DedicatedDevoted
We are a dedicated married couple devoted to Jesus, unpacking all that life has to offer. We aim to help others live a DedicatedDevoted life to Jesus Christ.
DedicatedDevoted
Harnessing Change and Building Resilience
Ever felt like a liar for not sticking to your promises? That's exactly how we felt during our two-month podcasting hiatus. This episode is all about catching up on life's ups and downs, from President Trump's unexpected election win to sweating away our guilt in the gym, inspired by friends who've taken our past episodes to heart. We even tackled a fun home project by building a woodshed, proving that sometimes stepping away from the mic leads to new adventures and priorities.
Remember your first CrossFit session? Well, Jared sure does, and in this episode, we take a nostalgic trip back to 2016. Jared's rediscovery of CrossFit has rekindled his passion for high-intensity workouts and community spirit. Whether it's a lingering back injury or the adrenaline of extreme fitness, we discuss the mixed feelings that come with the territory.
We also dive into the journey of embracing change with a focus on personal growth. Inspired by the concept of "callusing the mind," we reflect on competing with ourselves and the power of consistent actions over fleeting motivation. From overcoming low testosterone levels to the societal stigmas attached, we share our personal health journey and the importance of a supportive community. Join us as we turn challenges into stepping stones and look forward to what the future holds, like a caterpillar ready to become a butterfly.
Hello and welcome to Dedicated Devoted. I'm your host, Jared Colombell.
Speaker 1:And I'm your co-host, Cora Colombell.
Speaker 2:On today's episode. I simply want to play catch up. Okay, I don't want you to inquire about what we're going to talk about. Quiz me, dig deep or ask questions.
Speaker 1:All right, sure.
Speaker 2:That's simple, huh. I guess, Cora, do you know the last time that I posted an episode? I?
Speaker 1:would say no, but I would say it's been two months.
Speaker 2:It's been almost two months, that's correct.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I looked at the last time I posted and the last episode I posted was September 17th 2024. And that was Parker, son of Jared.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was a good one. That was a good one.
Speaker 2:We're going to play catch up today, but in a future episode I actually want to do three separate podcasts, one with each of our kids.
Speaker 1:That sounds like fun.
Speaker 2:So the reason for today's episode, simply Catching Up, is I kind of find podcasting therapeutic and because it's been such a long time, I actually feel like a liar, because if you listen to our podcast, really you hear in the very end I state and we post an episode every week.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm just a big liar Probably. You know. The funny thing, though, since we last actually posted an episode, I've had a few friends just share that they've listened to a few episodes and we really don't have that many hits on our episodes, so it's kind of cool, a few episodes and we really don't have that many hits on our episodes, so it's kind of cool. So I had a good friend of ours and he had mentioned that he listened to our finding balance and overcoming obstacles episode. That was fitness, fitness, faith and community, and so I won't name any names, but one of the funny things is he. So at least you know it's a he. He said that he listened to the episode and he's now going to the gym three times a week.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he said he doesn't know if he's doing it right, though, because he doesn't sweat.
Speaker 1:Oh, I talked to a friend about sweating today.
Speaker 2:I thought well, you probably are doing it wrong. It depends what you're trying to do. Yeah, I guess yeah. So well, you probably are doing it wrong.
Speaker 1:It depends what you're trying to do. Yeah, I guess yeah.
Speaker 2:So okay, go ahead and tell me about now. I'm curious what's your story?
Speaker 1:Okay. So my friend, she set up a sauna. They built a sauna, her and her husband, and she was telling me that she doesn't really sweat in it and she wasn't really sure.
Speaker 2:It's broken.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's a good sauna, but after doing some research, she found out that the reason why she's not sweating is probably because she's not drinking enough water. So maybe he's not sweating because he's not drinking enough water. It could be. It could be, but yeah, I don't know. I haven't watched some workouts, I have no clue.
Speaker 2:Oh, these people are not sweating. This is really interesting. So in my opinion, there's a lot of stuff to catch up on. We've had a president elect and I am super excited about that with President Trump. I'm looking forward to the new administration.
Speaker 2:So many things have happened in my life, and the reason why I got peeled away from the podcast is things just kind of didn't go the way that I thought they were going to go in terms of my job Not personally, but I just had we can call them staffing issues, things that needed to be worked through, and so I run a pretty tight operation and I could sense that things weren't going the way that they should be going, and so I had an opportunity to kind of take what I would deem to be a challenge or a defeat and try to twist that around and make it something positive, and I've learned a lot of stuff really lately.
