#58: Welcome 2025! Gonna Be A Good Year.

Thanks for everyone who listened in 2024 and welcome to 2025. We discuss 2024 and our thoughts for the upcoming year. We will continue to make podcasts about trying to be better humans overall and probably aliens. 

If you want to be on an episode get in touch! 

Here is to 2025 and making it a good year! Perception is reality...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to the Average Superior Podcast. If you enjoy our show, consider heading over to our Instagram account at Average Superior and checking out the link in the bio. From there, you can show your support by donating a small amount per month to help us cover costs. We appreciate listening and hope that you enjoy the episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Everyone can understand what you do. Alright? What do you do right now?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Welcome to 2025. It is January 1st. Here we are.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for the coffee, Jason. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Welcome to the New Year. New Year, New You, as they say.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Yeah. Last year, our first episode was titled New Year, Same Us.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, that's you don't change the inputs, you get the same outputs, you know? Oof. Very much so. I gotta change some inputs.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

I think we all do.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I haven't done a journal or a list, because I yeah, no, I haven't done one. I I think I am going to do one. I have a lot of ideas of things that I want to alter or change or tweak. Um but at the same time I struggle with what's feasible. Like, am I just gonna make all these things, these ideas and and all these like promises to myself or lofty goals that you do too many at you do too many at one time and nothing happens, right? Or or you you do it for a week and then you fall off because you're trying to do too much at once. And that's kind of the hard part about it. And I don't know how to deal with that. Focus is hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

No, I feel you. That would be I think I have crafted a rough list of like what my 2025 New Year's resolutions look like. Okay, nice. Uh focus would be one of them. Just general focus? No, focus on I am like you, maybe not quite as bad, but also probably worse in some ways. Uh at times get distracted by the shiny things. Yeah. So focusing on a few things that I can put lots of effort into, because that's a hard thing for me to do. This is the is the few things part.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I found myself struggling over the Christmas holidays a lot about with um enjoying the moment. Like being on one hand, being aware that I should be enjoying the moment. You know what I mean? Like I I'm in my headspace knowing I should be I should be sitting here and just be here in this moment at the same time at the same time being like I'm not. Or or I don't I can't explain it. Like feeling like I couldn't and I don't could not put my finger on what it was. It was driving me a little bit crazy. Yeah, it was honestly, I I don't know what I don't know what it is. Uh I've been I don't know if it's just because I literally have more doubt in two weeks. Um I don't know, dude. Whoa. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

That's a long time for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

It is, and like I don't know if that's like thrown me off or or like is this as bad as the post-75 hard collapse? It just it just purely we've just been away, we've been away for a week, and uh before that it was like, well, Christmas is coming, like I can miss a day here and there, and you know you know what I mean. The it's the spiral downwards that I gotta I'm gonna change. But I so I don't I part of it was like, okay, is it because I haven't been working out and so like I've lost like that, like that uh I'm just out of sorts because of that, or what it was. I don't know. I struggle, I felt like I struggled a lot just with happiness, which is a stupid word, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Uh the working out certainly I think would contribute to that. I've noticed uh the sunlight has been affecting me a lot, which I've never noticed before.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yeah, like how it's dark early, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

And like especially the last two weeks, you know, we haven't had a lot of direct sunlight. Yeah, and I don't know if that's me attributing how I'm feeling to that when I'm wrong, or that is actually the cause, but I ordered uh one of those sunlight lamps off Amazon the other day, which should show up this weekend. I'll see if that maybe sit in front of that in the morning when I read helps. Yeah, I never even thought of that. Dude, it's yeah, like the darkness sucks. Yeah, I think that's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

I I kind of like it though this time of the year when I'm on holidays because then it's like 4 30 or something. Like I was picking my kid up from a play date yesterday. It was 4 30. Yeah, and I'm driving home and it's almost dark, and I know I get home and my family and I just lock ourselves in a house. Ambiance is amazing, yeah. Because the snow is finally here, yeah, and that was nice, but yeah, in the morning it's dark till yeah, you're right. Like it's it's a different feeling. Okay, I I'm and we were all there when we're on the 12 hours, you go to work when it's dark, and you get home when it's dark, and it is the worst. And then on the reverse side, you wake up when it's like it's you don't see sunlight almost for those four days, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

And I think those are tough. Oh, totally. The those are probably the worst shifts or schedules for you. Uh, I will say of the things that I did well in 2024, which might be outnumbered by the things I did poorly, uh, I did a well job of getting sunlight in my eyes first thing in the morning during the year, which I think has made a big difference when there was sunlight.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I uh definitely like I've obviously know about that, but I definitely didn't make that an intent, like an intentional thing I tried to do. Yeah. How and how would you so what like specifically what did you do? Like especially especially now when it's like I would open my eyes. Okay, that's step one. Step one, open your eyes. Uh like I just mean like especially like it's okay, like it's very easy or easier like when you go to work and it's sunny out. But now where it's like you go to work, you've been to work for two hours, and now the sun comes out.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Yeah, that's uh there I don't have a good answer for that. Yeah, I mean I I I don't know if those sunlight lamps actually make a difference because like let's be real, it's not gonna be the same.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

I think they do. Like, I are you talking about like the the Kala like red light therapy stuff, or are they different?

SPEAKER_03 6:24

No, like the bright, you know, 10,000 lux, just like in your face, like a UV light, like what I think so, you know, like the bright white ones, like like they are specifically. I'm sure you've seen some people like maybe at work or whatever that have the square ones. Yeah, the square ones, the happy lights or whatever they call it, right? Yeah, that's basically the same thing. Okay, so I don't know. I think it's that's because I've noticed the same thing over holidays, and generally, I I know a lot of people I think have said, oh you know, holidays are kind of a some people for some people they're a happy time, some people they're a sad time. Usually for me, they're a happy time. This was a very marked departure from that. Yeah, uh so the sunlight didn't help, but like uh because I've also the same thing you talked about is that trying to be happy in the moment, yeah. Uh which is such a struggle.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

But so this is this is the weird thing. It's like it's like almost like an electron. Like you can't measure it because when you look at it, it moves. Totally. So like happiness, like the idea of like being in the moment, the fact in the one hand, I'm like, well, it's good that at least I'm thinking, okay, I need to enjoy this, like I need to stop being in my head and just enjoy what's going on around me and not think about down the road later, tomorrow, whatever. Just have just be here. But then it's almost like because I'm in my head thinking about I need to be here enjoying this, I'm not in I'm not, or I'm like, it's like elusive somehow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

I've no I I heard I heard I'm kind of combining a couple things. Somebody said into one sentence, but I was listening to a guy talk the other day about how a way that you can be happy in the moment or like you know, like live in the moment, whatever, is appreciating your past self. Um, and he said that the way you do that is is like taking care of your future self. And the way that I would illustrate that is uh, and I you were kind of talking about this earlier, one of the guys we work with in the nursing home, I always see him come into work the day before he starts his block with all his clothing, and he just hangs it up in his locker and then he goes home. And I was like, why do you do that? Except every time I start my week, I'm fucking carrying in 14 different things with my hands full, and it's frustrating, and I'm like, I hate this. Yeah, and it's just this like small little thing where like, oh, your your your past self is taking care of your future self, which allows you to be happy in the moment. It's an interesting thought kind of experiment.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah, I think that's I this is probably the best holiday my family has ever had. So we did the moment stuff, but the reason I think that we did that is because prior the two weeks before December 1st, pretty much, I started doing all these little tasks, and my wife and I made a list and super organized our first half of December. And so this lot we have done legitimately nothing. Like besides like maintaining the house, we have done nothing. And I think it's because we were so organized, and this was by far the best holiday we've we've had family-wise, but that's because all our kids are at the right age now, where it's like they're all in it, and there's no one kind of cresting out of it yet. Like we were talking about before, like when you get older, the teenager stuff, and so we're still. I think that's that's kind of the same thing bringing the shirts in.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Well, that's your past or sorry, that's you. You're happy right now because you appreciate what your past self has done for you.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

To be fair, I got to work tomorrow, so I'm starting to feel that. Which was it's weird. I woke up today and I started, and you probably feel it too. Start to all the things are getting in your mind, and uh, my to-do lists are stacking up in my head, and it's starting to I'm starting to feel again that work feeling. And I don't like it. But there's no avoiding that.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

No, there isn't. No, but like Jason, I think you are good at I don't know, I don't know. Like I I don't think I'm so the so what you said, like so you had a great Christmas because like your family, you felt connected. Um and I like you said, yeah, your kids are at an age where I don't think I I don't know, there's a it's a way so for so I guess just uh what I'm struggling with is I feel that I am annoyed, and it's a part of my own making, part of just the world we live in, the disconnection that families have now with um TV, video games, cell phones, all the things, right? Like I remember a decade ago, holidays, I would read three books. Like, I mean, we you do you play games with the family, you'd chat, you do things, but in your downtime, you'd sit down, you maybe read a read a bit of a book, or you'd but like I that doesn't happen anymore because I'm my goddamn phone, right? And it's it's a problem, and it's uh so it's like there's no one to be upset with other than myself for some uh in some ways with my reliance on that. But then also I look around and I see I see like again, my my kid's 14, so she's very much into her phone, and that's her social life. That's what are her friends doing, what did her friends get? Um, we went shopping, we were in Calgary, we went shopping at Chinook Center, and it was like pulling teeth because it's like she'd she'd like try something off, but then she'd have to take a picture of it and send it to the group chat, and the group chat's like it and like it's something that we never dealt with as kids because we didn't have that social pressure of that phone, or we didn't have that ability. There was no that wasn't a thing. Yeah, you just went to your friends are either there or they're exactly or they're not there, and you make a decision and you and so I was like losing my mind. Um and but that makes I mean but it also makes sense because if we had had that technology then we would have done the same crap, right? So anyway, so part of my part of my like uh discontent with the holidays in some way was that as well. The like the lack of connection when this is the time to connect. Yeah, and and I think you're awesome at that. That's why like yes, we we we all my kids don't have phones though, right? But right, but like not only that, I just think like we make fun of you with like your crocheting nights and your all this your middle name is quality time, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

