The Good Old Days Aren’t Over—They’re Unfolding

What if the good old days aren’t behind us at all—but unfolding in front of us, easy to miss because we’re scrolling, planning, or rushing to the next thing? We open with laughter and a live-show announcement, then settle into a conversation that digs beneath nostalgia to ask what we’re really craving from our memories: freedom, warmth, and the sense that we were fully there. From storm-hammock nights and muddy garden laughs to the chaos of small kids under one roof, we unpack why those moments matter and how we can feel more of that right now.

Together we examine the tug-of-war between presence and distraction. “Be where your feet are” becomes more than a quote—it’s a practice. We trade practical ways to anchor in the moment: five minutes of silence in the car, turning off the radio, listing gratitudes out loud, and setting tiny, repeatable rituals that make connection a habit. We press on a tough pattern too—why we wait until relationships are strained before we tend them—and offer small maintenance moves that keep joy from leaking out: a monthly lunch with old teammates, a weekly walk with your partner, and protecting time for the hobby that fills you.

There’s room for firsts, even years into a relationship; our first gym workout together in fourteen years turns into a story about trying, laughing, and noticing. That’s the bigger takeaway: the feelings you miss aren’t locked in the past. They’re produced by attention, gratitude, and choices you can make today. If you’ve felt stuck in the next-thing chase, this conversation gives you simple steps to slow down, look around, and build new good days on purpose.

If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs a breather, and leave a quick review—it helps more listeners find the show and join the conversation.

Transcript

Laughter, Banter, And A Live Show Plan

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey guys, what's up? I'm Greg. I hope you guys are ready to unpack and get into some good conversations today.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

And I'm Jess, and this is our podcast, Package Play. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_06 0:18

Wow. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

That was a good one. That was the best best one we've had yet.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

I think uh our uh Miranda uh producer Michael Jr. needed to let out some frustration. Yeah, you just got promoted. Whatever they call that thing down.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Brought back a giggle for me.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Is it the clamp or the clipper?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

The clipper who did you call that lady at the strip club who can do it.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Oh my god. And then we're gonna have to restart the episode. I have secondhand embarrassment. I was trying to say a friend of mine said that they missed my giggle every time we would open from the clapping when I couldn't stop giggling. Because that's very professional, but that that intro the giggling after this one. Clipper clapper.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

I was gonna keep going. I was gonna like listen, let's make this rolling.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

We are rolling. We are. We're here with welcome to baggage claim, everyone.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

We're gonna do that. We're gonna use that. You made a stripper comment. I apologize over that statement. Welcome with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, if you're with us, uh welcome back to the table, proverbially speaking. I'm ready to know.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Thank you, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Look at you.

Milestones, Growth, And Global Listeners

SPEAKER_04 1:43

So yeah, if you're if you're new here, I I I think I need to say I'm sorry. Um if uh if not if you get to real less. Come on. Yeah, so man, what a what a new year. We're starting off strong. Uh we're really, really excited. We are trying to nail down our place um to have our 50th episode, which is going to be live. We're hoping, hoping, hoping that you guys actually show up and participate and be a part of it. It'll be a fun um, it'll be on a Saturday. It's gonna be around a 3:30-ish. So it's a good chance to have like a date afternoon. Come to the podcast, leave, go out on a date with your significant other. Um or hang out with us. Uh yeah, you can hang out with us and we'll go, we'll go out, all go out together and have fun uh after the podcast. So we're working on that place. We're trying to nail that down right now, and but stay connected to our social media, uh, all those accounts, and you'll be up to date on what's happening and when that's happening and what time it is. And we'll push that out a lot. We'll do a lot of reels around that because we're coming up on 50. We've hit some milestones in my head uh of what you make milestones.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

I'll do these really weird milestones in my head of like uh you're like Clark Griswold, and you set like unattainable goals for yourself. But this time this um okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

I will say all my goals that I had in my head have actually come. They actually happened. They have actually happened, yeah. And not not because I'm phenomenal at anything I do, but they just happen. So we we've hit over 200 cities now, 200 different cities uh around the world. We're at 19 countries. My hope is is by the time we hit um 50, our 50th episode, we're in over 20 countries and over 200 cities. That's kind of my internal goal. So if you're traveling, uh you listen to us in another city, go to a new one.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah, just make me happy.