Speaker 2:One of them is being an eternal optimist is not a good thing. That has to do with my stock market choices. I won't get too much into that, but getting peeled away from the podcast has been a little bit difficult, but I emphasized the things that were the most important and in that portion of my life. I think that I've made the right decisions, the things that are going to be beneficial to me, to my family, to others, but I've also I've taken on new things. So you talk about sweating right. That just sounds weird if somebody is kind of tuning in midstream here, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, just sweating. But one of the things that I did is I started listening to a book, an audible book, and the author has a filthy mouth. I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but how did you hear about this book?
Speaker 2:You used my credits to purchase it.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:And I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty good book and, again, one of the things that how I kind of want to go a little crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When I do things, I want it to be to the extreme. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's definitely your personality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like when I went through college, my objective with some of my teammates, as we did presentations and we did quite a bit of them specifically in business school my objective was to make a lot of them look bad. And this author was talking about how sometimes our pursuit of that different makes us do things that really rub people the wrong way. We're like competing and we're not even competing, and so I've been doing a lot of things lately, so playing catch up what's new in your life?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say like just new in my life, but I think one of the things that you had to work on for the time being was building a woodshed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That took a couple of weekends, so that took up a lot of your time.
Speaker 2:And how sweet is that woodshed it's pretty sweet. It's pretty sweet right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it came out really nice.
Speaker 2:What's the best part about that woodshed?
Speaker 1:I think I like. In my opinion, oh, I don't know about your opinion. You can speak your opinion.
Speaker 2:I'm going to speak mine.
Speaker 1:For me it's the aesthetics of it because, like I told you before, I think it looks really nice.
Speaker 2:But I kind of liked all the reusable stuff that we used on it. Yeah, Reusable stuff. The thing that the that is the best about that woodshed is it is virtually free.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it's very, very cheap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I scrapped together a bunch of materials, but it looks primo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it Like the. The top is like fencing, and what would you call it?
Speaker 2:Metal panels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but it has graffiti all over it and I kind of really like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got those panels from my previous job and we had to tear those down, and there was a ton of graffiti on the other side, and so it kind of looks like something that belongs in the city of Albuquerque.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has a lot of homies names on there.
Speaker 2:It does, it does. Shout out to all the homies out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm learning them all right now, just looking at my woodshed, I'm like go out to get wood to stay warm and I'm like, oh yeah, I like that guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one goes out to little Chuko. I don't think that was a name, but it's not a time I basically I took a hiatus from a lot of the things that I was doing and I emphasized my job that's my bread and butter and so I went knee deep in that, spent a good majority of my time working through that for the last two months, and it's been really fruitful. So being able to pull away a little bit and finish that project, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to pull away a little bit and finish that project. That was pretty cool. Yeah, that's probably one of the main like big things that's been going on. Then obviously, the big snowstorm getting a couple of feet of snow, that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I absolutely love the snow. I think that it, and we built the woodshed just in time for the snowstorm which was really cool. So another thing that's been and it's really recent, really big for me, and I have to tell you, because it's kind of an unwritten rule, right, I've been doing a different form of exercising. Oh yeah, back to the sweating thing. Right, you are doing it wrong if you're not sweating.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's that competition side of me. Whenever I go to the gym or if I'm doing anything, I'm always wondering why people aren't doing stuff to the extreme. I'm like why is that person working out so leisurely?
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's a big difference too, cause I told you this before. Obviously, I go to two different gyms, and for the most part I go to one, but usually about once a week I go to the other one, and at one gym that I mainly go to, everybody knows me. At the other gym, nobody knows me. So at the gym that nobody knows me at, I tend to work out a lot harder because I don't talk to anybody.
Speaker 1:So usually when I work out there, like everyone looks cute, those girls there just look so cute, they all have makeup on their outfits are awesome. And then there's me and I'm just like drenched in sweat. But it's because I don't know anyone and I don't talk to anyone. So I'm just laser focused on just working out and not necessarily have to have a conversation with people.
Speaker 2:Well, you're doing it right, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at that gym I do. At my other gym I. Even if I want to do it right, there's always someone who wants to talk to me.
