Ep. 36. Minimum Work Requirement

Ep. 36. Minimum Work Requirement

We trade the polished highlight reel for the messy truth behind competitive sports, from CrossFit Regionals rules to the NFL Draft roller coaster. We talk about what really happens when your body feels off, the internet fills in the blanks, and you still have to keep showing up.
• chasing the CrossFit Open “itch” without letting outside expectations take over
• why social media makes it easier to look fit than to be fit
• the CrossFit Regionals ring dips event and the minimum work requirement that ends a weekend
• how a viral snatch clip turns into a false “torn pec” story and steroid talk
• Braxston's combine injuries and the draft day slide into undrafted free agency
• dealing with shame, pressure, and the fear of letting everyone down
• separating progress from motion through time, consistency, and honest feedback
• building resilience with controllables like effort, character, and coach ability
• 365 days of burpees as a real world consistency test

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Transcript

Cold Open On Rumors And Hype

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And it was the second workout, and this is the part where I've been talked about by Dave Castro in his book. I was talked about taking steroids quite a bit, but this is where it really ramped up, and this is also where I really got mad.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

You know, and looking back was a huge blessing because in 2012 we were undefeated in the national title game. And there was a lot of hype that year around people loved to talk about my bench press in college. That was just my that was my lift. And so there was a lot of hype around me breaking Steven Pia's 225 record at the top five.

Spring Break Plans And Time Away

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Welcome to the Rise of Tribes podcast. I'm Nikki Rankar with Braxton Cave coming at you. Geez, right before spring break. I'm not sure when this is gonna air. Maybe we'll be back from spring break, but about to go travel, staying in 30A.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yes. Sunshine, because we for whatever reason don't get any of it here.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

No. I will tell you though, it was 70 some degrees a couple days ago and storming, and then it was 40 yesterday, and it's it said it was supposed to be 70 today, but it's definitely in the 40s right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

It's raining and cloudy. It's like there was I don't even care about the temperature. It's just can I get some sunshine? Well, they say the sun is up there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Whenever we fly out of South Bend, I'm like, there it is!

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, yeah. Just got to get through the perma cloud and you're there. Oh man. Yeah. Anyway, so how you been? Doing good. Like you said, just ready. Our kids are ready to get out of here, spend some time away, just somewhere warm and just enjoy some family time and downtime. And, you know, we always call it it's not time off, it's time away. Um just looking forward to that. It'll give me an opportunity to, you know, continue, you know, the normal routine, but you know, I'll check emails and things that are important in the mornings and then be able to put my phone away and focus on you know making some memories. So really looking forward to that. And 30A is one of our favorite places in the world to go. So it's uh we've been going there for quite some time now, so we have our you know, our spots, our places we like to go and that we look forward to, and we talk about them all year long. So just really looking forward to some time.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah, same. I think this will be our fourth time going. Um, love it. And actually, school, today's the last day of school for the kids, and I got a text at about 9:30 if I'd go pick up my oldest early from school. So did that, so she's actually already on break.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

She's like, Dad, we're wasting time watching movies in the class.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

She's the one that texts and is like, Dad, it's a UV 7 and it's cloudy. Do you think I can get sun? I'm like, yeah, I mean, you can only try. Yeah. But anyway,

The CrossFit Open And The Itch

SPEAKER_00 3:24

anyway, we're we're gonna talk a little bit about uh I know CrossFit Open just finished, and I know Braxton has no idea about this world, but CrossFit Open just finished, it's only three weeks now, and then it went into quarters, which is basically the next round, and that just finished, and then there's semis, but um, I have not competed in the open geez, maybe I don't know if I signed up in 2021, 22, or 23, like when my last year was, but it's been a long time since I've competed. It's been since 2020 since I've competed in it. Um, and I have not signed up since. And I know there's a lot of people, like a lot of games guys like myself that sign up and they keep doing it. Um that's awesome for them. I I don't want to even put myself in a place to I don't want to hurt right now, is what I I guess. So like to go in and like not give 100% is just not something I can do. It's it's it'd be kind of like in football getting done playing in the NFL and then being like, well, I still kind of want to play. So you just go over to like the semi-pro team, and then you're just like, well, I might as well play with these guys. Like, that's what I feel like.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

