because I'm like, oh my gosh, how could somebody do that? How could they survive that? And yet they did. And he did. His answer was I realized that if I look at what I'm doing as a whole as I'm starting here and I'm ending here, hopefully, and this is how many m miles or meters or kilometers, then things can look daunting almost too much. And so what did he do? What did he do? He was telling himself that this right now, in the present, in the moment, this is a moment. Or in the moment. That this moment will not last. This moment won't last. We'll get to the next moment. Maybe it's similar to the last moment, maybe it's different. We don't know. But he was telling himself, let me just get to the next moment, let me just get to the next moment, let me just get to the next moment. This is only a point in time. This isn't. This does not define who I am as a person. This is just a moment in time. This is just a moment in time. And so I can just imagine the neuroplasticity modifications that were going on as this individual is telling himself, this is just a moment. I'm here in the present. But this is just a moment. This does not define me. I'm not gonna think of how many kilometers from West Antarctica all the way east. I'm gonna just think of this moment in time. I'm just right here, and I'm gonna I'm gonna fight to make it to that next moment. And then the moment after that. And so that's what I would I would say to anybody, no matter what you're doing, no matter high profile, how low, high how low profile it is, this is just a moment in time. This is not this moment does not define us as a human for our entire lives. This is just a moment. Like Lucy, you know, just chilling on my shoulders here. This is a moment in time. Lucy's gonna probably get tired of sitting on my shoulders and wanna explore the car here while we're you know, and there she is, right on right on cue. And and so this is I know I love you too. I love you too. Uh, and so it's a moment in time. And I I think that's that's what we have to we have to we have to just think about life in that way. So whether it's something that's really hard, okay, thank you, love you, um, or rather easy, it doesn't matter. It's one moment in time. And so that's why I hearken back to that story about that individual in Antarctica, because I can't think I mean there's probably a lot of things out there, but right now I can't think of something that com what would come close to to that, to being in that in that moment that this individual was in Antarctica facing frigid weather, frigid winds, everything. And he's just trying to survive, just trying to make it to that next moment. And so that's all we have to do. Let's make it to the next moment. Let's do it. I know we can. There's so many people that I'm connected with. I haven't been able to say hi to. Uh yeah, I saw Shane here was in here for for a second uh or a minute or so. And let's say welcome. I haven't had a chance to you know reach out and to talk to him. I hope to uh some someday uh to be able to do that uh and and connect. Um he's done he's on he's doing great things uh out on the out out on the west coast. Um again, it's just that moment. Let's get to that next moment, and then next thing you know, we may be at that finish line and go, oh my gosh, we made it. And we may be at a press conference, maybe we're not. Maybe I made it through the day with major depression, maybe I took a shower, maybe I brushed my teeth for the first time in a week. I don't know. But when we just look at one moment at a time, be surprised. I'm I'm always surprised at my myself. And this is not to boost me up or boost voices for voices up. This is just to boost human beings up. Okay? This is to say, look, here's what we can do as humans. We can be as adventurous as we want or as we don't want. Less adventurous. But just think about that. I gotta take I didn't tail my kind of in front of me there for for a second. Uh yeah, yeah, I'll be out soon. And so we want to thank that individual. I I I'm gonna have to reach out and and see if we can connect and get him on get him on. It's okay. Uh, to get him on the show and and just talk talk through that. Um I'm sure he's got quite a bit and has had quite a bit of um success. Uh a lot of people want to talk to him and you know over the over the years and the months. Uh because that's a pretty big that that's a pretty that's a pretty big thing, right? If you if we if we if we take out a map and we look at Antarctica, it's a well north to south. It may not look to be that big. Yeah, they're gonna it'll be out soon. I promise. Well it might not look north to south. Like a big country. West to east. You roll you look roll out a map. It is a it is a it it's it it's enormous. And I wasn't sure what what uh what we're gonna get into with with this live, this Instagram live. You know, shout out to all our followers, all the people uh that follow Voices for Voices. We have nothing but love and support coming your way, and we thank you for the love and support you've given us to take us to 461 episodes, uh, to have us help people uh in so many different ways. Some are monetary, some are just talking about experiences like this. As somebody who has major depression, you know, when I talk about, well, you know, I I I I woke up today. I mean, that's a big thing, because guess what? We all don't wake up tomorrow, the next day. And so that's one of the reasons why we try to be I don't say uh active. Um that's why we try to do as much as we can on the given day that you know today, because we don't know how we don't know how how much longer we're gonna be here. And so I just want you know the whole the old saying, you know, leave it out on the the floor, leave it out on the stage, right? Do the best the best he can, the most he can with the time, the energy, the space that we have. And so that story, that person just fuels that fire. Of like, oh my gosh. I mean, we're uh I'm still probably gonna complain about something at some point in my life. But I look at that story and