Speaker 2:Well, this is what it comes down to. When it comes to gym time, your friends can really ruin it for you. Friends can really ruin it for you because it becomes a social club when all you want to do is sweat.
Speaker 1:And sometimes it's not bad. But sometimes I feel like maybe it's too social. But that's why some people are there though.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about that today there's there's one man that's been going there for years and I think about him going there and it's very social because he, he works out, he works out, um, like he should. He doesn't spend all his time just talking, but I feel like he's there for the social part of it and I think that actually at our gym, most seniors should go to be social. And I say seniors because I think that actually at our gym, most seniors should go to be social. And I say seniors because I think that there becomes a time where you're not very social as you get older and I think for some of those people it's actually a really good thing to just get out, even if you're not like, like you say, sweating. I think at that age you don't necessarily have to sweat, just go and be active and meet people.
Speaker 2:No, Arnold still sweats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he's not quite that old.
Speaker 2:No, he's old.
Speaker 1:He might be old, but I'm talking about 70, 80-year-olds. Is Arnold that old?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay, well, he could do that we need to Google how old he is. Okay, I have my phone, we're going to get on the Google machine right? We're getting back to Dr Google and I'm going to say that he is 72 years old. The governor has to be 72 years old or more.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's see it's coming up.
Speaker 2:You got to remember he's a grandpappy, he's old and he's still killing it in the gym.
Speaker 1:He's not 72.
Speaker 2:How old is he?
Speaker 1:He's 77.
Speaker 2:See, there you go. Yeah, but the Terminator is still killing it at the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but these people and sweating, these people are not bodybuilders.
Speaker 2:Well it brings up this concept of how we approach things and I'm back to the gym in a different format. Yeah, because I don't want to be like a super old guy who's not sweating at the gym and I'm just there because some young lady like you said it's good for me to get out and be at the gym so that they don't, you know, so that they're not sad. Right, that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to get ahead of life now so that when I get to be that age, I'm enjoying it. Yeah, I'm killing it Right now. Um, intensity is one thing. Again, it depends on what your goals are. Not not all gym sessions are going to be high heart rate or anything like that, but this is the new thing. Okay For me, and I'm actually quite excited about it, since we're playing, we're playing catch up, it's. I am back to doing CrossFit.
Speaker 1:Yay, where's the applause?
Speaker 2:I don't know where the applause is.
Speaker 1:You did it last time I got. Oh, it's been that long it's been that long. I don't know how to work it. I would clap, but I don't want to ruin the thing.
Speaker 2:Well anyhow I am back to CrossFit. Yeah, okay, that's enough. Thank you very much for your enthusiasm. The reason why I mentioned that is CrossFit is sort of its own animal in the exercise kingdom.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we all make fun of you guys all the time.
Speaker 2:And if you're a CrossFitter, you got to make sure that you demonstrate your level of insanity to all other people and you let them know that you're a CrossFitter. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you got to let them know that you're a CrossFitter. Yeah pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you got to let them know how much you sweat, all the psycho stuff that you do, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But so I a little bit of a backdrop story. I ended up doing CrossFit back in 2016. And it was, I think, towards the end of 2016. And I got to tell you it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I had.
Speaker 1:Was that the first time you tried it?
Speaker 2:First time.
Speaker 1:Wow, I thought it was a lot earlier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was 2016.
Speaker 1:So eight years ago yeah, it's been that long, okay and I just busted out my uh, my lifting shoes again. Oh my gosh, I kept them for that long. So dusty, they're so dusty.
Speaker 2:And I was so proud of myself because that experience with CrossFit really resonated with me. But well, first off, it was a I I watched a documentary called killing the fat man.
Speaker 1:Well, sorry, I think I think all that stuff that you might've even got at our first house maybe because I remember, I remember you buying all this stuff for that you were super excited. That was our first house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was at our first house and the CrossFit gym was actually right down the road. Okay, and so now I got to travel 45 minutes to get to the CrossFit gym.
Speaker 1:Was that Los Volcanes?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, go ahead. It was that far.