The Question: What Were Your Good Old Days

SPEAKER_04 3:48

If you're on a road trip somewhere, you're on a road trip to Kingland, somewhere over the seas. Um, sorry, bro. You go to the road trip, let me know. I am sorry. Uh deep breath. All right, here we go. Let's jump into the clapper really got you, didn't we? Okay.

SPEAKER_06 4:12

So let's uh question time. Now let's jump into some question time. Yes, please.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

So, in order, um, I I have a question, and I think it's uh it's kind of fun. It could be fun, uh, not to be too serious, but you know, we always think about man, it's like the good old days, or this back when, you know, the things were different. But when I say what was your good old day moment, or what was your kind of time of time frame of something in life that was just like, man, it j everything just felt right in that moment.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

When do when when is that time? Um, one time specifically. Um I was working like a three-quarter time job and I had so much free time. And I remember like a couple of things. One, I used to go fishing all the time, uh, because we live over here by Lake Lanier, and I would stop by every day after work and go fishing. I just kept all my stuff in the car. And actually, now that we're talking about this, like uh something just came to mind too.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um was your car stinky?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Did you ever catch anything? Oh heck yeah, bro. I'll have to show you pictures later. I got some like pretty big bass on Lake Lanier. But uh um no, uh oh, what was I gonna say? Oh yeah, I used to uh it was a year we had tons of thunderstorms come through Gainesville, like tons. Um like there was a lot of flooding in a lot of places, but uh I used to pull out my Eno under my carport and sleep outside during the storms because of that with the tin roof, it was just like I just did whatever I wanted, honestly. It was great, great times. I love storms, and then in the middle of the night, one time at like three in the morning because Calvin was staying with me, my younger brother, and uh my Eno ripped open. What you mean it was flat out. Yes, I was in it in the middle of the night, and I just flat down like three feet onto the concrete slide. That'll wake you up. It woke me up.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Yeah, it's like hey, welcome to my.

Storm Hammocks, Garden Memories, And Chaos With Kids

SPEAKER_02 6:10

All I remember is waking up to like freaking out because I was falling, like mid-air, and Calvin's like dead asleep, and he like peeks his head over and he's like, Did you just fall? Like making sure I'm alive still, and we just both died laughing for like ever. Yeah, that's one way to wake up, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Yeah, that's one way. How about you just good old days?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Um I have two. Um when I was growing up, I used to love to um help Nanny in the garden.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

Wow, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Like almost immediately, if I started thinking about my childhood, I think about the the one specific memory. We were picking green beans and it had been raining like forever. And like my my little feet sunk down in the mud, and nanny's did too, and we just laughed our heads off because we had mud, like our feet sunk down to my knees. Oh wow. And so that's just a very vivid good old days childhood memory.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Um, as far as a grown-up memory, when all of our kids were little together and under one roof, it was chaos, and we had no idea what we were doing, but it was so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

I remember one time we were um Damon Santamaro came, he just stopped by the house, I think, just to hang out.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yeah, well, he was dropping something off to do or something.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

All the kids were in like wild mode.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

So they're like screaming, running around the house, and we're all standing in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

We were cooking dinner.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Oh, we were getting ready to go on vacation. Like we were all going on our beach trip that year, and we were talking about it. And uh he was backed up against the sink, and he goes, bro, is it always like this here? Because he they didn't have kids. I was like, Yeah, and he's like, Man, yeah, y'all need this trip. Y'all need to need this beach trip.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

He was, he was like blastered against the counter, like he couldn't move, like just watching with his big old eyes.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

Like, and I think we would just you just live in the chaos. You just it feels normal and felt normal, but it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Like you never knew what the next those were the good old days for our family, in my heart for our family.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I mean, we've had lots of different quote unquote good old days, but it was fun when the kids were little. How about you?