If you do good at that.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

No, you you're very good at that, and and I am not as much good. I'm not I'm not very good at that. I want to be good at that, and I want to prioritize that. Um and part of that, so anyway, uh like there's uh something I got for uh my wife for like Christmas for stock because we never really get presents, we just got stocking stuff. But one of the things was this there's this book called Um Actually, our boss at the nursing home uh told me about this. Uh it's called the Adventure Book for Couples or Couples Adventure Book that's cool, or something like that. So basically, what it is, it's like uh 50 or something like date nights, but you don't know what it is. So it's like a book, you open it up, there's like a scratch-off thing, and you scratch it, it tells you, and then you gotta go do it. So whatever the date is, but it'll give you like okay, this is gonna take you two to four hours, it's gonna give you it gives you some like symbols that uh tell you kind of what to expect so you can prepare for it. Like it'll say, like, how much is it gonna cost, like that kind of thing, right? So do you need a babysitter or that kind of stuff? So then you we haven't done one yet, but I think we might do one tomorrow night, but you scratch it off and you basically just whatever it says you gotta go do, and so it's about like connecting and spending that time, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:19

That would be interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

So you just have to commit to it and do it, right? So I think that's something that like we've we've said multiple times is like uh where you're like okay, we need to commit, we need to commit and like every two weeks we need to do a date night, or we need to just go for have supper and just connect, right? And I think that but and you do that for like a month, and then it yeah, then life gets busy, and or so you miss the one because there's something that had to happen that night, so you missed that one, and next thing you know, it's been three months and you haven't done it, right? Um anyway, point is like I think I think that part of my uh it's almost like that elusive happiness or that just contentness over the holidays was just I think it was a whole bunch of things playing into it, me not working out, me, a bunch of other stuff. Also, it was awkward, not awkward, it was also sad because Shannon's dad first Christmas he wasn't there. Um, and so like there was just a lot of things in the background that were kind of made it not normal. Oh, it was it was very difficult. Um but in the end, it's like I think going forward, it's it's I don't know, man, it's just so hard. It's so hard to grab hold of that thing or to um in the world that we live in with this technology and all the stuff that that are distracting, how do you silence that crap and still have that connection with your kids and your wife and all that stuff? And and and it's really really difficult. And and here's the problem if you're not intentional about it, it will not happen. Um, and and that's the thing I think most people are not intentional about it. That's why the family unit in general is is not good, I would say. I would say it's probably the worst it's ever been in human history, as from like a family perspective. Um certainly in North America, yeah, complete completely. I would agree, yes, exactly. Um and there's no fixing it unless you're super intentional about it and and and make it make it known to your kids why it's important, not just like not just like force, okay. Tonight's family night, we're not doing anything but playing some games and hanging out. That that's awesome, but then also to explain why that's important, right? And it's anyway, do you guys eat dinner at the dinner table? Uh we we do, but yeah, so if weeks are so busy, it's usually like okay, we gotta rush, we smash it, smash some food in the mouth, and and then off to sports.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Or we eat at 4 30 or whatever. Yeah, it's like am I am I safe to make the assumption that you guys eat dinner at the dinner table? The same as him.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah but if we can, yes. If we yeah. There are nights, though. I'd say like once every two weeks, once maybe once a week. Not unless we just like you know what? Fuck it. Tonight's pizza in front of the TV, and we all just amazing. Well, it is, but we don't we limit those, right? But yeah, but my wife, I that's not my wife, she's just good at the dinner table, and there's no like I can't have any, everything's on silent, it's away. She's she harps on that, and I and I hate her for it, but I love it because in it, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Like important. Yeah, so if you had a spot in your house where you could put your phone like very purposefully, uh and it that was somehow incentivized. I'm not sure what that would mean, but would you do that? Well so like what I'm picturing here, so say, because you know how all these new iPhones have magnets on the back, yeah, like built in. Well, say you had a magnet. Your guys do. Yeah, when you join us in 2025, say you had a magnet on your fridge that was specifically for your phone, and when I say incentivized, I don't know what that means. Like, I'm gonna make some shit up. Say you attach your phone to it, and every time you attach your phone to it for the night, you get five bucks in your bank account. Oh yeah. Would you do it?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah. We we do that. We do that. No, I won't.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

But if you take it off, you have to pay 10. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

They have those don't they have those lock boxes that you just can't get into? You set a timer on them. Oh, that's I don't like that. I know, that's just that's too much.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

No, we have that's like chopping your fingers off because you masturbate too much.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Uh yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Wasn't that happening, Sons of Anarchy? Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Was that uh it was a humor humor on that uh Sean Bryant podcast and he talked about his phone discipline, I think it was, where he has one phone for social like one phone that he takes out and about into the world has no apps on it. And then when he gets home, he has this social media phone and he allots himself a certain amount of time to do because it's kind of his job, I guess. And then he puts it away. Yeah, and I that's contingent on pretty high level of discipline. I know, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

I um literally today I put uh time limits on a bunch of apps with my phone. So Instagram, X, uh a game. I should just delete them, but whatever. Uh and you gotta have a game. You gotta everyone's gotta have a dumb game they play on their phone 100%. So I put I put time limits on them now. So once they lock, obviously I know that you can go in and change that. I get that. One more minute. Yeah, completely. I get that, but I feel like you really have to like notice it. I know, but I'm saying what I'm I guess what I'm saying is if you if you hit that time limit and then you're like, oh no, I need to go in and change that, you're gonna feel a little bit like garbage doing it. So ideally, you don't go change that. Um but yeah, I don't know. We've talked about this a million times. I it's just but it's just I found it so prevalent uh this Christmas in terms of uh suck sucking so much attention. And like my nephew's 13, he's got a phone, and my and then so we my mother-in-law was like very strict, like no phones, no phones, no phones, so she would take them from him and stuff like that. And and then the kids played, the kids had fun, the kids played. Um, but I found the adults are just as bad, right? And I'm I'm not I'm not any better. I'm just it just is it's very interesting. I really noticed it to this because I was trying to be in the moment, but but I was showing yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

The adults, even my parents who are old, yeah, like surfing Instagram, yeah. And I was just like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Oh, I showed my dad TikTok over the holidays. He's like, he's like, I can't get that. He's like, I would not, I can't. He's awesome, but he he avoids all that stuff because he knows he's like, I think, like all of us, how we have that we all have an addictive personality. We get into something and we go all the way out.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Yeah, and he's just like I said, I can't I can't touch that.

unknown 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Uh okay. Well, that brings me to an interesting point then. Uh we can either talk about it. Are you gonna pay me to put my phone on a magnet in my house?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Is that I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Who's who's paying who?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Well, I don't know. He's paying me. Yeah, I'm paying. And then you pay him and I'll pay you.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Whoever takes their phone off first has to pay. I wonder if there's a business model there where Yeah, it's a pyramid scheme somehow.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Like we can make this up.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Where like you you own. Hmm. There's a device that you can you people can buy that if they put in the house, where if they leave their phone on this for X amount of hours per day, they get X amount of dollars per day.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

But if we could invent our own form of currency to pay people with, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

That's not no, we're not doing crypto.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

That's a really cool idea. I just don't know where the money comes from. I just don't know where the money comes from. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Um shitty gift off Timu or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

The money comes from when you attach your phone to the map. Magnet, they get to use the compute power of your phone while it's attached there. Well, and they pay you for that.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Oh, yeah. Or or you get the reward of dopamine from hanging out with your family. Yeah. I guess that would that would be that would be the main the main thing. Nobody cares about that. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

But that's uh the other thing in this conversation that I this podcast I was listening to, they were talking about, and it was just kind of an aside thing is you know, like you buy a product and a product solves a problem, right? Like my uh I don't know, my my Keurig solves a problem of me needing coffee. Uh and they were like talking about technology, and they're like, if you can't explicitly identify the problem that this technology solves or this item solves, you should be very wary or suspicious of it. And they used the Apple Vision Pro as you're the product a hundred percent specifically loneliness or connection, right? Right, which I thought was really interesting. Um, because I mean let's be real, that's the whole theme of what we're talking about. Is these phones are just they are a replacement for connection or they're solving the loneliness problem or they're providing you the drugs you need.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Well, they're trying to, but they but they're can't they can't is the problem. Like they I yes, they're exactly they're providing the the hormone in your body that's telling you that it's satisfying that need, but it's not. So then obviously the you know that's deep in a sense that it's not just the hormone in your body that's the thing, it's the actual there's something about the actual physical connection. I mean, it's this, it's this, it's sitting around having a conversation, right? Exactly. It's like it's different than texting on in a group chat on the phone. FaceTime completely, it's not the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

The the it was we had this conversation. So so my sister-in-law is a uh AI project manager for Microsoft, and my brother is a sociology professor at uh Columbia.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

That's fun.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Oh, yeah, they're they're definitely they're the favorite couple of the family. I know I don't uh but that's all they talk about because she's developing these AI things for Microsoft as one of the managers, and she always will call him saying, Hey, is this ethical? Is this ethical? Because he's into his his major is ethics in the sociology. And their conversations are blowing my mind. And the majority of it is based on this because she's working on some AI chat bots to companionship stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Why haven't we had her on the podcast?

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Uh she lives in uh Seattle. When is she coming? She just left today.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Next year she can come.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Two days ago, we could have had her on.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

She is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Do you do you hate this podcast?

SPEAKER_02 22:24

No, no, she should totally come. But you know, yeah, she'd be into the the FaceTime stuff or whatever. But um all the conversation. Oh, she 100% would. Um, I don't know what she can do. There's she had to do a lot of things where she couldn't talk about stuff, but uh the really like the alien guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

I can't talk about this. I don't have a clue. I can't.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

But all their conversation was why are we doing this? Is it ethical and is it good for humanity? And my brother's like, no, no, it's not. And she's trying to adjust it. It was amazing watching them kind of go back and forth about a but it's solving their loneliness. That's the the problem, is the loneliness problem.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

And that that train has already left the station.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Oh, god, yeah, yeah, you can't. And if they don't do it, someone else is gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Uh, my favorite AI videos are the babies who rip their shirts off and are jacked. Have you seen this? I that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

I hate the AI videos that are on Instagram and TikTok. Yeah. Oh, I love them. They're so bad.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

They're getting pretty good. No, but they're like quality wise?