Speaker 2:That was really far and I remember getting the gear and I was really excited because CrossFitters are like you know they'll get CrossFit shoes, and so I still. I am a big fan, actually, of CrossFit based shoes and so I've worn the same kind for a long time and just bought different iterations. Yeah, but I had a lot of the old gear Because the first ones looked like bowling shoes, I thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they kind of do they had like a strap on them or something like that. Those are the ones I'm using now. All right, they're great though I haven't seen.
Speaker 2:The gear is interesting, the people are interesting. If you want to know CrossFit in a nutshell, it's about community mixed with fitness and doing high intensity workouts with complex movements, and it's always varied.
Speaker 1:So what were you saying, though, about watching something?
Speaker 2:So I watched this and this is kind of a motivational thing, right. I watched a while back ago when I was at my heaviest weight. By the way, I am once again at my heaviest weight and I've been going to the gym for some time, so I'm trying to find something new to kind of spur my craziness and my brain that'll push me to do things. So I watched this documentary called killing the fat man and it was about a guy who started CrossFit. It's basically a journey of new health, right. So he's a big guy. He starts doing CrossFit and I remember watching it going. That looks a little crazy, right, because CrossFit is really about high intensity.
Speaker 2:When CrossFit first kind of came out, greg Glassman who is the quote unquote originator I don't want to say inventor right, he brought a lot of disciplines together gymnastics and ollie lifting and and, um, um, hit exercising. He brought all that together was sort of a mentality, and I remember looking at that or watching that documentary and I thought maybe that's what I need. It's a sense of crazy that I want, right, yeah, and so I remember going and trying out crossfit, loved it, the community was great. It was exercise like I've never done before. Um, there were people who wore very interesting things, and so it was kind of like a little mental institution for people who wanted to work out, and I was like I belong here, this is a crazy crew. Extremists, extremists, there you go Right, 100% extremists. And man, I loved it. But what happened is I think I did it for a short period of time and two incidences in my life kind of came to a head and I did not end up doing it anymore. One I got injured.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I was super prideful and I remember watching women and men, but primarily women who are much smaller than me, lift way more weight and I thought there's no way that a woman like that and if you know, crossfitters, um, even the small folks and the women are super strong If they're lifting the kind of weight that you see them lifting- Well, one guy at the gym just told me today that he saw a girl like lift an extreme amount of weight and she was really small. And.
Speaker 1:I said, that's just strength, it's not really just body mass.
Speaker 2:I didn't understand that at the time, and so I basically overloaded. I had injuries that I didn't understand how to work through, and baby and so I ended up actually messing up my back pretty bad and that and it kind of brings a. It brings back to my memory a feeling of how I felt in my stomach, and so that happened. And then the second thing that happened is we had a team celebration and I worked on a military base and my core team ended up going down and doing this activity with some paratroopers.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And my coworker, mentee and friend Sarah, was on the top of this rappelling wall and after we got a brief kind of overview of how you actually utilize the I can't remember what the contraption's called it's like some kind of harness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a harness and they have this device on it that you squeeze and you just let go in order for it to lock. But anyhow, I digress. The story is I was out there and I remember my back hurting quite a bit and I sort of tied this all into the memory of CrossFit, and Sarah went off that rappelling wall it was about 40 feet high, four stories and she jumped off and I remember the horrific scream and she never slowed down. She just came right down to the ground, fell on her back. I thought I was watching her pass away and it was.
Speaker 2:It was a really traumatic experience for me, and so a friend of well, there was quite a bit of coworkers there, but my coworker and friend we picked Sarah up and she didn't get the treatment she needed there and we had to take her to picked Sarah up and she didn't get the treatment she needed there and we had to take her to our ER.