So um I enjoy where I'm at in life. However, I have been saying recently I've wanted to dabble a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Um, you had mentioned that you've picked up the volume of your training, so you felt like, oh my gosh, I'm kind of back, I kind of feel like I'm back in it a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, back in it. And I've I know I just said I don't want to hurt, but I've actually enjoyed the pain and I feel really good to where I've thought like maybe I would do some like smaller stuff, not try to do the open. Um, we were talking about it earlier. I just don't I I know that people would have expectations of me, and some of them would just be like, I want to beat him. Uh, but I don't want to get caught up in what other people want for me because I know that competing is not truly what I want, so it's not where I'm going to go. But I love the aspect of challenging myself, the competition against me, and leaving it there.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah. Jake and I were talking about this while you stepped out of the studio. He's like, Don't you think Nick's got the itch? And I was like, I think you have the itch to compete on the physical side, it's the mental side, and you know, everything that comes with that, and and knowing that you know, our our personalities are very similar. And if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go all in on it, and you're just at a point in life where I'm not willing to sacrifice mentally what I'll have to give in order to get the results I would want.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah, I think I could go all in physically, but the mental side like takes a strain because it doesn't the physical leaves when you walk out of the gym, right? Minus the recovery, you know, you gotta eat, all those things, but that's who I am. But when you're trying to go to bed and you know you have to wake up and your family wants to go someplace, but you've got to train, but you gotta shut that off, and you're there's just so many things that are your mind never stops, and I now have shut that off and feel really, really good. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see. Maybe I'll do the open at some point, but not to compete.

Standards Shift With Social Media

SPEAKER_00 6:46

And one thing that I've saw and I've shared with you guys is there was um, I think it's Hiller Fit. He does a lot of streams, talks a lot about kind of some of the really the bad movement. So a lot of people do not move, and he had said this, like as well as like they used to. And I don't know if that's true or not, but I will say like people held themselves to a higher standard, and we're around each other a lot more, and we helped, and I think at the top people are around each other, but I don't I think inside gyms people feel like they are you know a big fish in a small pond. And you've got to get outside of your little pond to realize like where do I actually stand? And I think that's harder because we now have social media where we feel like we're out there, we see all this stuff. Whereas back when I was competing, it was like you had to go travel out to go see if this guy was real. So you'd go to Ohio or Tennessee or Florida, and you'd be like, I've heard about this guy, I'm about to go. I mean, I remember going into gyms in Florida, walking in, California, and being like, That's that one guy. And then you compete, and most of the time, they were never what their numbers showed. And that's what I loved about fitness was like you can't pretend you're fit. You can tell stories all day long about who you were, what you've done, but to be like, this is who I am right now, fitness was the coolest thing, even locally, people would talk about me, and I would just go to their gym and I'd walk in and I'd be like, hey, heard you were talking about me. You want to work out? And they'd freak out, and I'm like, I'm a competitor. I don't talk. Like, I'll talk after. We can have a conversation. Like, what'd you think? Oh, I thought you said you were like, here's what I said. I actually outperformed myself. So as a competitor, I think like we talk trash and we're confident and all those things. Like in a football game, you do it during the game. If you do it before the game and you know you're not gonna be able to back it up, like, yeah, there are guys that do that, but like I don't see you as a guy that's like gonna go out against the best player you're ever gonna play, and all you're doing is giving him fuel. You're gonna sit there and be like, I'm gonna shut my mouth, I'm gonna pound him in the face, and I'm gonna do it so many times that my goal is that I can break him, even though he might be this guy, like I want to break him, and I'll see it, and then I'll say something. Or I might never say anything. That's how I go into it. So ultimately, this guy, Hiller, he goes online, talks about people's movement, and he went live a couple times. I actually sent him a message because he brought me up from 2017 about how I tore my peck and then the next day I snatched 315 pounds in the like in Olympic lifting area at the competition. And this is regionals. So basically, in the open, you have the open, and there's the qualifying, and regionals was the way to make the games. It was normally 40 guys, 40 women, and then the top three would qualify on to go to compete at the CrossFit games, and there were I don't know how many regionals, but ours was I think it was like eight to ten states would all go, top 40 men and compete. And it was the second workout, and this is the part where I've been talked about by Dave Castro in his book. A lot of people have said after this was I was talked about taking steroids quite a bit, but this is where it really ramped up, and this is also where I really got mad.