SPEAKER_03 23:21

It depends what you mean by bad.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

So I mean bad by like they're things that conceivably is human beings. I don't think we should be watching, like a like a video of an elephant running that then transforms into a tiger.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Those are my favorite. Like those are those are literally my favorite. Or the combo the combining animals. Yeah. Gorilla and a gorilla and a tiger, and then they combine them. Uh but they're they have these AI content creators now that like they're gonna take over the social media space too. Um, I think it's Microsoft. They just released all these different AI videos that they're doing with these content creators, and it's just they're they're gonna take over.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Yeah, there's a website called Hey Gen where you can create an AI avatar for that purpose. Oh uh or of yourself. If you want to, you could upload a say a two-minute video clip of yourself, and it will create an AI avatar that then you can you can say um you can have it say things you want, right? So that'll be a big business sector, I think, for 2025 is like yeah, content creation by AIs for business, right? Hey, I'm I'm the realtor and I want to I don't want to do all these videos, but I want to have my face talking about these things. So it's coming. Um I'm excited. 2025 is gonna be the year of the AI.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I am confused by the fact that you're excited because I think at the same time you're also not a big fan.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Why do you say that?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

You just said you you just said you didn't you hated them.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

No, no, no, no. Sorry. I hate those videos. Okay, I think oh like the when the animals combine and I think those videos are just low like it's lowest column denominator videos. I crush those videos. There's nothing, there's nothing of substance to those videos. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

No, there's not. But but then now I know what a gorilla and a fish would look like.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Well, now you know. Now I know totally. I'm super excited. I I'm actually incredibly optimistic for 2025. There's so many things I'm excited about, but before I talk about those, can we just recap 2024, my list here? Yes. So while you guys were driving here, I took five minutes to just kind of collect some stats about this podcast. Oh. And this year. Uh so I'm gonna start from the inception of this podcast, which was 2023. Uh, we've done 57 episodes and have 3,896 downloads. Nice. Uh in that time frame, so from the entirety of this podcast, North America accounts for 3,600 of those downloads, Asia accounts for 107, Europe for 111, Africa for six, South America for five, and Oceania, whatever the fuck that is. I feel like those are like all of our listeners to like regular people who traveled and then listened over those areas. And that's what I was gonna uh it was my question. I was like, who do we know that has been to Africa?

SPEAKER_02 25:57

South and Central Pacific Ocean is all she is.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Has Easy been probably he's been everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

So what about Hattie? No, she wouldn't have gone after though. Baldy.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

I don't think she listens.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

That's fair. Yeah, because we got 30 downloads from Oceania. That's the South and Central Pacific Ocean area. So thousands of islands around Australia.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Which makes sense. If you are the person or Maldives. Oh, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, yeah, but that was super recent.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

I don't know. If you're the person in Africa listening to this podcast, please email us. Yeah, 100%. And you actually aren't from here. We'll send you a shirt if you're not from here. Oh, yeah. There you go. Uh okay, so 2024, we had 24 episodes recorded, which works out to be one every two weeks almost. Not great. Did not meet that benchmark. Uh this was a good year though. We had 191,924 downloads, and the most episode listed was the one with Champagne at 108 downloads. Nice. Good job, Champagne.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Because he's such a good guy.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

Uh, of the things we talked about, uh I have a beta immune system, which has been recently confirmed. You have learned the importance of torque wrenches. Uh, just today. Well, not just today. Well, no, I think we learned earlier. Uh, we have friends named Shannon and Hattie. Just tight net. Um, they're both athletes, they're great. Uh one of us has given up alcohol. Maybe two. Let me guess. How was your Christmas? Oh, I had wine. I was drunk. That's right. Uh easy runs a travel agency. We're averagely apathetic. Aliens are real, and there's lots of aliens. Um debatable. The Zindemic is a thing. Yeah. I'm afflicted by it. I love it. You are too you are? I fucking love it.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Dude.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Oh, yeah, you're back? Were you off for a while? I am the conductor of the Zinn train.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Everybody get a board.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

So at the nursing home, uh, they should put a vending machine at the or they would make money off of that thing. If you're if you have a vending machine that has Zins, please get a hold of the nursing home.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

But Oh, you would make so much money. Oh my god, would you ever at the nursing home? The uh the new the new nursing aid, what do we call them? Uh their schmelz. Okay, the schmelts. The schmelz. We're like insanely into it. Some of those dudes had 50 milligrams.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Yeah. That's bananas. 50. Like in what? I'm I'm a three million kind of person.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

They had anywhere from threes, and then there was some 30s, and then there was one that had 50s.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

I I did take one of their 16s and had to go into another room and lay on the floor. I literally ate on the floor. I was like, this is fine.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Dude, I did that with a four, so I don't know. I would I I would throw up if I took it.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

I wanted to look cool in front of them, so I took a 16. Oh yeah. Three walked away.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

That's my limit. 16. I literally would be vomiting.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

I felt me too. I I almost vomited with four.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Yeah. So the Zindemic, uh, here a business opportunity there. If you'd like a vending machine full of Zins, contact us. Uh Johannes Bourne is a thing. Jeff likes lots of Teslas. Shark, bear, or cougar. Uh, still yet to be determined. Tony showed up a few times. Running sucks. Some of us suck at running, some of us are better at running. Uh we have two friends named Ali, one and two. Uh, we've talked about champagne, enough said. Everything sucked in the fall. Uh lots of war. Uh, remote viewing is a real thing. Fuck you. And aliens might be real. Not real, don't know. That's our 2024 research.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

So you mentioned aliens twice there.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Yeah, because it's important to me. Alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Can we get and I haven't looked. Do we want to just can I get a drone update? Because I haven't looked at these New Jersey drones yet.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

There's been nothing. It's gone, it's gone away. Except there's a there's fog now, apparently. There's some sort of creepy fog in the states that people don't fuck it off. I'm not joking. Uh, have you seen the movie The Fog? It's called The Fog. Is it the fog or the mist? Uh right, the mist. You could be right. Uh, but anyway, no, there's like there's been posts about weird fog in certain areas that people don't know what it is because it's not real, it's not regular and it's kind of oily. I don't know. Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

I did you watch that video though about the guy who makes drones talking about how they're searching for warheads?

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah, it made sense to me, but I mean who knows if this is true. Uh also something about the fog. Oh, uh not the fog. Other thing on X that I've seen a lot of is that they're going to try and do a bird flu pandemic shortly. I have seen that.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Oh, I thought the bird flu was already done. Like, I thought it was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

No, there's apparently some H5N1 bird flu pandemic they're trying to push. How much toilet form we declared a state of emergency over it because like six people have it.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

Got sick and no one's died.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

I need to buy a lot of toilets.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Is there a calculator for that? I need to buy a lot of toilet. Like an online calculator.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah, it just says the most amount of toilet paper you can buy, go buy right now.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Um it's worrisome according to Los Angeles Times. I never heard about this. Yeah, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

It's nothing to worry about.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times is probably a credible, credible source of media. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

But what about the agency Canadien Despekt? Oh, government. Never mind.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah. Uh so some themes that have uh that have permeated throughout 2024. Aliens. More aliens, fitness, self-improvement, running, lots of running, uh, the world sucks, lots of war, and everything is a conspiracy.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Everything is. Uh I can't remember who I was talking to recently, and they just kept oh, that's a conspiracy theory. And I'm like, you gotta stop saying that. It's it means nothing anymore. Like it it's like it's it was just so overused, and all it means is you don't agree with it. That's all you're saying. Is you're not saying that it like there used to be conspiracies, legitimate conspiracies, that there's no proof of anything, or there was no it was just some crazy dude who thought of something that maybe uh somebody was doing, but like what what's being called conspiracies now is just something that I don't agree with you, so it's a conspiracy. Yeah, it's become a slanderous label. Completely. So I mean, unless it's actually a conspiracy, like I would say aliens could still be on the conspiracy side, because I would say there's still no proof. I don't know. Have you listened to Ryan Graves? I have, dude. I know, and I I agree. He says he seems completely sane and I don't know, credible, but but again, maybe in 2025 we'll get answers to this question. I don't know, maybe. And some of those videos are creepy, like the orb things, those are weird. I don't know what they are. Yeah, I I want to know. I want it, I like I want it to be real. We know that. We've talked about it. But but my point is I would still say that would definitely still could be on the conspiracy you know label.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

But I I would conspiracy no. Okay, sure. Unknown? Sure. Things we don't yet have answers to.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Sure, because conspiracy implies that there's something that's like nefarious, right? Correct. And I yeah, for sure. And maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

Yeah. Um so with that being said, what are you excited for in 2025?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Um I am looking forward to the Ultra in September. I think it's going to suck a lot. I'm looking forward to the train. I'm actually honestly I'm looking forward to the training of it. I'm looking forward to really getting into the weeds of just well that is there's no weeds. Just putting in the time. That's kind of what I'm looking for.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Doing the work.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yeah, and I and I like I think like I'm I'm super nervous about about it because I I don't it's it's gonna I I know how much it's gonna suck to some degree because I've done some of it, but um more so I'm just looking forward to trying to get in like getting that discipline set and and just putting in the work. That's kind of what I'm looking forward to at the moment. For from a fitness kind of side. I've really kind of had to um I I need to get my mind set changed slightly to kind of be okay with the not lifting as much because I really need to focus on the running stuff, like and I and it's gonna mean sacrificing probably some strength and some size. You're gonna be small. Maybe I'd like to be able to still lift, but like I definitely need to stop worrying so much about that and just focus on the getting the miles in. Okay. That's one thing.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

You won't lose your vascularity though, that's the main thing. You actually probably gain vascularity. I can see that Christmas uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

No, you can't the lin chocolates lining my gut.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Lining your skin so you can't see your face.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

Um, yeah. What are you excited for?

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Uh I'm actually excited for the 50k. Uh my wife got uh or Santa, I don't know who it was, got a heart rate monitor and a little carrying like sleeve for things um for running and stuff like that. So I'm actually excited to make that a go because I've never ever in my entire life enjoyed running. Okay. And then uh that I'm excited for the side job thing because I think this year is gonna be a good year for it. Fuck yeah. And then um, all I care about is money. I'm just gonna try and we're gonna try and budget this year, which we've never really done before. I don't know how you know how much money you spent on groceries last year, by the way. What like do you are you tracking that? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

What are you using? Excel? I would love to introduce you to the app that we use for budgeting as a family.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Because I started Googling it and I look at apps after you set that out, I'm like, huh. It's called You Need a Budget.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

You need a budget? Yep, that's literally what the app is called. Okay. Uh we've used it for three years. Yeah. It's about 120 bucks a year. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

So budget that in there.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Yeah. How do you budget into the like how do you budget the budget app into the biggest? Like, I don't know what my budget is yet.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

It's the number one thing that I have done to improve my financial situation. Oh, okay. No ifs, ands, or buts.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Yeah. Yeah. But when that's really gonna be my year.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

If you are gonna sign up, please let me know because I'm sure there's some type of referral code I can use out of that. Yeah. Uh this podcast is even sponsored by You Need a Budget. They just don't know it yet.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, those three things. The ultra, the the side job, and then the budgeting, because we want to do that trip in next year with all of us. Yeah. Right? Yeah, we're 2026. So working that into the budget's gonna be nice.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

We need to lock down some times for that so it actually happens. Yeah. It can't be in the first part of the year.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Uh yeah, we will plan. That's gonna be super exciting. Um or exciting going on in your life?