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Man, I have a lot of I have a lot of them. I'm just I'm sifting through in my mind of which ones are the good old days. Because I always try to just I I my motto in life is always just be have have a good time wherever you're at, no matter what you're doing. We were just reminiscing Sunday about some people found some old pictures of me with a shaved head and then they show me with a platinum haircut, and they're like, What happened? I was like, I lost a bet. Um It was when you were a student pastor. I was a student pastor back then, way, way, way back when. Yeah. It was a long, long time ago. I think there there's a couple times. One, uh it it's really interesting because my grandfather was such an interesting guy. Like he was a he was a hardworking, self-made kind of guy. Like, built a company from the ground up. Um and then he got bone cancer, got sick, and died within like five weeks of being diagnosed. So it's really, really fast. But I remember just those times of sitting on the front porch with him, my mama were just like, you look back at you don't you just take it for granted within the moment. Like, you know, you're just like, you don't, you don't see, I don't know, you just and and that's the hard part. You can't take that in. But I always remember he used to tell me um a couple of times toward the end, he'd be like, Man, I I he's like, I hurt, I'm sick. He goes, I got enough money, I can go anywhere in the world I want to, but I don't feel like getting out of this chair. And he goes, Don't wait. He's like, if you want to go, if you want to do something, go do it. Uh enjoy life because you don't know when it's gonna turn. And it was just one of those moments for me that kind of marked me. Um, but I grew up, I mean, I had some good old days, man. I'm riding my motorcycle on the farm, hayfields, uh, chickens, garden, all the fun stuff. Raising, I raised a cow one time because he gave me a cow, so I bottle fed it. And then it got out of the fence. It got out of the fence one time and one or he made me go get it, and I rode it back. I got it, I've got it. I didn't want to wrong, so I got it about it. It was just like smacking over the butt. We just kind of sang her back to the car. Like it was just, yeah, it was just fun, man. You know, it's like you look back at those, it's it's just life seems simple then.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yeah.

Porch Wisdom And Doing Life Before It’s Late

SPEAKER_04 10:49

But it, you know, it really, it really wasn't though. Like, and so I I think that's what I want us to talk about today. Is like, man, in our our attention spans, our life, everything seems so fast paced. I mean, the algorithms, we always talk about the algorithms, know us better than we know ourselves sometimes what we're after on TikTok or Instagram or whatever those may be. And we're in this thing of just dopamine hit after dopamine hit after dopamine hit, and we just don't realize man, we're missing a lot of just yeah. Like, we had a boss one time and um O Joe Payton, he I mean, say what you want. Anyway, great dude. I don't I don't say anything other than uh I love him as a brother. Uh care about him, pray for him all the time. But he always just tells us what worked for him. He goes, our best days are ahead of us. Our best days are ahead of us. And he was like, he was that was his mantra of always saying, our best days are ahead of us. And I always love that about him because it's like, hey, we like let's not look back and go, Man, I wish it could be like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

It was always something to look forward to.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Yeah, it's like, oh, there's there's like we're into right now. Let's just be here and then what's coming up.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

So you wanna Yeah, there was a quote on um I'm sure most people have seen the TV show, The Office.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

And if you haven't, get out from under your rock and go.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah. Well, one of the characters, Andy, and I think it was towards the end of the series, um, he said, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've left them. And that's so true.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

You don't you don't know till you're till you're done with it.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

The first time I watched the episode like all the way through, like yeah, right? Like seriously straight up. And I'm like, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

I wish you could know you were in the good old days before you left them.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Because we're in such a hurry for the next. Yeah. We're such a hurry for why though? It's a great question. Like, uh and it hit me the other day, and this is kind of off the cuff. Like, I I remember I preached a sermon one time about um God sees us the way that our kids see it. Like when I would show up at home, I used to travel a lot, but when I would come home, I could hear Callie and Cody come running through the house. They were so excited when I was home, and they would run and jump into your arms. And I was like, man, that's the relationship between Jesus the followers and his kids. Um, and I forgot that until I mean just here recently, we're we're grandparents, we're new grandparents, and we have an amazing little girl, Lucy, who 16 month-old and acts like she's three.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

She's so freaking smart.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Yeah, but she'll come into the kitchen and literally just grab my leg and sometimes just hold me, hold my leg.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

She hugs your leg a lot.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

And then she'll just reach up to you. And it it just reminded me of that. Like I just look back at that and go, man, I I remember that. I was like, when was the last time I picked up Cody? When was the last time? I missed the last time I picked him up.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Yeah.