Regionals Ring Dips And The Call

SPEAKER_00 10:19

And 2017, two weeks before regionals, I'm gonna kind of tell the story on my side of what happened. 2017, I heard I'd been doing it with the workout, it was 21 power snatches with an 80-pound dumbbell, and then you did 21 ring dips, and then it was 15, 15, 9, 9 for time, and it was fast. And I remember being like, this is too easy. So I was doing like 60, 30, 20, like just up in the reps, and I was doing way too much, didn't need to do it, I was already good at it, and I kind of tweaked. You ever do something and you just feel like a mmm, that's not right? Nothing horrible, but enough to where you're like, if I do more, this could be bad. And it was two weeks before competing, so I stayed away from it, didn't do anything the week, so then I tested it one week later, still felt a little bit, didn't do anything for the next week. Went into competition, did like a couple ring dips the first day just to feel it, like before we competed. So we go early, check in, do all the briefings, did a few, and I was like, yes, I feel good. Did event one, did really well for me. Like it was a long one and felt great. Second event was this event, was that dip event, and I was scared. I ran out, I did the 21 dumbbell snatches and got to the rings first. Okay, I was in first place, felt like I could win this workout probably in the world. Ran back, and the judges before we started, there'd been a ton of injuries on packs. So they were really cautious. And they were like, if you feel anything, stop, like it's not worth it. So I run back, I jump up on my dips and I go down and drive up, and I just feel that same feeling. Nothing, again, nothing horrible, but enough to where I was like, if I actually go all the way up, this could be bad. So I come down and my judge was like, what the heck? He looks at me and he's like, What? And I'm like, I'm just feeling something right here. And he's like, Don't do it, you know, stop. He puts his hand, he steps in front of the rings, and then another judge comes over and they're like, What's going on? And this is a seven minutes from the start to finish. And I'm like, I'm just feeling something like, and I kind of knew right then, like, I can't just jump up and do 21. So they're trying to talk to me. The head judge comes over, and and I'm like, I think I can do like one at a time. And they're like, No, no, no, don't do it, don't do it. And the head judge is like, well, you know, you're good, like, let's just stay safe. And I said, Yeah, but is there a minimum work requirement? And a minimum work requirement in competition means if you don't complete X amount of work, you do not get to move on. Because basically what they're saying is you shouldn't be here. You're not fit enough. Well, I asked, and the judge put his head down and goes, it's 21 ring dips. So you had to finish the 21 snatches and the 21 ring dips. And I was like, but I can do everything else. I remember I was like, I can do everything else. I've done all of it. The rope climbs, I might not be able to, but I can do everything else. And they were like, you cannot continue if you don't do 21 ring dips. And I said, then get out of my way. And I jumped back on the rings and I went to come back up and felt that again, and I came back down, and I'm like, I'm not stupid, and like I'm not getting 21. At this point, there was like two minutes left, and I stood there and I think I started crying. Because I'm like, they're literally gonna kick me out right now. Like I've trained all year and they're gonna tell me I'm done. So I walked off the floor and I ran to like judges table and like whoever was running the comp. I don't even remember, and I'm like, I want to continue. Like I deserve to continue. I've been here, I've you got I've been competing forever. I earned this spot to be out on that floor, and they were like, you can't. You're not allowed to. Like it is in the rule book. So when people are like, oh, you tore your peck, no, I unfortunately or fortunately, probably more fortunately, I wasn't stupid enough to, I felt something new, wasn't smart for me to continue, and I didn't meet the minimum work requirement.

Minimum Work Requirement Forces Withdrawal

SPEAKER_00 14:22

So then the next day, I was like, I bet I could clean. And I remember I cleaned, I'm like, I bet I can't put this over my head. I took an empty bar, cleaned it, put it over my head, and I was like, wow, it doesn't hurt. Worked up to like 385. And then I was like, but I surely can't snatch. And I started snatching, and there was no pain whatsoever. And I hit 308. Well, somebody in the crowd videoed me hitting 308 and then sent it. I don't know if this person knew Dave Castro, if it was somebody with CrossFit, and Dave Castro is the director of sports for CrossFit, and somehow Dave got it sent to him, and then he posted it. This is in the middle of regionals. The guy who basically is like the head of the athletes posts a video of me snatching 308 pounds and says, Nick Urancar, I always frame this, he says I PR'd my snatch, I didn't. He says, Nick Yurankar just PR'd a snatch at 308 after tearing his pack and posts it. And my wife comments on his post and said, way to support your athletes. And he deleted the post. Now, him and I have had a conversation. We had the next year I made the games, and uh he pulled me aside and tried to make sure I didn't do anything stupid, which I wasn't, but that's another story. But ultimately, now the story is Nick tore his peck, and it still gets brought up. I never tore my peck.