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, something.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

No. Uh, I'm also I yeah, I don't try to think what else I'm excited for. I want to go on a trip. I don't know where yet, though. I kind of want to go to Scotland, to be honest. I have no idea why why. Braveheart, maybe. I don't know. You haven't seen it so you can see. My wife went with no loser.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

My wife went with her mom with no like goal in mind just to go see it, and it was the best time ever.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah, that's kind of what that's kind of what I want to do. I want to just go see the sites, and I would like to like go find like an Airbnb somewhere in like the freaking Scotland hills.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

That's all they did, yeah. No, no, like list of to-do's either, just like one and just no, that's just I just want to go look. I just want to look around. That'd be so cool.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Um, there's a couple uh spots where they filmed Harry Potter. I'm a bit of a nerd and like Harry Potter, so go check some of those out. I don't know. We have nothing, we have nothing booked yet. We're just thinking about what to do this year.

SPEAKER_03 37:22

Anything else that might be exciting for you? I don't know what you're talking about. Have you had any conversations with people you want to tell us about lately? Or I talked to lots of people. Anyone famous? No, nobody famous.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

No, uh anything that uh Okay, it's just it's driving me nuts. He's got something.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

He does. He just doesn't want to tell us.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

All right. Well, it's his choice, it's his body. Maybe he doesn't want to say it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Yeah, I I don't I I think I know what you're talking about, and it's definitely and it's exciting. Do you want to wait? Yeah, yeah, it it could be exciting, but it's definitely not at the point where I'm excited about it because it's so far potential from potentially happening that uh I'm not. It's not, it's just like it's in the background.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

You want to wait?

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Yeah, I don't want to talk about on your okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Okay, but I am excited for you to the point of where I've been like vibrating, like waiting for you to tell your friends what's going on in your life. I don't like finding out what's going on in your life from people that are.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Well, now you all feel now you know how I feel when certain people in our chat don't tell us things, and we find out like a month later something cool happened in their life. Oh, okay. Like people like Tony. Yeah, Tony. I would say uh George is bad like that too, sometimes. True.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Yeah. It's just the personality they are though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

You know, I'm an open book and maybe well, except for this, apparently. Yeah. But honestly, the reason I haven't talked about this is just that it gets so like it's it's ethereal at this point. There's nothing to grab a hold of yet. It's just a conversation.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

But it's not as it's not like a it's not like a pie in the sky, like it's a thing that has like a kind of like a thing. Kind of. 2025 is gonna be a good year. I'm fired up. Okay. Yeah. I will agree with you.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

It's gotta get through tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Yeah, but uh we're gonna be doing a lot of running. We will be. I'm looking forward to that. I think uh I think that that's again, it's it's a connection thing. It's it's whether or not you're running the whichever race you're running, it doesn't matter. I think the training part of it is again is just getting together and having a conversation and suffering together, and just something there's a lot to be gained from that.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Yeah. I I'm really Tony brought this up, and I'm of the things that I'm gonna try and focus on in 2025 is giving significantly less of a fuck what other people think uh about me or the things that we do. Uh I've realized that's probably a huge do you like so uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

First of all, do you actually care that much? And if you do, how do you think it affects you?

SPEAKER_03 39:44

I d I I've tried I've been trying to do a lot of soul searching in the last like few weeks, just because I've had a lot of quiet time, surprisingly. Uh I think I've known this, and maybe if I say it out loud, like it I will explore it some more. Is like it is probably the one of my best. Biggest like things holding me back.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

So explain to me. So I can understand like you care maybe how people perceive you, but then why how does that change what you do?

SPEAKER_03 40:10

I I think it results in I think you'll both appreciate this having listened to the same things is that like that negative voice in your head that talks you down from doing things because you can hear other people saying in your head or criticizing, or like that negative voice in your head saying that, oh, you shouldn't do this. Like, what if what are they gonna think of you doing it? Or what you know, that is the thing holding me back. And the thing I'll illustrate to use that is we started this podcast and I didn't tell anybody about it. Yeah, why? Yeah, but yeah, right? Because I have this voice in my head saying, Well, what if they judge you? What if they make fun of you? What if they don't like it? What if you don't do well at it? Um, so that would be of the I can think of like three or four things that are like a big focus for me in 2024, that or 2025, excuse me. That's gonna be one of them. Um to the point of where Tony brought up he wants to make a video about us doing this running. Yeah. I've wanted to do something like that for so long. For sure. And it always results in the voice in my head saying, Well, what if you don't do it well? What if somebody doesn't like it? What if you like, why are you embarrassed about this? What is like you what is the thing that people are gonna say that is gonna hold you back from doing this? Uh and it's very defeatist before it even happens. Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

I hear you. I I think I would say I I'm not definitely not immune to caring about what people think at all, but I don't know that it affects me the same way. I don't think I I don't think I care as much for sure. I I don't know. Because I like for the example of this podcast. Like I was immediately, hey, check out our our easy mode crypto podcast that you are gonna hate. Like I was talking about it all right away. And it's just like if you don't like it, that's completely fine. Um and then with like with the video thing, I I completely agree with something we should definitely do. I just for me, the thing that holds me back is the how how difficult it probably is going to be. And maybe I'm which is weird, maybe I'm uh I don't like it's gonna be it's gonna take a lot.

SPEAKER_03 42:03

I th I think so, but I also think there's I don't know, horses for every race here, and that like the training that you're gonna have to do is gonna be significantly harder than the training I'm gonna have to do to do a 50. Right. So then there's a trade-off in time and the effort you can put into other things. Like I I just think it's something that I know I have wanted to do a lot, right? And we've talked about it a lot over the past few years. Yeah, is try and document the fun and cool things that we do and then share it with the people in our lives. Right. Which is part of the reason we do this podcast. For sure. Part of the reason. Uh so I'm just trying to give significantly less fucks about what other people think. Yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

So yeah, I wish I didn't care. I yeah, but it's it's so hard not to.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

But so so for you, Jason. So, like, so you're saying that you care. And I think everyone does. I'm not saying I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

I care what they think of my uh performance. If that makes any sense. So if it if I like at the interesting room, design something for people to do, and if they like it, I'm just happy, but if they don't like it, I feel like they put that on me. Right. If that makes any sense.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

So that's it, does it change, but I guess does it change I so I don't feel like it changes what you do.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

It doesn't. I just worry about it a lot. Sure. You know what I mean? Like it like you know, which I which I guess is understandable.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

I think the hard the worst would be if the thought of how people would perceive it changes you actually doing it or the effort you put into it or the uh you trying something new, and you don't. You always try something new, and I would say 90% of the time it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

But I worry about it a lot. But you're right, it doesn't it doesn't change the course of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Which I think is like a huge, which is awesome. I think that's a big like yeah, that's great. Now you just need to f now you just need to go on the other side of it and be like, okay, exactly. Put the effort in, I wanted to try something new, I did something, here we go. And if people like it, awesome. If not, it's a learning experience. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 44:05

It's the back end of that that affects me a lot. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

That's the part you need to get to, isn't it? Because I I would not be surprised if if you have that voice in your head saying, what if they don't like it, or whatever negative thing is coming up in relation to you trying that thing, it's going to affect how others perceive you, even if you don't mean it to.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Yeah, that's a good point, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Yep. Uh, and I say that only because I can look at myself and all the things that I do that I'm uh afflicted by that.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

I would say though, Jason, like at the nursing home, you you it's not I wouldn't say the risk isn't the right word, but you take risks in terms of you do th new you do new things. Um regardless sure, chances. Whatever. Uh it's risk, it's just not with a negative side of it. Like you take risks in terms of trying something new, regardless of how you're regardless of what you the outcome may or may not be. So I think you're good at that.

SPEAKER_04 44:57

I'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Sounds good. So I I think that you so that your perception of like how that's gonna like how if people are gonna like it or not, doesn't affect you taking the risk, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

No, but the thing is I do find myself on it. You might be the same where where I do concern, like if someone tries something that I've done or created or same with you, they leave. I am extremely concerned about what they actually thought about that experience, as opposed to being, you know what I mean? That that's the back end thing. I cannot get away from that. And I and I overthink that to no end.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Right. And I think there's so there's a I think there's some positive there. I think you definitely want because I I agree, like when we do something new, we want to have the feedback on how was it received or or what did you think of it. But for me, I think I want to know that because I need to I want to know if I can make it better or tweak it or change it, or scrap it. I mean if it's garbage, scrap it, right? But I would I would say that I don't think I I don't worry that I I think maybe that's the difference. I don't do it from a perspective of I'm worried that they didn't like it. In the end, if they didn't like it, then there's a reason. So explain why. And then if it if it's because whether it's just you have a bad attitude and didn't like it, cool. Then nothing needs to happen. Yeah. Or if it's no, it was actually didn't it I didn't think it was very good. We the learning didn't happen because of this, this, or this, yeah, then awesome. Let's then let's let's tweak it or completely get rid of it. If it was complete garbage. So I think That's a good point. So I think you're I think it's there's nothing absolutely nothing wrong with wanting that feedback on did people like it, but I think you just need to somehow lose that like attachment of like almost like that like uh self-worth to the attachment of whether people liked it.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

That's a good point. And then we're talking about very task-specific stuff where like CJ was mentioning things about just not caring what other people think of you, and I think that is a separate thing that I am also not good at. It's just that zero fucks about what they think about me as a person because I know I'm doing good things and and I'm a good person, and and if they uh have an issue with that, then they can go pound sand.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

I think it's I think it's completely unrealistic to say that you're not gonna care what people think.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

It'd be that'd be impossible.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