Be Where Your Feet Are

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Because you don't know it's the last time. Yeah, I was just I was looking for something else. I was looking for more. I was a young dad. I was uh, you know, trying to push for something like what's next? What do I gotta do? What do I have to do? This and so it's I want us to today in this episode to be able just to take a breath. There's gonna be a lot of reflection, I feel like, uh, some questions we may not find the answers to. Um I want us to try to unpack that idea of how do we how do we sit in the moment in that idea of like knowing we're in the good old days before we're out of it.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

You have a phrase that you say a lot, and I think you heard it on a different podcast or maybe a book. It's the be where your feet are. Yeah, I that was uh You say that a lot when we're talking about stuff.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Yeah, I do. It's it's when I I think it was a I'd read it a book or heard it somewhere, but it was just I think it was a coach, it could have been a coach, I don't know, but he it was always it just hit me. It's like be where my like this is where my feet are at, this is where my heart and my head needs to be at right now, not somewhere else, not in a different place. And that's so it's it's it's just crazy. It's just uh it's it you look at it and you go, Oh yeah, cool, got that. Yeah, move check move on.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

But I'm like, Yeah, but that's a big statement because it goes further than just like, oh yeah, I'm here sitting beside you. Well, are you? Are you on your phone? Are you thinking about something else, or you're not engaged in conversation? Like it is very like a layered statement of to be where your feet are.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

And appreciate the time of life that you're in. That's just it's it's big.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

We had a first today. Did you realize we had a very first something?

SPEAKER_00 15:41

We worked out at the gym together.

SPEAKER_04 15:42

We worked out at the gym together. We've been together for 14 years. We have never done that. Ever been at the gym and worked out together. And I I was trying not to show it, but I was about to die a couple of times. It's like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

He was like, is your heart beating out your chest? I'm like, nope, I'm good.

SPEAKER_06 16:01

Yeah, I was like, you lie, you shouldn't have thrown.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

I wasn't even like we were on the road. Well, we did you did the stair climber.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

I did the um wall did not climb like 30, 30 flights of stairs.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I've had an injured foot, and it's been a while since I've been in the gym, so I was not gonna kill myself at first, but then I was like, okay, I actually feel pretty strong. So then we did weights. And then at the She skipped.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Apparently, she could have done more weight because I was like, I wasn't gonna hurt myself the first time we're there. And after we're doing biceps and we'd finished, and my hands are trembling like this. My hands are shaking. She's like, I feel good. And I'm like, I almost threw up. We got up for one thing, and like it was we're doing bags. It was like back extended. And I literally jumped, I was doing it on the 25. I got up and I had to hold up to the wall like a fast thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

You just had to hold on to the building to you. Yeah, I almost did it. Yeah. Um, but then at the end when we were on the rowing thing and we said you said 10 minutes to the timer was.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

No, my dear, it should have been like two minutes. 10 minutes to do longer row.

First Gym Date And New Firsts Together

SPEAKER_00 17:08

It was just funny. I'm trying not to just be like laughing at you, but it was funny. That was dying. You were dying, and that was just trying to talk and carry on a conversation.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Don't talk to me. I'm focused here. I gotta focus.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Don't talk.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

I was just thinking, if I had to throw up, can I make it to that trash get back there?

SPEAKER_00 17:26

But it was like, is your heart not pounding out of your chest? I'm like, no, actually, it's not. And I was trying to get my watch to tell me my heart rate. But by that time, I was already like calm back now. So funny.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

But it was a like, I say that in the sense of I mean, even 13 years, yeah, 14, almost 13 and a half. Yeah, it's like you there's still new things for us. There's still new um adventures, there's still new journeys for us to take together. It's not like, oh well, we've we've we've done all that. And then it's just like every day is something new, it's different from the day before. So it's like how do we how do how because we don't really miss I don't I don't think we miss I don't want to say uh because it sounds bad. I don't know that we miss the memories as much as we miss the way that they made us feel. Yeah, absolutely. So how do I mean how did you feel that the money is?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Well, memories are attached to feeling or feel feelings are attached to memories, however you want to. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Like for you with the kids being in the house, I want to know how that made you feel. And for you going fishing, like what'd you like would you like?