The Snatch Video And Steroid Talk

SPEAKER_00 15:59

No one's ever been like, Did you tear your peck? And if they do, I'm like, no. But nobody, Dave never asked me. He wrote about me in a book, never asked me if I tore my peck, never tore it. People are saying, like, Nick Yorankar tore, I never tore my peck, just on a live cast last week. So to me, I want to share that because you don't know the story for anybody, and here's the thing, it doesn't really matter, but when you're constantly bringing up that I that it is physically impossible for me to do something unless I cheated or lied, I how do you know what's possible? I didn't know it was possible to do what I did after that. Because the only reason I wasn't out on that competition floor was because I was told I wasn't allowed. It wasn't my choice. Most of the guys, it was their choice to not go back out on the floor because they couldn't. Or they didn't, I don't know. Again, I don't even know if they had the same issue as I did. But I wanted to be out there, so I get mad when I get told that I had to withdraw because of an injury when that's not true. I was forced, I was told I couldn't compete because I didn't meet the work. And that's it. And that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

NFL Combine Injuries And Draft Freefall

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, it reminds me of, you know, back in, you know, so my my senior year, my redshirt, you know, my redshirt year, um, had a great season, was feeling really good, talking with my the, you know, potentially signed with an agent based off of where I would go. So was planning on leaving school because I would have graduated that year um academically, but still had another year left to play. And in that November against Wake Forest, I tore my Liz Frank. So I had a nine month, I had a couple surgeries, a nine-month recovery, had to come back, ended up coming back for my fifth year, which you know, and looking back was a huge blessing because in 2012 we went undefeated, played in the national title game that didn't end the way we wanted, but it was still a great experience. And um, you know, had a good year that year. Um, so it's feeling really good going into uh what would be the draft that year. And I got an invite to the senior bowl and went to go play in that, had a decent week, but like midway through, um, I I was passing off a twist and caught a guy, you know. And the linemen out there know what this is like. I I tried to catch a guy instead of getting in front of him and partially tore my rotator cuff. Just a really, really small tear, nothing I had to have surgery on, but it obviously hindered me. And so went back to California, rehabbing that, you know, and there was a lot of hype that year around people loved to talk about my bench press in college. Um that was just my that was my lift. And so there was a lot of hype around me breaking Steven Pia's 225 uh record at the combine. Yeah, and so up to that point, the best I had ever done was 46, the record was 49. So we all were kind of like, you know, with the adrenaline and being on stage, you know, and and having the time to train. Well, between my shoulder and then same thing, I tweaked my peck. So exact same thing with what you were just saying. Like, I felt it, wasn't stupid enough to keep going because I knew I I've had buddies who've torn their peck. It's bad. You tear your peck, like you can't lift your arm, like it's um, and so leading up to the combine, you know, I tried to rehab, tried to get back, it just wasn't, it wasn't there. So um I had to, you know, you fill out what you're participating in, and I had to I put down that I wasn't doing bench, which caused, you know, some eyebrows to raise, like what the heck's going on here. And so, you know, it was me and there were a couple other centers that were like kind of looked at as the top, you know, centers that year to be drafted, and and when you're at the combine, every team is allowed to, you know, they poke you, pride you, pull on you, can send you for MRIs, and while I was there, they one of the teams spotted my injury. And so I watched my draft stock plummet like instantly. And you know, thinking, you know, I'd be a third to fourth round guy, probably. Um I went in draft day comes, and you know, for in the first round, Travis Frederick, who was one of the top centers from Wisconsin, got drafted by the Cowboys in the first round. So for me, it was like great. I mean, this is great. You see a guy come off early, it just helps where you're gonna get bumped to. And uh so the second day comes, and uh you know, day goes by, no call, and I'm like, you know, I'm calling my agent, like, dude, am I am I slipping that far? Like, am I gonna go undrafted? You know, that you're thinking worst case scenario, everything. And so I've told this story before a while back of you know, the last day comes, so you're you have those final few rounds, and the I had a team call me, and they were before the draft started that final day, and they were like, hey man, if you're on the board when we when our pick comes, we're gonna take you. So I that morning I was out playing golf with my cousins, and we just like shut it down, went home, we were super pumped, and that draft pick came up, they didn't take me. What a lot of people got to understand with the draft. Is like as guys come off the board, everyone's draft order it reshuffles, it reshuffles. So I get it, right? So that goes by, fourth round goes by, fifth round goes by, sixth round goes by. I'm like, at this point, when we had people at our house for a draft party, and and uh I was like defeated. And so the seventh round's getting ready to start, and I get a call, and the team says, Hey, we have back-to-back picks in the seventh round. We're gonna take you and a left tackle. So, and they're like, Do you have family at the house? Yep, awesome. Well, you can let them know you're gonna be a X. I won't call them out in here. Um pick comes up and they drafted uh safety, actually, Zeke Mata, who is a safety from Notre Dame, one of my teammates. So Zeke gets drafted, super excited for him, but I'm like, that's you know, kind of weird. That's not you know, there's two aligned positions. And so the next pick comes up and they took another safety. And we're I was like, at this point, like I'm just mind-blown, devastated, lost. Like I don't know, I have all these emotions, right? And and so ended up, I go up in my room, I'm like, I just need to have some time. And my family, my parents come up, and and they were my parents were absolutely devastated, probably worse than me, right? Because they had all the investment they had put in and the time, and you know, they wanted to see me be successful. And um, you know, I just kind of had like that light bulb moment where I'm like, this isn't going the way we had planned, but at the end of the day, like it's on me, and I'll get an opportunity, and I just gotta make the best of it. And and that's how my agent gets to the house, and we're you know, at that point, teams are calling because everybody then wants you as an undrafted free agent, right? Because then they're getting you at a discount. And so I'm