I think in but I think it's just how you what you do with that information is and how you internalize it is individual. Like I I care what people think. Well, actually, no, I I don't know. I care what my I care what close people to me, like my friend close friends and family, I obviously I put more emphasis on what do they think of me because they know me better, right? So for example, if somebody listened to this podcast for the first time ever and they got had an opinion about me, I might might give a shit about what they think about me is almost zero because you don't know me, right? And if you took like some portion of conversation and say, well, this is who you are based on this portion of conversation, it's like, well, you obviously you're not being uh very generous and you don't have a clue who I am, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:45

Like that, like that person in Africa who's listened to our podcast a couple times. They don't know us potentially, but we can tell them we're good people and we're good people, but they could have a bad opinion of us and and the other thing that's hard is like it took a long time for me to kind of come to terms with this not everyone's gonna like you.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:02

And that's just whether personalities just conflict or yeah, there there's I thought about there's people at the nursing home who I don't have good personal relationships with. We don't click at all, but when we work, we work good together. Completely. But like we are never ever gonna be at the point of like hanging out and having a drink.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Yeah, and for whatever reason. Like, I mean, there's probably some sort of thing that you can't even put a finger on that you're catching a vibe off of them that you don't like and they catch a vibe off of you. But they're still a good person. Completely. Yeah, it doesn't mean yeah, it means nothing about their their intent or their personality, like their person has like whether they're good or they're bad. It's just for some reason there's some sort of like a thing that you can't put a finger on, whether it's hormones or something that just conflict.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

And I think I've I haven't become comfortable with that until like the last year or two. Yeah. And now I'm finally comfortable with that, and it's allowed me a little bit less stress when I care about what they think of me because it's like, no, we're just not gonna click. I do my stuff, they do their stuff, we're both good at it. We're just not gonna click.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Yeah. But that's why it's super important that you have, and this is where again we come back coming back to connectivity and community. I think this is why it's super important to have people around you who know you, and uh despite your flaws, and despite your your crazy things that you do or you don't do, um, they they have a general good interest in your well-being, right? Because they have an interest in you as a person and in your well-being uh as a whole. So when they have something that's like negative, or or maybe they notice something, they're like, hey man, that was kind of shitty of you. You did this thing, or this was this wasn't a good idea, you should take put stock into that for sure. Because they've earned it, right? And and they know you, and you know that they have your your good intentions for you as a person. Um, but you can't do that with everybody. No, no. I mean, I think that I think that circles fairly should be fairly small, but you need a circle. If you don't have that circle of people who have earned that with you, um and and again, we've talked about this all the time. You the people you surround yourself with are the people you end up becoming. So if you don't have that group of people that is pushing you um or to be a better human or a better person or better yourself or in whatever physical, mental, all the things, um, if you don't have that around you, you need to find that.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

I think when we do this podcast again in January 1st, 2026, and you bring up your notepad and give the recap, what's the one thing you want to be better at than you are today next year?

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Uh I I man, honestly, like I think that some of that is the not caring what people think. If I give myself a very honest assessment of how I sh like the choices that I make about the things that I do, and then how do I phrase this? I have not done a lot of things that I've really wanted to do because I've always been held back by the the that voice in my head, which I think is very much resulted like from that concern about what other people think. So like what well, like like the business Jason and I started sure telling people about it. I I don't talk about it because for whatever reason that voice in my head uh says like what if they make fun of you?

SPEAKER_02 51:02

What if they and I guarantee the best the weird thing about this people probably have not around us but they have talked negative about it behind our value, and I don't care. And the problem is And I never thought I wouldn't care, right?

SPEAKER_03 51:13

And me caring does not help me at all because it doesn't matter. Why does it matter? Right. It doesn't matter at all. Yeah. And to to make that to to force that disconnect between what I value or what I want to do, um to disconnect that from my like association to what other people perceive or think about me or the things I do, like that's just I have I have perhaps come to more of a realization than I thought I would that like that is something holding me back.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

So 2026, um that'd be something I'd like to bring up. Uh self-mastery, I mean that's the other thing. This podcast in general, we talk about self-mastery. Um, and it's like a recurring theme that ebbs and flows through this podcast. And so I think for all of us, I wouldn't be surprised if by 2026 we can revisit that and say we've been successful more so than not. Yeah. Things like getting up early, things like fitness, things like whatever self health regimen, cold plunge, sauna, whatever, right? Right. I those fall off for all of us. Like I'll be the first to say, despite making fun of you, I haven't cold plunged in six months. Right? Yeah. I want to, right, but why am I not? Yeah. So and I I don't know. 2026, yeah. Less caringable what people think. Self-mastery. Uh there's some business things that I'm super excited about. Like I think for for me, for us, for the people in my life, like I think it's gonna be a 2025 is gonna be a big year for some of that stuff. So I'm excited to talk about that and um do more of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

What about you? We're in January 21st, 2026. Hey, hey JB.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Tell us about your year.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Looking back on that last year, what was the one thing you really did well?

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Um I don't I I just I think everything CJ said makes sense to me. I there are so many little things that I want to tweak that I need to figure out how to do that in a sustainable way and not like do it for January and then don't do it the rest of the year. Uh so yeah, I and I I agree this this podcast, we talk we talk about a lot of the same things over and over, and we I you know, I don't apologize for that because that's just what we're interested in. But but at the same time, it it we you'll never hear us like we don't know, we don't we suck at this sometimes. Like you we go through if you think that oh these guys are having like I don't I don't think you think that uh I I guess what my point is like what you guys don't have it all figured out Yeah I guess my point is like we go sure I I would say that this year 2024 I was more consistent than not in most of the things that I wanted to do in terms of the gym, in terms of eating, uh even not drinking. I was even though I wasn't perfect and I definitely can do better and I want to do better in 2025, I was more consistent than I probably was any other year. So I want to continue that trend, uh, and I want to continue that trend in into like this year in terms of keeping doing the same things I'm doing, if not better, more consistent plus other things that I I think would be better. For me, I want to be a lot more intentional in my personal life with my kids and my wife, uh, in terms of connecting, making sure that like I mean, like it's just it's time is time sucks. Yeah like time goes by so quickly, and I think that if you and again it's just about being in the moment and and and being here and now not thinking about uh not not getting lost in the planning of the future when when things are happening now. So I wanna I wanna be more intentional about that and and just um like with my my my daughter, she's 14 in four years she's freaking done high school, and like that's that's insane to me. And so just being um a part of her life and making sure that that connection is good so that when she turns 18 and moves out or 19 moves out, that she still wants to come hang out, you know? Like it's it's weird. It's a weird thing to be thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

But no, I heard I heard oh it was a fucking tech talk, sorry. But it was like some guy, it was just this dad guy talking about the biggest achievement he has had in his life. He's like some 50-year-old guy, is that his kids still visit him on a regular basis. Yeah, not because he forced them to, like they want to visit him, and he's like, that's the that's like the biggest achievement of his life, he said.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

And I I don't know if that there's a freaking I don't know if there's a roadmap for that. I don't because it depends on so many factors and so many things. And um anyway, uh doesn't matter. The whole thing is uh for me, yeah. I just want to be I've got some goals, like physics. I got some physical goals, obviously, with the the race. I got some other things, but I just I just want to be uh better. I just want to be better next year. I I don't know. What other things? I don't know. I I yeah, other things.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

Jason, 2026, what are you telling us?

SPEAKER_02 56:18

Uh this is gonna sound weird. It's kind of a double-edged sword. I would like to be in a better because I'm turning 40 this year, and I'm like, I'm not like I'm where I want to be personally as a 40-year-old. Like I'm I'm very happy. The financial side of my life, I'm not where I thought I would be at 40. I'm uh I would say five-ish years behind where I want to be. But that's what I want to try and get under this year. But the problem is that I my wife and I were going to the one of the presents for the kids was a trip to Mexico in February. And that's what something we're gonna do every year now because they're so jacked about it, and we think it'll be fun. But there's a financial, so that's weird because I want I want the financial part to be more successful so I can spend more time with my kids having different experiences, but that to get there, that's gonna take me away from them personally. You know, it it's it's a double-edged sword, and I haven't found that balance yet.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

It's I don't know if there is a balance because again, because we just talked about like time is such a messed up thing, and we literally could die tomorrow. So yeah, and there's a weird thing between like enjoying what the time you have now with the kids that you're the age they're at now by taking them to Mexico, developing memories of like, hey, remember when we went to Mexico and we did that thing? Um, like that's valuable, right? That's valuable in a whole bunch of different ways, more so than the money that you're gonna spend on it. And and that money that you're gonna spend on it, the$7,000 or$8,000 you're gonna spend. I don't know how much it's gonna cost you. Um is in the end, are you five years from now? Are you gonna think about that$8,000? You're not? You're not, you're not. You're not, you're not. You're gonna think about oh, that remember those look at these pictures we got, look at the things we did. Um, so there is there is that trade-off, and that has you have to figure that out. Everyone has to figure out for themselves because you also shouldn't do that at the expense of you have no retirement plan and you're screwed and when you uh get to a certain age and you don't have anything settled. That's also a problem, or you can't afford your mortgage.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

So, like there's scary sure because I because I'm like I'm down, I'm down to like just I'm single digits, years left at the the nurse to like, and I want to leave when I can leave. I don't want to stay longer, um, unless something happens. But uh, and that's scary to me because there's a finality to it. Like, I need to be where I wanted to be in nine years, and I'm not gonna be there, I don't think, because I would like to kind of have the ability to walk.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

But you're not sure, you need but I think you could walk away and then you can get another job. That you whatever like that, you're not gonna walk away and not do anything at 49 years old.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

But you're right about that. You're right about the one thing about that. Like that seven, eight grand or whatever. I'm not, I'm not two shits about it in two years from now, I will not care. So my wife and I were like, because we love overloading the tree with presents every year, and it just looks like oh, when they come downstairs, it's a big thing. We didn't do a present for my wife and ourselves. Like, we don't we'll kind of what you guys did. We don't we don't do that. Santa brought like a little$75 thing each type thing. Um Jason, he's not real. Don't give me a start on that. Um, but uh so we've talked about it this year. We're like, well, maybe next year the kids also only get because they're at that age now, toys are toys are stupid for that their age, right? It's just Lego sets are cool, everything else is like meh, and and my boy who's uh turning eleven this year, he doesn't care about toys anymore. Yeah, right? So are we at a point where we can start taking away toys and and giving them experiences instead, which are better in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

The next thing this year was shoes.