unknown 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I mean, I felt excited, I felt proud. It was funny, like it was an adventure. Every time you turned your head with an eight, nine, ten, twelve-year-old, it's just like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? I mean, it was just it was just fun.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

Because those moments too, like, let me remind you, if you're if you're new to this podcast, go back and listen, like start from one and work your way through. We shared an episode where we didn't even have money to buy groceries at that time in our lives. So we're trying to feed kids, make payments, figure out life.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Um and while that, like you could, we could talk about that. But meanwhile, in the one summer, our first summer as a family, um, we went outside and the boys had filled up those giant trash cans full of water and shoved them, folded themselves up and put it in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

Yeah, because they wanted a swimming pool. We didn't have one. So we had two 50-gallon trash cans that they got in and were just playing.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

And Cody was a little guy, he fit really well, and Thomas was long and lanky, and he had to fold himself in half like three times, and he got stuck, and we had to push him over. Like those that's what, you know, that's nostalgic for me.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Well, when Cody started hula hooping and took his shirt off and threw it at me all w all while hula hooping, I was like, bro, that's gonna be a cool treat when you get to college. Like, hold on to that. Like so it's just Like how do we 'cause we attach those feelings. Like, what was yours for fishing?

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Me, man, it it's a such a mixture of of uh of feelings and emotions. Like one, freedom. Just in a sense of when I wanted to go fishing, I went. You know, but also secondly, when and it it comes back to like part of how I was raised. Like I was raised on a farm, we went fishing all the time, we went camping. And like when I talk camping, I'm talking like you just go out with a blanket if you want a blanket. And that's all that you no ten, like just go out and be in nature, go out and be in the woods. But dude, I used to do that all the time, man. Like I used to go canoe out on an island on Lake Lanier and just stay the night, fish all night, do whatever, you know, hang out with friends. And I think some of that was yeah, the freedom of just being able to go out, but also just the peace of being still and just chilling out in the woods or on the lake or like gosh, man. I just yeah. Wow. Because I know to me that's awesome. I love that.

Chasing Feelings, Not Just Memories

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Because there's a there's tons of people who listen to us all over the world, and you may be looking at your life going, I don't have five minutes to take a breath. And so I I want to ask you wherever you're at, maybe it's uh I don't know, I don't know what you're doing, where where you're at. I just I want you to hit maybe hit pause in just a second on the podcast, and I want you to just think about when is that moment, what's that nostalgic moment of the good old times that made you feel something deep that was just kind of resonated with you. And think about that. Like hit pause and and and think about it for a second. We don't have noise. And just think.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

And so if you done that, and you did, and you hit pause, which thank you for doing that. If you didn't and you're still listening to noise, um, uh stall being noise, um that's the problem, I think, so many times is that we lose sight of what really matters, what we're really after. And sometimes it's good to just take an evaluation and just kind of stop and go, okay, if I can't appreciate the moment I'm in, why can't I? Like what keeps me from soaking in this moment? What distracts? Because we can look at memories and we can say, man, it wasn't hard then. It wasn't blah, blah, blah. Dude, life's hard. I don't care what season you're in.

SPEAKER_06 22:30

It is.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

Thomas and I were having this discussion the other night. We were just having um, we were having a bourbon and a cigar, just sitting in the garage talking about guy stuff.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Some guy stuff. All the girls went to bed.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

Yeah, all the ladies left. So we're just sitting out there listening to music. And we're just talking, and and we're talking about kids and life and money. And I told Thomas, I was like, man, I'm not not to be the Debbie Downer, but I was like, life's hard. And it's like, when you think you get your feet under you, something's gonna catch you off guard. And I was like, so your happiness can't be found in some material item in stuff or in money or those things. It's like, figure out what you're finding your happiness in and and what do you want? Um, because that's something many find that out earlier in life. It just makes life a little better, a little sweeter. So I think anyway.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

So and like also this, like I look back on those times of my life. I had like no money. I mean, I was just out of college, had my first place. Like, if I should have been worried about more any of anything, it should have been in that time of my life. You know, and part of me thinks, well, maybe I just didn't know any better. Yeah, yeah. But also I'm like, okay, I'm more well off by far now than I was then. So why can't I have that now? Yeah, why can't you do that? Why? Because like I look back at my life, and we've talked about this in just the past few months, I'm like, dude, it's been like three years since I've gone fishing. Yeah. And like deep down inside, like that tears me up. Right. Like I hate that.