Expectations Shame And The Long Journey

SPEAKER_01 24:06

talking with all these various teams, I'm sitting with my agent, and we're going through rosters to see like what's gonna be the best fit, you know, long-term possibility, and ultimately that's how we ended up picking Cleveland as my first stop. So it's kind of like all because of a peck shoulder injury led me to where in the rocky road that I went down with what my NFL career ended up being.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Dang, I've not heard that story. It's um does that still hit you? Like, does it like does it still bring up emotions?

SPEAKER_01 24:38

I mean, it I I don't watch the draft. I don't. It's uh it's one of those things, it's like at this point in time in life, like, does it really matter? No, but it's like I try to explain it to people. You know, imagine working your whole life for a particular job, and it just never comes to fruition. Yeah. You know, it's like you go to school to you go through med school to be a doctor, you go through all the schooling, the training, the all the stuff, and then someone says, Nope, you can't be a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Well, there was one that reminds me of my story, which I've said on here, made the games in 2011 and then didn't make again until 2015, and that's really when I would say my career took off. But went four years, and I remember everybody always being like, You done, you done, you done, and I'm like, No, and I would say, like, it's the journey, it's the journey, it's the journey. And there was something I saw not long ago, and I was gonna send to you, and I don't think I did. And it basically was like you don't know where you're going, and you may never get there. So it's more about who you go there with. Who are you walking with to go to this unknown place? Because it may never, you may never get where you want to go, but what you'll remember is who you went with, whether you get there or you don't. And I think when we tell what I think is so cool about pretty much everybody, when we tell our stories, you didn't tell a story about the most amazing thing, you didn't tell a story about being getting to the national championship game and how amazing that was. You told a story about after that, and the what was supposed to be one of the biggest moments of your entire life, and still was one of the biggest moments of your entire life, but it didn't go as planned. That was a story you told. And I told about an injury that just didn't sit well with how people talk about not the best things. Like our journeys, when you ask somebody like, how'd you get there, they're gonna be like, It's not what'd you think? Like, here, let me tell you that, and they tell you the hard. And I think when you're being told the hard, you don't understand how hard that really is. You when you sit there and think you're getting drafted in one of the first two days, no one realizes that when you were six, you wanted to get drafted. And yeah, everybody can be like, well, yeah, everybody did. It's like, yeah, everybody did, but there's a difference between everybody wanting to get drafted and you also being the best on your team every single year. You probably ever played football. Everybody, probably from when you were 12 on was like, dude, you're different. You realized you were different on the field, and you go through high school and you're different. You get to college and you're different, and you're like, I'm gonna be different in the NFL. And then it doesn't go. That to me is we could you could easily go back and we'd be like, dude, Notre Dame. Notre Dame. Like you're at Notre Dame. How many people would I would have given anything to go to Notre Dame? I would have sucked. But, right? Like, I we forget because we tell these stories, but when you tell the story, you're telling a story that most people will never ever get to experience or live. So they look at that as like a brag. And you're like, I'm not bragging that I was mad that I didn't go in day two. I was like the expectations I had for myself and what I'd gone through, and my family, all these things led to like that was what was supposed to happen.