SPEAKER_02 59:45

Oh, yeah, see, I'm I'm not there. He's he's there with the hoodies now and stuff, and they gotta be a certain brand. Oh yeah, the Nuts gets gonna replace it.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

He spent a lot of money on shoes this year.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:54

Do you do you so do you find like right now it's just quantity of presents?

SPEAKER_02 59:58

Oh yeah, I like right now it's In the last it's since they were born, I wrap up every single tiny little thing. Every single thing is an unwrapped present, whether it be a three dollar gift or like a stocking stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

Yeah, we did. I do that too. My wife thought it was crazy, but now she does it too.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

Yeah, you got it. It's just it makes it way more exciting. You can open it every time, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

It's lifesavers. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Yeah, 100%. They're wrapped up because it's a hundred it's another thing. That's right. Right? But like it's just at a point now, I'm like, well, look at all this crap we have. We could we didn't purge this year. We usually purge in November and December, but we didn't purge this year, and we have just so much crap. And it and it literally is crap, cheaply made crap, that they're gonna be not caring about when they're older.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

Oh, dude, I want to go through my house and just garbage 70% of the things that feels so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:43

Get a dumpster delivered and then have it picked up the day after you do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

And so here the problem is I agree with you, but then the other side of it is well, we should donate a lot of it, right? And so then but then I I find that's just like another step that's stopping me from doing it, because it's just oh no, I gotta take this and go do this spot, and I gotta take this and go to this spot. Which I should I I'm gonna do because it's it makes more sense than throwing out toys. Just go donate them somewhere. But uh, we have like well, I guess my kids don't play toys anymore, basically. So it's like I have all these shelves of toys that I need to do something with, and I just keep rid of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

And what do you do? Like, do you keep because we are that like do you keep these for with their kids? Because my my kids are playing with some of my toys from when I was a kid, and it's really cool. Sure, keep a handful, but like but like we have a bin, we said we're like a bin each, and that's all they get. Like we're gonna have a bin. When they leave the house, you get this bin. Here are your selection of toys from when you were a kid. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

So much crap. Yeah, I we yeah, and just yeah, we don't want to purge a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:36

It makes for a less cluttered experience in life when you have less shit in your house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:43

Like it feels so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:44

But do you find your so I find myself on the other hand being like I want to spend the money? Do you feel that way ever? That I want to spend the money. Yeah, I just want to go buy something. Rarely. Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Really? Yeah, you don't you and I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

I feel that way way too much. And then it but like as I and again, I know that me buying a thing isn't gonna mean that I'm oh I feel I feel now I feel good. I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:04

But I think that's because you're into things that like you would get excited, me Jason, you less so. You get excited when Apple releases a new watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

Or vision vision program. Remember how much you looked?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

I debated it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

I thought you were gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

No, I'm I I glad I'm glad I didn't, and it was all because I was like, Can you imagine? Finish supper. Now I sit down on the couch by myself with my headset on while my family like you talk about disconnection, right? It's like, oh, there's dad over in the corner with his headset on.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

Um and and I think yeah, like we all spend our money on different or things that check whatever box we're wanting to check. Like, I think for you it's the novelty box, truly. If I I I would you would be right, yeah. Uh it's I it's you like the novelty of new technology.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

Yeah, I would go buy I wanted to buy a giant new TV. Why? I mean all our TVs work fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:56

Uh Jason, I probably would struggle more so to describe what it is that would be.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

I just it's just a bunch of bingo balls in my head and something will pop up. Oh, looks good. You know, and we're fortunate enough that most of the time, like, we don't have to be like, well, it's we just can buy it and have that experience with it as opposed to really concerning ourselves. Well, unless it's like an Apple Vision Pro or whatever, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:19

Uh best books you've read this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

Are you looking at me? Yeah. But I'll go first while he pulls up his phone. So I am midway through Return of the King right now because I'm reading one Lord of the Rings book a year. One a year because I read terrible. So yeah, that that three-quarters of Return of the King was the best book I read last year, and we'll be finishing it here.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:40

Tolkien's a hard read. I haven't read uh Lord of the Rings in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

It's good, but I I didn't discover it's like the through the three books in one or whatever, and there's a map on the in in the back, and I wish I would have known that the first two books, so you could look at the map and reference. Yeah. But besides that, that's uh I don't read books.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:55

Okay. Uh part of my ill-time Santa comment was that I just watched that Red One movie. Yeah, finished.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

Hey, did before Kate?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:02

It was so bad, but it was good.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

Ah, okay, good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:05

Right? Like it was terribly good.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

We watched it with our 10-year-old. The Roadhouse. I haven't watched that yet. We watched with our 10-year-old. Do you watch Red One?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

Yeah, we watched it with the kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

So good.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

For like a family. Oh, I liked it, yeah. That's going to be our Boxing Day movie tradition, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

Well, see, I don't think it should be a yearly tradition. It's not that good. Like the L. I thought it was.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

No, but here I liked Red One because of the universe it built around if Santa Claus toured around the world like and and like a rock star essentially. And the security and the and the all the stuff that the world building was amazing. And you can't take that away from that movie. And that's why I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

I agree. It was neat. Yeah, maybe there will be a sequel. Well, if it's Red Two. If The Rock can make well, apparently he didn't they didn't make any money. I guess they paid him like$50 million. And I think in Box Office it made like 20 or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

I didn't know it was a box office movie. I thought it was I just saw it on Prime.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Yeah, it quickly went to Prime, but it was at the theater's first. Did he deliver a$50 million performance? No, but it's The Rock.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

No, he just he does his standard performance. There's that that biopic of him that I kind of want to watch. Like there's a rock bio.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:09

I haven't seen that worth it on.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

I I don't even know. It just came out.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:13

But yeah, it was an accurate. You kind of described it Christmas Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Accurate.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

Yeah, it was neat. Like it was cool how they brought in uh Krampus and Oh, it's a it's a TV series.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

Young Rock is a TV series. Uh two seasons. 8.1 on IMDb. I can't tell what it's on, though. It doesn't really show.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:30

Oh, yeah. You gotta look at your IMDBs before you do things.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:33

That's it. And eight for 8.1 for a TV show is very good. I don't look at them. Every time it guides my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:39

Oh, that's so stupid.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

Oh, it's it's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

You can just get opinions.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:43

Yeah, but I'm never disappointed. No, but you have general ranges. 8.1 for a TV show, and a TV show, a biopic, anything above like a 7.5 is gonna be phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:51

Maybe. Or maybe you think it sucks. Or Rotten Tomatoes, it gets a terrible, but you like it. It's like it's like the Roadhouse, the new one. It was garbage, but I loved it. It was hilarious. It was fun to watch. It wasn't a good night, it was not a good movie by all measures.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

I'm gonna look it up right now. What is it called? Uh Roadhouse. Just Roadhouse? I'm gonna say it's probably a 6.9. I have no idea. Which for a made for straight streaming movie, I would watch a 6.9. I won't watch a 6.9.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:15

I bet you it's lower.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

What do we got? We got and oh 6.2. See, that's below my that's below my spectrum. So I don't think I'll be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

It was garbage, but it was hilarious, but it was awesome. Like I don't know what to tell you. It was a terrible, like it was so bad, but it was amazing to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

He's a good looking guy. Hey, Jake Gillental.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:34

Yes, he is. Did you read any nonfiction books this year?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:38

What's no? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

Uh two things about about the books. Did you know the nursing home's getting a library?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

Oh, they're doing it, eh?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:46

Uh they got um, I think they ordered like three thousand dollars worth of books that they were because some money got donated, and they're gonna do a library uh in the front in the back. When you go in, go in the back, there's that little kind of cove there that nothing's in. Yeah. It's gonna be there. Like take home, borrow. Yeah. Borrow. Oh yeah, borrow and send bring back.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:04

Like contextual to the to the function of the nursing home, just in general. General. Oh, that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

So I got so someone sent me an email. Uh uh, Catherine sent me an email asking for recommendations book. I sent her like 20 lists, a list of books. She got them all. Great. And like and they're all they're all like a self-development, like self- nothing to do, they don't have to do with the nursing home.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

No, like 19 1984.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:26

No, like I can't remember. I sent her a giant list of books, though, and she's like, yep, yep, yep, yep. And some of them she already had, and she got some more. Uh for me, best book I read. I don't know. Um I I'm trying struggling to remember which ones I read this year and which ones I read before. Uh I would say one of them, I think it was this year, was that bad therapy book uh by Abigail Schreier. It was just really a different take on therapy and the idea of like not basically how if you focus sometimes if the it's like the opposite. If the if this focusing on everything that's bad and everything that's wrong is sometimes not the right stance. It's actually making it's uh doing you a disservice, right? It's like, okay, yes, you can say, hey, there's some things that happened in my life that were bad, or things that happened in my life that have shaped me. Uh I'm not saying you shouldn't acknowledge them, but like sitting there and talking about them week after week after week after week and really like wallowing in them does nothing to increase like to move you forward. And that's kind of it's kind of about that. And it's mostly about how kids uh are over therapized, um, and they're not being made to be taught how to be resilient. And okay, yes, this thing happened to you. We can acknowledge that. We can acknowledge that it did some things that maybe you know are gonna affect you. However, let's go forward, let's move forward. Like we can't fix that, right? Anyway, it was an interesting book. Um, one that I'm halfway done, so I guess it's a halfway done book that I'm uh got a couple hours left is uh Good Energy uh by Casey and Callie Means. Um I'm I'm really I want to get this book done this week here. I got four hours left on it. Um and I really want to change our diet, like my family's kind of prop food. I know you're you're already you're so good at this, and I need to talk to you more about this. Um, like to how to actually implement, but her biggest thing is obviously eating um like not processed food and and being very specific and like organic. Um and that she has these lists, and it's hard. I'm listening to an audio, and it's I need to go get it in hard copy because she's like a lot of lists that she does, and uh I'm listening to it and it's just like droning on. It's like da-da-da, and don't eat this and this, and then I I need the list of it, so I'm gonna have to go buy it, a physical copy of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

But yeah, I just and on that note, it's actually something I'm gonna start doing this year. Uh is I'm starting to make because I just I do ebooks because they're easy, yeah. But I'm starting to make a list of like if it's a valuable ebook, once I read it, I'm gonna buy the hard copy. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