SPEAKER_06 24:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

But then again, it comes back to me asking the question, okay, so why?

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Why?

unknown 24:15

Yeah.

Silence, Nostalgia, And Naming Gratitude

SPEAKER_04 24:15

Yeah. What do we replace with those? Because that time when our kids were little, our kids are grown now. Like, life's different for us. Um, I was just having this conversation with the gym owner today about life, and I was like, man, I was like, our kids are going, it's Jess and I now. And so I was like, it's just different. It's not, it's not bad. It's just different. Uh and so for us to look at and go, because I get I bought this thing. I'm a planner. So this is really, really hard for me to soak up the moment because I also loved and and you too, and I I suck at celebrating wins. Yes. I do. Thank you for agreeing with me emphatically on this thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

But you know. It's not that you suck at celebrating wins. It's like it's not a win for you. It's like a like a mile marker because you're already looking to the next one instead of just being like, no, that's a little finish line. Like, hang out a little.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

It's okay to be right there, but you automatically is already.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

I think it's my wiring. So my wiring is a I'm a pusher, like a go, go, go. What's next? What's next? What's next? So I have one of the big calendars on our wall in my office that has the entire year. And so I start trying to plan and lay out big things we want to do. Uh, trips with Jess and I made her a bet that I'm gonna have to develop. I'm gonna have to. She is I'm killing it.

SPEAKER_06 25:45

I'm killing it.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

I'll tell you about that on on a on a reel or something. But uh um, so it's like me trying to plan out our year. And it's like sometimes in planning out the year, it's good because I can set mile markers and goals and things I need to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

But at the same time, if I'm not careful, you get so far like far-sighted focused.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Yeah, I'll focus on those events and not the day, like today. And um just beat myself up about well, I didn't do this today, or I didn't get done what I wanted to get done today.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

Um, because it's that whole idea of the dopamine hit of what's next, what's next, I need more, I need more.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

And I'm I'm content to find uh find happy in the moment and just be there. I don't know. It's I obviously we're wired differently, but maybe I don't know, maybe it's just life experience or whatever the case may be, but we are very different in that way. Oh, 100%. Very, very different. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Like I um the other day we were we were just sitting around the house and it's like, I have got to get off this couch. Like, let's go do something. And you were like, well, we can go to Mellow. Yeah, let's go get my shoes on. Like, I'm ready to go. Yeah, Jess is just like, why are you not okay, Linda?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

But I was okay just because we were together and no plans and just enjoying being in the moment.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Well, I was enjoying the moment also. I just wanted to enjoy the moment somewhere different. Somewhere else. In a different environment. Yeah. So how what are some like thinking about what are some some like action steps? Or are there some action steps we can take? As I mean, you got Michael who's he's I mean, you don't have kids, but you're in the thick of your uh career and trying to do some new things. You got a lot of new things coming up this year. It's like you have a lot on your plate. We're actually trying to make baggage claim be a thing be a thing this year. And so there's a lot involved with that. And just life, it's like how what's a small step to take to kind of slow down and say, hey, maybe we're in the good old days right now. Like what if what if this this is it?

Why We Wait Until Things Break

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Just pause and look around you. There's a lot of good. And no matter how bad it might seem, if you just look around you, there's some good, and those are things that you need to put in your heart. So okay, so a gratitude like a gratitude, yes, practicing gratitude would be a great way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Gratitude for sure. I think for me, it almost um spawns more intentionality because like I think back on times of my life and I'm like, man, if I knew those were the good old days for me, now looking back, right? I would have done a lot different. Really? I would. Not not like that. I regret, and I mean, I'm sure there's some areas that I wish I would have done more, right? But like, no, I think back on time when we were all on staff together, man, I would have done lunch at least one more time. Yeah. Just everyone together. Go, go do something together. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, because we used to do that a lot, and and like I have such fond memories of of that with, I mean, the whole crew, all of us, you know. And uh it makes you think things differently nowadays. Yeah when I'm thinking through what I'm going through, our relationships, things we we do together, things I do with others.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Ain't that something though? Why does it take something like a big change to make you think, gosh, that was really better than I thought it was? Or you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 29:24

Yeah, you know, I've been I've been working on um some of the things we're gonna push out here, baggage claims, some like seminars, live seminar kind of things, and some lunch and learns and different kinds of things we've been working on developing here. And I've always thought, and this might this got stuck in my head the other day, and I literally sat at the desk for I don't know how long contemplating this. And I this is how my brain works, and sometimes it's just so frustrating. But I was like, why is it we don't seek to make our marriage better until it's broken? It's yeah, it's all it's like completely broken.