Speaker 2:We had an ER at work, so we took her there and I remember all that kind of coming to a head, like it was like life was going really fast and then it just went really slow. So I stopped doing CrossFit, I continued to cycle, didn't really go back to CrossFit, though, and I remember just like a few bad things happening and it just made everything kind of somber, if that makes sense. But I kept thinking about CrossFit and I remember maybe it was about two months ago I thought I should probably get back to it and I revived Killing the Fat man and I saw a little bit of it, and CrossFit has changed a little bit. Greg Glassman is no longer the owner of it. There was some fallout based on some of his bad behavior and stuff like that, but needless to say, it's still a really great way of exercising in a very untraditional way.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think because it works for you yeah, because it doesn't work for everyone. You've tried talking to me about going and to me it seems like a miserable experience, but I think for you it definitely. I you've tried talking to me about going and to me it seems like a miserable experience, but I think for you it definitely works, because you are the type that does like to be pushed and I'm just not really that type of person. I like doing things at my own pace and that's kind of why I like doing what I do now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so uh, lately I've been hearing a lot of David Goggin stories and he talks about callusing his mind, and really his journey, with all the things that he's done from a health perspective, are really about him figuring out how can he tap into new levels of his mind, and so it looks like he's tapping into exercise, but really what he's trying to do is he's trying to see how far he can stretch his mind, and when I think of these type of activities CrossFit as an example there's a lot of stuff that you do and you go. This is insane. You know, we did an exercise, we did a routine yesterday, right, a workout of the day, a WOD. So you have a strength based activity that you start with and then you're going to have a metabolic activity, and so they call those the workout of the days, and yesterday's was, um, death by box jumps, oh gosh, they're just kind of like stuff that sadists were put together. But then it's really fun when you're doing it as a as a team, and you're you're, you're trying to beat yourself. You're not trying to beat other people, you're trying to beat yourself and you're trying to callous your mind and you're trying to overcome your deficiencies, and I think that that's what's really cool about it. Like a gym, you walk in and you're doing stuff.
Speaker 2:But I want to compete against myself. I don't want to just get bigger, I don't want to just get better. What I want to do is I want to compete myself. I want to beat myself from yesterday and the day before. I don't want to compare myself against others because there's a lot of disappointment in that. I would prefer to try to measure myself against myself from yesterday. So that's a really, really big thing that's been happening with me. I'm super jazzed about it because I got some new clothing right. I've been using the same cheap, discounted stuff that I've had for about two years now from Walmart and I finally got some real clothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's that's kind of based on a size thing, cause you and I have both kind of done that where we're like, okay, once I get to this size I'm going to buy new stuff. But kind of like I mentioned to you before, I used to feel like that. I used to feel like you know it doesn't, I'm only going to get stuff once I get to a certain size. And then I realized I'm uncomfortable in the stuff that I'm wearing. I might as well get stuff that I actually really like now, and then in time I could get some other stuff. But why not at least be comfortable for the time being, versus wait until I'm the right size, cause you might never be the right size.
Speaker 1:That you're thinking in your head. And that's another thing that I've noticed. Um, I just had a friend I posted this thing that was kind of like a funny little video on like feeling chubby, right, and I had a friend comment that sometimes she feels that way too. And I thought to myself, well, that's kind of amazing, because this girl's done body competitions, she's done bikini competition, she's super fit, she's super lean, she's super tiny, like if you saw her you wouldn't think she's fat at all. But just to think that someone like that could still have days where they feel chubby, it's kind of really interesting, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's part of our human experience that we're into the self-flaglation, right, we whip ourselves and we beat ourselves up and I'm kind of with you. You know you talked to me about not waiting to buy nice looking clothes. I had mentioned that I want to look like. I want to look like a boss right, I'm a boss at work.
Speaker 2:And so it'd be nice if I could actually reflect that. And so I ended up getting some new clothing, and it is not the size that I want it to be but I'm going to get there. That's part, yeah, so that's a really big thing for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for the time being, like I said, it's about you know, kind of wearing what's comfortable too. So it's not just about I don't know. I have things that I've bought that I'm like, well, when I get this size, but at the same time I want stuff for my size now. So I do, I do buy stuff, buy new stuff from my size now, but I also don't want to just say, well, when I get skinny, this is what I'm going to get it's like, or when I get, you know, fit. I shouldn't say skinny, cause I don't want to be skinny, but um, I just want to. At this point in life, we can buy what we want right now to feel comfortable. So why not just do that?
Speaker 2:And not ask each other how much it costs.
Speaker 1:Each other how much it costs, oh, I'm still going to ask you how much does it cost? I still want to know.
Speaker 2:Is it a?
Speaker 1:deal, or is it not?
Speaker 2:There are some things that you're going to see come through the mail and we'll talk about the price later, and I thoroughly apologize for those up front.
Speaker 1:Well then, you know, I'll have to tell you about some of the stuff I've bought lately too.
Speaker 2:Okay, as long as I fulfill my dream of going fast.