And see, and I've been a I've been opposed to like Kindle, but I'm actually I pulled my Kindle out the other day and I started Game of Thrones on it again. Oh nice anyway. Um and I'm like I I think I might go that way because I it's just so convenient I can have anything there. And so I think I might just go with Kindle and I agree with you once if it's like like that one or the um the Peter Atia book.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

The longevity one, the better, yeah, whatever it's called.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

Yeah, like that one I got in physical copy because there's things that like you need to see in like the charts and stuff that are super important and and helpful. So like ones like that where I'll grab I'll buy and put on the shelf. I I want to purge my shelf with some just garbage books and just put get some better ones um up there, but um, I want more. Yeah, I need more shelf. I have a couple of yours. I love your bookshelf. Yeah, thank you. It's I like it too. Um anyway, but like I I want I want to pick your brain specifically about like did you guys get a a wheat mill?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:47

No, we ended up uh just buying organic flour from the store just right now because it's probably more convenient.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

Right. Yeah, we just need to have an offline conversation about that. Because I I I want to like I want to sit down with my wife like tonight or tomorrow and like physically write down okay, we need to make lists of things that we need to buy and things that we need to cut out. Um because I think that's gonna be huge. I I just want to eat again, you're not gonna be perfect. I mean, that's again if you expect the perfection and you're never gonna slip and eat some crap. I mean, it's not you're not gonna work and you're never gonna abide by it. But I just want like some basic things that we eat all of the time. Okay, what are some substitutes that are actually better for you? Like, for example, like again, we're super busy, so suppers become sometimes these rushes of like I get home from work, I immediately start supper because we have to leave the house by five to get kids to sports. So it's like, okay, let's freaking boil some spaghetti, throw some ground beef on, make a quick throw like a pre-made pasta sauce in it and smash it together and let's go like scarf it down. We've gotta go in 10 minutes, we've gotta go in 10 minutes, eat, get out of the house, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

And you're eating it's like five minutes, guys, five minutes. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:53

And that's and that's like happens. It's gonna it's inevitable. That happens like three times, at least three times a week at our house during the week. Um, so it's like okay, well, what can we do to better prepare for that yet and eat better food? So rather than just the spaghetti we get, and like that's you know, the wheat gerum or whatever the hell it is, what can we replace that with? Right. Anyway, yeah, that's that's something I want to really change this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:17

Yeah, I really hope you continue that because you're gonna run into the inconvenience of timings, and I really hope you because you you've established it really good early on with the kids, right? Right? And then and then that way they are used to that, and so they're not used to the other stuff that kind of I gave my kids all the time, like the cereal, all that kind of stuff, right? So I think you have a big advantage there, even when that time constraint comes in. I feel like you're gonna have a better chance of maintaining it because you've started early. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, and that's awesome, like super amazing. No, I hope, I hope you guys, you guys will, you a hundred percent will.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:49

Yeah, I we'll have an offline conversation, but I think there's like some pretty easy lines to paint in the road with some of that, you know. Like as we've talked about my grocery bill for 2024, for the at least half of it, all we've bought is organic, everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:02

Well, and that's where I need to figure out where to get that crap, right? Because other than save on foods or Costco, where you normally go.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:07

I know I know they have these like tiny organic sections in every aisle and save on foods, but and I don't know if I'm noticing this more because it's a thing that's important to me, but I feel like Costco is starting to do a lot more organic stuff. Uh my wife actually made a comment to me. She came home from Costco the other day, and she's like a lot of people there were scanning this stuff with the Yuka app. Oh yeah. Like a like a noticeable amount of people, which I found really inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

Yeah, I was I've been doing that a bit more than I ever have been.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:36

So uh okay, so book for you though. Well, did you hold on?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:42

Uh I did the bad therapy and good energy, even though I'm not done it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:45

Did you have a non sorry a fiction book that you enjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:49

I'm trying to think if I even read a fiction book this year. I probably did. I just can't remember how long ago. Okay. So we got left side of the table, fiction, right side of the table. I did read, actually, I did, because when I was building my deck, um I was l listening to books. Uh I like um fantasy. So there's this author called Terry Goodkind, who I've like, he's got this series that literally has probably 16 books in it. It starts with Wizards First Rule. I read it probably when I was like I don't know, high school or just out of high school. Um, and ever since then, he's kind of got this like so these established characters from like that long ago. So there's like three or four of them that are renewer that I listened to while I was building my deck this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:31

Um but it's oh yeah, they go back way back.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:34

What year did Wizard first rule?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

The Sword of Truth series? Yeah. Uh kind of 94. I can find one of them. 94, that's about it. 94. Yeah. Wizard's first rule.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:43

And I don't think I live like a while. I read it then, but it was probably not too long after that. So I like uh fantasy books like that, like Game of Thrones, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

How many books did you read this? Because my wife told me how many she read. I'm like, that's really you're crazy. Um she was she was like, but she she doesn't listen though. She physically reads. It was 40, she had 40 one books or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:03

That's a lot. Good job.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Yeah, but she's mostly on the non- theory. The fiction side.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

Does she listen to like or read the like um romance or the she had one that didn't grab the back of my head?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:16

She had one that crested into it, and like she's like, read this chapter, and I read it. I'm like, this is absolutely hilarious. Yeah. She's not at that stage of life yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

I got two new ones that I just downloaded yesterday because it was buy to get one free for credits on Audible. And one is the 32 Principles, the Jiu Jitsu one by the Gracies, and the other one is uh Ultra Marathon Man. I have no I have no idea if they're gonna be good, but it's like a but it's a biography of some dude that does a bunch of ultras.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:42

I like it. What do you what's yours favorite?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:45

Uh would I would split that so non-fiction? Um probably I've not quite done it, but almost it would be Meditations. Okay, Marcus Aurelius. Yeah. Uh just because I found it beneficial, but I I'm just gonna split that with I o Obstacle, uh, The Obstacle is a way. Yeah, such a good book. Yeah, so I I've been really enjoying like non-fiction-wise, some of that, but I I'll cut that in half. Uh, I just finished a book called Main Street Millionaire.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:14

Probably the most impactful book I've read all year um for my own personal perception of like I guess business and finance and where I see myself. Uh so that'd be nonfiction. And then fiction uh because I'm a humongous sci-fi nerd, that's where I go with my fiction books. Uh would be the Bobiverse series. The Baba B-O-B-B-O-B-I, Bobiverse. Bobiverse. Uh it's a dude who had his brain uploaded into a computer and then turned into a space probe. Uh that sounds like there's a one called Legion. That's yeah, we are Legion. That's the first one. Oh, okay. I've listened. I've read that one. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:52

Yeah. These look like a teen kind of no okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:56

Uh the next book comes out on Sunday, and I'm so excited. I'm gonna get the Mainstream Millionaire book. Uh honestly, Mainstream Millionaire is it was super impactful. I will be buying it shortly. Amazing. So yeah, those would be the two books for me. I intend in 2025 to do a lot more reading. Uh I like all of us, we ebb and flow and go through fit. Yeah, we do in that. But I I always get my biggest periods of personal growth uh correlated with times when I'm doing lots of reading.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

Completely. And I f again part of the part of the like there's a correlation between how much I'm on my stupid phone, obviously, and the not the not reading that I'm doing, right? So um I I think auto audiobooks are a gigantic uh tool that you should use. I I I mean, because I can do I can throw a headphone in and I can listen to that while I'm doing my runs, my work, especially the amount of running I'm gonna do this year. I plan on listening to books um and when I'm when people aren't with me, right? That's that's kind of like the the catch 22 of like work trading with people. It's like it's I like it, but at the same time, if I wasn't, I'd have headphones and listening to books. So I kind of like the solitude of that too. So I gotta find that balance between doing both. But um, yeah, so like that that that those time limits that I'm gonna set on my phone and try to stick to them. Like, I feel like that's gonna give me some more time to be like, hey, I got some free time here. I should read a book.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:15

Yeah, and I'm trying right now to essentially reprogram myself because you know that that legitimate muscle memory shortcut where you're like, oh, open my phone, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:24

So a stoplight, yeah.

unknown 1:18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:27

No, I I put a Rubik's cube in my that's right, you do so weird. I want it that keeps my hand busy anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:32

But you know, at home, it maybe if you have some discretionary time at home and you just like uh thumb Instagram, right? I'm trying to get that back to like, oh, I have 15 minutes, I can read for 15 minutes. Have a book on the island. That's a good point. Um and I in so far I've actually been quite successful with it. Part of my premise with this is is like all of us, we have goals like that we we want to be better at XYZ, or you know, I want to I want to make a whole bunch of money or whatever it may be. If you the m I like I think it's undeniable, it if you read more, your brain is gonna be able to make more connections between pieces of information and make better decisions.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:12

Completely. And like vocabulary, everything changes, vocabulary, like everything. So writing ability.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:17

I I I think I think for all of us, I mean it's probably a no-brainer. The more we read, the better we're gonna be able to interface with the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:24

I would I want to be better at like I I don't I would say you are very good at like these lofty goals, and I don't mean lofty in a negative way. I just mean like you're good at like setting, okay, this is what I see for my future, this is what I want. I'm not, and I don't know why. I'll have like I I have like and I yeah, I don't I just don't. And I and I is not because I don't want things. I don't know what it is. I I I struggle with like setting like a a goal of hey, I want to do I want to build this or I wanna like I I can have when I set like so September, I'm gonna run that hundred mile, cool. But Like what when I look like say 10 years down the road, I don't know if I can say this is my goal. And and I and I I'm not good at that. And I need to maybe be more intentional about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:12

I think that's tough is that long-term goal setting. It's easy to make lofty goals. You know, you could say in 10 years, I want to be self-employed and have no like make enough money that I can do whatever I want. Right. But then to work backwards from that, like, okay, what is my next like 60 days?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:30

Yeah. Yeah, like your like to-do lists and all that kind of stuff to get you to that goal.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:34

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:35

Like the small, yeah, I'm not good at that. Transferring the long-term goal into small incremental steps. Same. It is tough.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:40

Um and you'll like and doing those steps. Totally. Totally, right? And then like perhaps thematically focusing that around growth. Right. Right. Okay, what in the next 60 days can I do that's like the the highest leverage function or action that I can take that will move me further down this path. Uh and some of that, I mean I know I at times have not valued this as much as it is, is like maybe that high leverage action is like forcing myself to get up at 4 30 in the morning. Completely. Right. Because then I get my hour to read or I get my hour to meditate or whatever that may be.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:13