SPEAKER_05 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:02

And I just sit and thought about it. I was like, why do we wait till everything falls apart to go, oh crap, I need to give some attention to this relationship because it's it's now broken. It's like, why do we do that as humans? Like, because it's it's rare that you run across a couple who's like, man, our marriage is great. We just want we think we can be better. I think he can be better. I think there's more out there. We don't think that way. We're just like, oh, it's all good until somebody threatens to leave or something happens, or you know, one way or the other.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

It's like by changing the oil in your car until you get the warning light on your dashboard saying your engine's about to fall apart.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

And sometimes you just keep ignoring it until it does. Like you.

SPEAKER_04 30:43

No, I don't know. Every emoji on your dash is lit up. Is that what they're called?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

That's what we call them.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

Yeah, we call this Jess calls them the emojis on the desk.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

I teach first grade, okay? Yeah. I have six and seven-year-old years. I need air butcha.

Are These The Good Days Too

SPEAKER_04 31:00

But it's it's like one of those things. Like, if I if I gave you a challenge in 2026 from baggage claim, uh the one thing I would say is like work on yourself and work on the relationships around you. Because the the thing is, though, like, I think we don't realize we're all we all have this baggage and we're all toting this stuff and we're bringing this stuff into our relationships. We bring it into our workplace. It affects all those relationships at work, at home, all the all of those things. It's like be a better person so you can be a better husband or a better father, or you know, just better relationships, a better, a better co-work.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Because you never know that you're in the good old days at that moment until you look around and appreciate that that's where you are.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Yeah. It's it's just a hundred percent true. And it's just it's just sad. We don't have to wait for them to leave and look back on them and go, man, but what if we look at today and we just said, Man, today's a gift, and I have I have a gift that I get to enjoy because I'm here. Because there's so many people who uh uh you know, you get a phone call, you get an email, you get something from a doctor or from a friend, and uh life changes and it's it's just it's a hard change. So not to be down or anything.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

So um well, and I have a thought. Yeah, and I'm I'm still processing this thought on my own. Well, what better place to unpack it in front of the world? I know, right? Yeah, you know, I look back in my life and I can give and like since we've been talking about this, like things just keep popping up in my mind. And as I I analyze this, like it goes back from when I was a kid to when I was in high school to college memories and getting lost on Mount Yonah in the middle of the night, like then, you know, back in just after college and I was facing doing all sorts of things and then work environment. Like, gosh, every like three to five years I had what I would consider the good days. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

I don't think the good old days is contained a one time.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

And five years from now, am I gonna look back to now and be like, oh my gosh, those were the good days. Probably we got to hang out all the time. We had dinner every week, we recorded a podcast, like we're doing all this stuff. I got to work in music and like do what I love doing. Like and see, that's what I want people listening to.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

Like, this is something for us that like this is not just a podcast for us to be like, oh, we got it figured out. Like, we get together every week.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

We don't know what we're doing.

SPEAKER_04 33:37

And we sit at our kitchen table and we all have dinner together, uh, and we all laugh together and we play together and we have fun, and sometimes we cry together, and sometimes we we talk about things that are heavy on our heart, but it's like we do this podcast to share our lives so that you maybe can just get a little bit more out of it. Because we only get so many rotations around this this earth.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

And I mean, it's it's a given, every single one of us, whether you're listening or wherever you're at, like we're all going to die. Like, that's a thing. Like, so let's enjoy the time we have here. Like, let's slow down, take a breath.