Speaker 1:What. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:On to the next thing. So with the clothing thing, I think that that's a really interesting one, because I've just decided I want to look good even in the size that I'm in right now. Totally, I have this sort of old memory of rewarding myself with like oh, when you drop this amount of weight, you get new gym clothes and when you drop that weight, you get new shoes, and I'm kind of done with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I used to be that way. I think that's kind of where I've kind of changed you a little bit, because, I'm not kidding, I definitely used to be that way. I was just talking to a client about that the other day, where we chopped off all her hair and she's like oh, I used to have this goal of when I got thin, I chopped my hair off and I told her I was the same exact way. I'd be like when I lose the last 10 pounds, I'm going to cut all my hair off, and then I would. But this time I didn't lose any extreme amount of weight, I just thought I want to chop all my hair off, and that's exactly what I did. But in the past that wouldn't be my rule. My rule would be like once I get here, then I'll change things up.
Speaker 1:But, I don't do that anymore because I'm like I just want to do what looks good, what's going to feel good, not really like looks good, but what I feel comfortable in. Um, why not versus be uncomfortable, cause it that really makes you feel better too. And that's one thing that I have realized about working out Cause I've only been really doing this for three years consistently. Um, and when I first started, I used to wear sweaters and sweat pants and just whatever, and I didn't feel comfortable Like that's why I wore sweat sweaters, because I didn't feel comfortable like who I was. And then, as time went on, I thought, you know, I'm just going to wear what I feel is comfortable and, at the same time, like I feel like people think I have tons of confidence because I do that. I wouldn't say I have lots of confidence, but I feel like somehow just being in what I want to wear, like wearing the shoes I want to wear, wearing the clothes I want to wear, I am way more confident than just wearing what's going to fit me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's not going to look, look nice, but it's all I have till I lose 10 pounds. You know, just wear what you want to wear.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to the day that I'm jacked enough at the CrossFit gym where, when, when I get really hot, I can just throw my my shirt off Right and do my workout like a psycho.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, no, that's the way that I will come watch, then you've asked me to come watch now and I'm like yeah, I'm busy, all right, well, come watch you then.
Speaker 2:Those, those are my goals. I I'm enjoying it a lot right now and what comes to mind, what I've learned in probably the past eight weeks, is alternative thinking. You get these decision points right, you get these, these forks in the road in life and you got to figure out what to do, and I've had a ton of disappointment.
Speaker 2:I wanted to. I wanted to do an episode tonight called digesting defeat, but I thought there's there's no defeat in the things that I've been through. There's been lessons learned and ways to alternatively approach things. But for, for instance, things went very awry at work and I had to assume much more responsibility than I've had in quite a bit of time. And what I did is I decided to take the bulls by the horn and I had to work. I had to work hard and I had to work consistently and I had to work long.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that came out of that is man. I really was able to figure out who my employees are, what the issues are and how to make things better. And of that is man, I really was able to figure out who my employees are, what the issues are and how to make things better. And I tell you there's this sense of approach that when doing that, you can really get the results that you're looking for. That's not defeat, right, the circumstances looked like they were defeating, but I took it and I said this is an opportunity, and I'm not an optimist'm I'm much more of a realist. And so I took that as a an opportunity and I flipped it into something that that was to my advantage and I think I'm on a way better trajectory, so I got pulled away from the podcast.
Speaker 2:That was really frustrating for me and it's very easy to get down and out and say well, you know, my goal was 52 episodes and all I have is under 10.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to get to that 52 mark and I tell you when I hit that 52 mark, it's going to be awesome because all my refined skills are going to be showing in how I approach this. This is a little bit of a therapeutic activity for me, and so I go. These things that I'm going through and overcome are going to define who I am in the future, and so, as part of that process, I also looked at my personal life and went I think I can do something a little bit different in terms of how I'm managing my health and my diet. One of the big things was and I don't know if we talked about this, but I'm going to have a friend on the podcast and we're going to talk about this which was my really bad testosterone levels and how our society looks down on that kind of stuff, and I think that that's a really important thing as part of my health journey, where I took that with the bulls by the horn right.
Speaker 1:And how did you meet this friend?
Speaker 2:From. You met him at the gym right and you set us up on a mandate which I hate.
Speaker 1:A mandate, yeah.