I enjoy doing that and I I'll continue doing that. Um I I just find Oh, I gotta start that tomorrow again. Yeah. I just find that I just find that I get I get like even if it's just that workout, right? I get up, do the calm app, cold punch, ideally, uh, and then get to the gym and be done all of that by seven. Like if it's awesome. Um so I I do think that's there's there's actually a book I looked at getting it, and it's called the 5 a.m. Club or whatever. It's just another book about getting up early and getting things done. Um I don't know. It's just yeah, that that that push of what is the thing. I you know, you know what it's interesting. So like with our job at the nursing home, I I'm concerned going forward because I feel like what I'm currently doing is kind of what I should be doing. And I don't mean what I mean is like I feel like there I am okay at the training side. I like I I not I I'm passionate I like doing it. I enjoy doing it, especially with the the clientele that I currently have. Right. There's a very different between that clientele and the clientele that you have to work with every day. Um bunch of which which is interesting because because in another alternate universe, uh I debated being a teacher, right? Uh and I I and I could see how my personality would lean lend to being okay at that job. Um and and not only just okay, but like again, the passion, like the desire to be there and to do the thing, because it's like okay, I like to be able to pass on information or to influence the next generation of nursing home attendees in a certain way, to be like a certain type of person or to be think a certain type of way. Um and my concern is like now it maybe end of 2025, that's over for me, and it's like, but that is what I'm good at.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:09

You know what I mean? So it's like it's I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

I'm gonna have a you might feel like if you did it for like we do we all have three to five years, which is nice. The five year thing. Well, I thought the but the from the in the other building when I was in that other spot, by the fifth year, by the third year, the second year, I was like, This is this is it, this is what I'm meant to do, this is why I'm here. By the fifth year, I'm like, uh yeah, I can go back. And now I'm the same where I'm now. This is my last year in here. I'm like, I'm getting there, I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm I'm good. So maybe after like if you did it for for like three more years, maybe I don't know how you felt coming out. If you were the same much the same. Like, oh, I'm in it, this is why I'm here, and then like four or five years in, you're like, you know what? I can go back.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:47

Right, but the difference is we we are in a different uh profession where that's an option. Versus you look at like an where the say say that wasn't an option. Let's say you take a teacher, right? And you're a person you yeah, but you're you have then have to find ways to continue to keep up that um enthusiasm for your position. And you can do that by again, by uh making things better, like consistently making better change, consistently trying to push, okay, this this worked last year, this didn't work this year, so let's fix that. Or the new crop of students comes in and you have a new challenge, new challenges and and new you know, positives and negatives that you have to kind of sort through with okay, this person is really struggling here. We how do we how do we fix that? How do we allow them to be successful? Um so I think if you find those small challenges and like I mean it we're just we're in a weird position lucky position where you know we get to that three to five and you're like, oh I I'm tired of this, let's get to find something new. You know, ADD kicks in and we go, we were lucky we we can actually go do that, right? Where it's like something reset, right? Whereas if you didn't have that ability to do that, you I think you would have to like a teacher, like a 25-year teacher, you have to find every year find the thing that keeps that passion alive, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:04

I I want to I'm going to reframe this for you a little bit. Ready? This is totally relevant just to the things I've been reading, listening to, etc. If you take the job, if you take the word job and just replace it with any type of ownership type term, entrepreneurship, and then you take that three to five years and you turn that into an exit.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:24

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:25

So, hey, I'm really loving this thing I'm doing right now. And so I'm going to build a something around this thing, but in three to five years, if my passions shift, I'm going to be able to sell this thing or get move out of this thing for for money and move on to the next thing that my passion, right? This has been, and we've talked about this a little bit in 2024, and I'm going to try and be a lot more purposeful and vocal about this. Is like I think, and I think all of us, we all have a really diverse and powerful set of skills, and working for other people is very limiting with those skills. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:02

Like we're peacocks and you gotta let us fly.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:04

Uh a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:06

But yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:07

Right? Um, because you can follow those skills or those things that you really feel empowered or or or uh energized by right now, and use those things to build something that if in three to five years your passions change, you've built this wonderful business, whatever, and now you can sell it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:27

Yeah, I I I agree with you. I think in our position with our job, it's it's harder. Um it's because it's very specific.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:35

Totally. But I also think if I if I listen to what you've said and I knowing you very well, that you are somebody who is made for the purpose of not teaching as what I see a teacher, but like instructing. You know what I mean? Developing mentoring on in hands-on ways.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:54

Maybe consulting in a bit. Well, sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:57

Think about a company that has groups of new people coming in that they need these groups of people to learn complex or nuanced skills or high liability skills in in short periods of time, however, you want to phrase that. Well, there's people that are well suited to teaching those types of people these types of skills. Right. And that would fit mesh very well with your skill set. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:19

Also, problem solving. I feel like all three of us, like if you and we talked to some people from the nursing home who did like little side gigs when they weren't having the best time kind of at the nursing home, maybe we'll work for the other areas, and they're like, people can't problem solve. Like little, tiny little things they just can't figure it out. And I think we're all we all take that for granted. We can just we can find something and and get to the end of it by problem solving our way through it, and a lot of people can't. Yeah, and I I don't think that's a skill we know about until you really see other people struggle to solve a problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:48

That's what I find interesting in general, like even these uh recent interviews that we all had to do. Uh I I think it's interesting because there are so many things that you just do in day-to-day that don't seem like a big deal to you. You're right. That are the things that people are looking for, but like it's hard to explain them. Like, because it in general because in like you just literally just fix the thing. Like something happens, you roll the punches, you make an adjustment, you move on with life. And it's like you don't even think about it again. Whereas those are the things that they want you to have a conversation about and illustrate in those interviews, and you're like, but it's hard to when they it didn't even register because it's just you just that's what you do. Like you just gotta move on and fix it, and you can't let that like ruin your day. You just have to fix it and move on. Um, I don't know, it's interesting. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I I yeah, I don't know. Something we have to talk about, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:45

Yeah, and I think I I mean listening to this, I think there's a risk where people might listen to this and be like, oh, so like you're you're just like planning on like leaving or quitting or whatever. And it's if my bosses are listening to this, no, I'm not. Um, but it's also not it's very unrealistic to assume that we as human beings, as ambitious human beings, realize that like there is more to this than just working for somebody else.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

For sure. And some people enjoy that. Like, I mean, there is there is some amazing things with job security and like the fact that we have a job, right? We're good. Uh but yeah, but then there's also the other side of it where you know you maybe you want more, maybe you want to uh figure out a way to branch that off or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:27

Yeah, and I think I I would be surprised if you could find a person and talk to them who doesn't quote unquote want more. Yeah. Right, whatever that more is, more time, more money, more health. Uh it and I think that the unique opportunity that all of us and all of our colleagues have at the nursing home is if you take that diverse problem solving skill set and then turn that inwards to your own situation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:52

I think we also, I mean, don't want to toot our horn. Do people say that anymore? Uh yeah, all the time. Okay, cool. I don't want to toot our own horns. But like just again, just being in being examples, like again, I think us being very candid on on this podcast and in general in life, um, uh discussing how we want to be better, our shortcomings, our all these things, it is beneficial, I think, to some people. And and I think what what and people want to also do things to to better themselves. And a big example of this is I think uh you and me and Tony and George and the people who ran the the race last year. I mean, how many more people are running it this year? I'm not saying and I'm not saying it's directly because of us at all, but I'm just saying is okay, perfect perfect. I I think that some people it is like, hey, well, if they can do it, like if they try if they're trying to do something stupid and hard that they they admittedly aren't good at, but they're gonna try it, maybe we should try something too. And like I think we went from five of us doing it to there's like 15 or 16. There's almost 20. Yeah, almost 20 people.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:56

I love that. I it's amazing, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:58

Completely. And I and again, I'm not I want you to, I want to be clear, I'm not saying it's because that we did it at all, but I do think that there is some influence there that these people have said, okay, listen, we got we should push ourselves, we should try something different and fun. And um well, we're still we are still tribal creatures.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:14

There's still a bit of a social license like, hey, like this person has done this thing. I uh it gives me because I don't yeah, I don't want to be saying that, oh, because we've done this, other people do it, but it does give you license to try things maybe out of your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:27

For sure. And and I and it means on the other hand, if it is, if if we have had that influence to some people, whether like like like Jason, who's like, I'm gonna give this a shot, and that's awesome. But I think that's again, that's part of what I think is unique about maybe some of our positions is that by just being us, and there's no like we're not um uh none of us are doing this to be that influential person. Like, there's no that's not the intent behind anything we're doing. Is it's literally to better ourselves from an individual level for ourselves and for our families. Um, but in that process and then being transparent with it, it drags some people with you. That's awesome. I mean, that's kind of what I hope this thing is.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:08

I agree. Yeah. 2025 is gonna be a good year.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:12

I agree with you. I think I'm initially I was kind of like, is it? It'll be the same, but no, I'm I'm with you now. Yeah. All right, we've accomplished something. It'll be good.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:20

It'll be good. Uh the last thing I want to leave this podcast with, leave today with, yes, is we in 2024 had a number of guests come on that were unplanned or like kind of like, oh, we should have this person on, and then finally we had this person on. If I would like to say, and I'm sure you guys would agree with me, that if you are our friend or not our friend, if you are our enemy, and you're listening to this podcast and you want to come on, please reach out to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:49

Yeah, completely. Yeah, we would love to have more people on. I mean, it it's I think it's uh if you go back and listen to people we've had on, and we just we just have conversations, so that's what we're looking for. Maybe a bit a bit of a different uh insight onto certain things that we we're very much on the same page with a lot of things, even though we disagree sometimes. It's we mostly agree. So it'd be good to have somebody on here who disagrees. Um I'm not saying you need to disagree to come on here, I'm just saying different viewpoints are always welcome. Reach out, you know us, or hit us up uh at average superior at gmail.com. Is there a period in that? Yeah. Average.superior at gmail.com or average superior on Instagram or X. Yeah. All right. Awesome, thanks for listening. 2025 is gonna be good. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:40

Jason, do you have anything you want to say?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:41

I I never do the goodbye. You guys always say goodbye. I just kind of just fade away.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:45

Okay, I want you to lead the goodbye. All right, peace.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:52

Once again, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, share it with a friend and consider heading over to our Instagram at average superior, checking the link in the bio, and supporting the show. Have a great night.