Slow Down, Do What Fills You, Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 34:17

And one thing that I don't remember who mentioned it, but it was mentioned right before we started recording. Um, you know, time helps erase stress and worries and frustrations, which is why I think it's easier for us to look back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Well, memories do disguise the hard stuff. The memories you don't I mean, there are memories that are bad memories, and there are memories that are sad memories, but if you're looking back on the quote unquote good old days, I mean, that's the good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

And I I look at my life now and I'm like, okay, what am I getting so stressed out about that keeps me from acknowledging that these are good days being built? Yeah. I think that's a great I think it's a great question to ask. What am I so filling with time that I don't get to do things I enjoy?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

That's a great unpack for right now, honestly. For everybody to ask themselves that, not just us.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

Yeah. So I I agree. These are not questions. I don't know what that looks like at all.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

But it's it's true. What's keeping you from being able to be aware of what's happening in your life that's bringing you joy? What what's good right now for you? I obviously we all have stress and we're all, you know, we have things that we worry about, but that's never gonna go away.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

Yeah, I was gonna say we're gonna have that stress and those worries uh five, ten years from now. They may be they may look different. They may be about something different, but we're gonna have them. So, I mean, that's just an excuse, I think, that we give ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

That's well, I mean, I look we were talking not two hours ago at dinner, talking about like work life, flow of life, me getting trying to work towards getting more free time in my life. And what's the first thing I told you I was gonna do? Start working on another project. Yes. Of like heavy manual labor working on the property. Yeah, and I'm like, and don't get me wrong, like it's not bad to want to pursue growth and to pursue developing that next stage of life. It's not a bad thing. Yeah. But also at the same time, like, I'm right now, I'm wondering, okay, why was that the first thing that the moment you get free time, you're like, oh, this is what I'm gonna fill it with something else.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

Yeah. Here's something I want to challenge as we get ready to kind of wrap up and unpack. Something, maybe these are these are a couple of questions to ponder. But when you're in the car, if you're riding in the car by yourself, just cut the radio off. Right now, if you're in Georgia, you can't roll the window down because it's really cold. You may be somewhere where it's cold or somewhere where it's not.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Turn the heater on to roll the window down.

Patreon, Community, And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_04 36:52

Yeah. But just spend some time in silence. Like put your phone on do not disturb or something. It should be on your phone if you're driving anyway. Um, but just sit in some silence and just let your mind dig into that. Just let your thoughts and your ideas run and go. Man, just uh start naming off the things you're thankful for, what that are in your life, all of them. As simple or whatever they may be, just start naming them off. Um and just spend some quiet time, at least five to ten minutes, and just see. What's weird is you're gonna be tempted to look at your phone, you're gonna be tempted to turn the radio on, you're gonna be tempted because you take that empty space and you fill it with something else, because you don't want to give your mind the space to just kind of sit in in silence and just listen. Um listen to your thoughts. So that's my that's where I'm at. And I I think our best days are ahead of us. I I'll uh I'll I'll take it, Joe, all day long. And I'll I'll I'll preach it our our best days, man. Like it's just enjoy 'em. Take a deep breath and enjoy the day and just have fun with it. And man, hug that person you hadn't seen, call that person you hadn't seen in a while, and just tell them how you feel and how you love them and what you think or what's going on, and have that conversation. So um, that's where I'm at. Anything else, Michael?

SPEAKER_02 38:18

I'd say do something that fills you. Yes. You know, if if that's being with a certain someone, just clear your schedule. And I I say this like as a conviction of my own, like do something that you know is fulfilling for you. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Good.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Like, honestly. Right now, that's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

All right, anything to add, Jess?

SPEAKER_00 38:48

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Sweet. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for for liking us. Please, uh, wherever you're at, follow us, like us, share us. Um, we have some things. We have a Patreon account now that's out there. So if you want to go join us on Patreon right now, you can follow us for free. We do have some different things coming up. We're gonna share episodes and behind the scenes stuff and a lot of other things that we don't share here that we'll get to share on Patreon. So if you want to make sure if you want to be a part of that, go check us out. It's Baggage Claim with Greg and Jess. Uh, hopefully you can find it. Uh, we're doing our best. We're trying to figure this out. Uh, we really are. So uh stick with us. We're working on it. But uh, thanks for joining us. Um uh man, I hate to say it. Playoff season's over, the portal's open, it's madhouse, but uh probably be closed by the time this one comes out. But I love my dogs, so I'm gonna say dogs.