Speaker 2:But, all kidding aside, that was very beneficial, and so I've been. You know, it's about alternative approaches to things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And CrossFit. Is that for me? I'm going. Why can't I get up at 4.30 in the morning and go work out with people and do stuff that nobody else is doing in the morning? That sounds badass. I want to do some of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it's like a book I was listening to lately too, where it's talked about um motivation and it's like there's no such thing as motivation. No, like there's no motivation. You just got to do things like you have to know that you want to do them and you have to just do them. No one's going to motivate you. You're not going to motivate yourself. There's no such thing.
Speaker 2:You just got to go and do them, yeah, and then you keep doing it and you grind and you do more, and you grind and you do more.
Speaker 1:And in this book you have five seconds to do it. Like in five seconds you have to do it, but it's not. You count, you don't count to five, you count from five down to one, and then you have to just get your butt out of bed. You just got to do what you're going to do.
Speaker 2:Well, you know something that I do now that I haven't really done in a long time. No, I get up when the alarm clock goes off.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, you used to be the king of snooze, like I. I feel like at this point in life, for the most part I just wake up when my body just naturally wakes up when it's time, or maybe when you get up Um, not really when you get up when you're leaving. That's kind of when I get up so close to. I guess it just depends, but my, my body naturally wakes up on its own now.
Speaker 1:but you used to hit snooze all the time, where eventually I tell you hey, you got to stop hitting snooze Cause you're waking me up every 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:These difficulties at work, though, they put me into a different mindset, and I had to embrace that mindset. I had to figure out am I going to let this break me or or or define me, or am I going to overcome it and be somebody different? I am a is it a worm Caterpillar. I am an ugly caterpillar that is going into its cocoon, okay, and I will emerge as a beautiful butterfly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not a worm. A worm just stays a worm. That's right, you're not going to stay a worm. I know You're going to transform.
Speaker 2:I'm going to transform. Yes, please.
Speaker 1:I have tons of worms and they're just worms, they're just worms.
Speaker 2:They're just worms, yeah, I on the other hand, am a butterfly in the making. Okay, now, I think that there's something to be said about that with this catch-up episode, which is alternative thinking can really lead to new, cool, cool paths. You and I were talking tonight about all the different things that can happen in our life and that maybe big changes on the horizon. We don't know, but I'm looking forward to the various changes, thinking about things differently and looking at hiatuses such as this as not a bad thing. No, they're okay. Right, we're going to get through it and I am through it, and, man, I'm seeing so much fruit happen from it. So I'm just quite excited about all the things that have happened and are going to happen and sort of the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Me too.
Speaker 2:So tell me, when are you going to join me on one of my workouts at CrossFit?
Speaker 1:I'm not. I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing. Actually, I'm changing things up to myself, but I'm not going to do CrossFit, I'm not. I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Actually, I'm changing things up too myself, but I'm not going to do.
Speaker 1:CrossFit no, you will, no, I won't.
Speaker 2:You're not setting a good example for the folks who are listening.
Speaker 1:No, you're setting an amazing example and I will just I'll go to watch you.
Speaker 2:Please tell the listeners you're going to go to CrossFit with me once and you're going to do a WOD Go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, no, I tried it in the past and I hated it. I did it with you once I don't know if you remember More than once. I tried it a few times.
Speaker 2:Can you just promise that you'll go with me once soon? No, before Christmas.
Speaker 1:I can't promise that.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:No, I can't. If I promise that, that means I have to stick to it and I'm not going to make a promise I won't commit to.
Speaker 2:Can you come and watch at least?
Speaker 1:I'll watch. Yeah, I'll totally watch, but I can't go and do that Like my. My body's too messed up to do that. But I will watch.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's fair enough.
Speaker 1:Okay, sounds good on you, I know you can do it and I will not do it. Well, I'm a winner, so I'm going to do it anyways, you will.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can continue. You're doing great. That's how butterflies roll, so exactly, I'll stay at work. You stay at work, you do that.
Speaker 1:I will.
Speaker 2:Thanks for hanging out with us today. We aim to help others live a dedicated, devoted life. If you want to come alongside us in partnership, please check out dedicateddevotedcom and make sure to subscribe. Join us next time for another episode of Dedicated Devoted. We aim to post an episode every week, definitely, but it's not always guaranteed.
Speaker 1:No, not at all.
Speaker 2:We hope you join us soon, god bless.