go, whoa, of anybody that could have done any kind of complaining, that would be a person who would say, I don't know why I made this decision. I don't know, maybe. But as I mentioned about depression, mention about anxiety, you know, autism, low spectrum autism for me, you know, ADD, ADHD, all those uh I just I just try to do one thing at a time. And sometimes we get so focused on one thing that we don't realize what we have accomplished. I mean remember, when we when we leave Earth, we're we're we don't get to take any of this stuff with us. We don't get to take our cars, our houses, apartments, condos. Unfortunately, we we we can't. We don't. And so that's why I I like to think about legacy. And by coming out with this huge goal of wanting to help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, it's because I want I want my legacy, I want the legacy of voices for voices to carry on to other people because I'm not gonna live forever. Nobody's gonna live forever. Okay. So if I can help somebody who's I don't know, whatever age, 18, 52, 27, those individuals, because I'm 44, uh, a lot of individuals are gonna have a lot more living to do than than than me. And so that's why I I want to do as much as I can, because then you know the hope is that they share voices for voices with others. Voices for voices at the core is about helping people. Yes, we're we're rooted in in mental health and in trauma and recovery, but we're rooted even deeper in just helping people. That's what we want to do, we want to help people. Excuse me. The mustard seed. So small. Probably would get would have if we look at, you know, s size relative. You know, if we see somebody who's short versus somebody who's tall, we say, okay, the if we're we're gonna play basketball, all the you know, all the tall people, all the tall folks muscular are gonna get picked first. And it's gonna be that person that maybe that that shorter person that made me maybe gets picked last. And so like that mustard seed. All the other seeds get picked. And then we see this mustard seed and go, that's look how small that is. That's that's not gonna amount to anything. Or not it's not gonna not to anything. It's not gonna amount to a whole lot. Yeah, it is one of the biggest. It turns into one of the biggest trees in the world. And so we gave up on the mustard seed. And we give up on that person who may be not quite as tall as others. We miss we miss a whole lot. We'd miss out on a whole lot. So I'm gonna I'm gonna close out our our live here with uh something that came across my one of one of my social media feeds. And it's by Elon Musk, so I I get it. Some some love him, some don't. It doesn't matter. It's what he had to say that I'm ho I I'm hoping that reaches so many of you. And me for that for that matter. It talks about fear. Talks about fear and what does he say about it? He says, you know, I'm paraphrasing here, so don't quote me. I'm paraphrasing. Elon was asked about fear. Cause I'm I'm pretty sure he's faced a whole lot of fear at different times in life. And so he was asked, right? Like, what do you it's okay, Lucy? Yeah. Yeah, you can just you can just take a snooze on my shoulders. Yes, you sure can. And so he's asked about fear. He said most people are so fearful of things. And yet they they they don't even look at it. It's just in the mind of like, oh my gosh, I gotta do this thing, I gotta, you know, my friends or somebody I know or somebody else tried it, whatever. I don't even know what the thing is. It doesn't matter what the thing is. The only thing that matters is the thing is really hard and it's to make people fearful. He said, what you do, he said most people again, most people, a lot of people, most people, don't want to look at fear. Look at that thing or things that's fearful, that's making them fearful. He said, what you do is you look it straight in the eyes. You look it straight in the eyes, and you'd be surprised that the fear dissipates. But you gotta look at it. I know we've thrown a lot at you tonight. Thank you for joining us on this Instagram live. Again, if you can give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share on our Voices for Voices TV channel podcasts. Again, 461 episodes strong and continuing forward. If you're able to uh obviously, if you're watching this, you know, get get us added to uh all your socials uh and uh and download all of our episodes. And if you can do us a big favor, again, you know, the like and follow, subscribe, share, all that. That's all free to do, so you don't have to pay anything. And you don't have to pay anything to follow us on our social media platforms. You don't have to. But if you're able to and you want to, Voices for Voices, this comes as a surprise to a lot of people. We are a 501c3 nonprofit charity organization. So we can't do what we're we're doing without your help. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Thank you so much to every single one of you that's taken even just a second, a millisecond, a nanosecond. Even check out Voices for Voices at one time or another. Again, maybe there maybe there's 25 people, maybe there, maybe there's a hundred. I don't know, maybe you have more contacts than twenty five. And I can just about assure you that at a catalog of 460 and growing episodes of our Voices for Voices TV show now and podcast, I can almost assure you, in fact, I can, that you and your contacts will find at least 50 episodes, at least 50, that will be right in your wheelhouse. And if you're able to donate, you can do that at lovevoices.org. Lovevoices.org one last time if you're able to. If you're here in the United States, you can donate, and your donation is fully tax deductible on the federal level. At lovevoices.org. Thank you so much. Have a great day, great morning, great afternoon, great evening. Spread the word, voices for voices. The ground is swelling with such positivity, and we can't do this without you. So we're sending love and support to you, your loved ones, and we hope you have a blessed day. Thank you.