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah. And to me, I think the hardest pillow to swallow of it was it wasn't necessarily that I didn't get drafted. It was I I felt like I'd let everyone down. It's not about you. My family down, my friends down, the my community. I mean, being the you know, being from here in playing Notre Dame, the local kid, like felt like I'd let the town down. Um, and then let alone I felt like I'd let myself down. And you probably feel small. Yeah, I mean, just but you're it got well. Then you ask the questions of like, you know, then you start doubting yourself, am I not as good as I thought I was? Um, and I think that's kind of the story that stuck with me through my NFL career. Um was, you know, I had I so then I I was basically on a bunch of one-year deals, you know, bouncing from practice squad to active roster and getting getting cut and moved around. And you know, I'd have because when you're an undrafted guy, like your your chances you get are like this. And and um to have NFL coaches tell me, like, you're doing you're doing great, like just keep doing what you're doing, but not getting the results that I wanted. I think what I learned most out of that was like in my professional career now, like I refuse to tell anyone, regardless of how good they're doing, to keep doing what you're doing. I think it's horrible feedback because there's always something we can do better. And when you're when you're on this journey and that you're you're trying, you have these things you want to accomplish, when you're given the feedback of keep doing what you're doing, but you're not gaining the results that you want, it's like I would have rather someone be like, dude, you suck. Like you're just not good enough to play in this league. Like I could have I could have absorbed that and digested that and been okay. Like, I'm not good enough. Or you need to work on this. Yeah. Like I could have taken that, but to be told you're doing all the right things, keep doing what you're doing, and then have a you know, an average, below average career, and what my what my expectations would be, uh, that's that's the hardest pill to swallow. So, but at the same time, you know, I'm a firm believer that you know God does things for a reason, things happen the way they're supposed to, and uh, I've carried that with me into my professional career, my you know, what is my corporate career now, and it's probably put a chip on my shoulder, I would say. Um not in a bad way, but I guess it's no different. I look at business no different than sports. It's like I'm gonna show up every day, I'm gonna outwork everyone and just try to set the standard. And you know, there's there's millions of people that are smarter

Better Feedback Control And Consistency

SPEAKER_01 31:33

than me, that know more, that are better, but but are they consistently showing up every day? So that's what I try and focus on is the things that I can control. There's so much in life, whether it's in sports or business or whatever, that you you can't control that you know, I try to just lean on it's your character, your effort, how you show up. Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to be coached? Um that's probably some of the lessons that have translated over from a lot of the and again, it's all relative, right? Like, oh, there's a lot of people like, oh, at least you got you got to go to Nord Amor, you got to play in the NFL, or you and it's like, yeah, I I did, but not to the level of what I wanted to play.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

And I think we all are that way. Like everybody out there is like, well, that must be nice. At least you got to. And it's like, yeah, but there's something in whoever's listening in your life that didn't go as planned. I mean, I think there's even small stuff. I, you know, everybody has something. You know, I could even look back. There are, you said you had your peck injury. I know you've had other surgeries. Like, there are things that happen that, you know, I when I blew out my knee when I was 14, I still think about that all the time. Not the injury of it, but like that was a thing that I thought was gonna hold me back for the rest of my life, and it hasn't. I still think about it like, oh, this is probably gonna be the knee that does go if there is anything that happens, but like it never stopped me from competing. It could have. I was told not to. But we have all these moments in life that like for you, that story, you're also saying at the same time that this made me a better leader. And people you don't miss that, like the resilience. Yeah, you didn't have you lost confidence. Same thing with me, like you we tear ourselves down way more than anybody else does, and a lot of times it's like you said, you felt like you let down a whole community, let like let alone yourself. Like you probably let yourself down every day, so do I. We don't try to, but it's those outside expectations and those hopes other people have, and you feel that, and I think we all have that at a level, and it's leaning into where what what can we take from it? How can we be better? Right, Jake?

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

He's wearing the shirt.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

I know, that's why I said it.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yeah, it's um and I think you know, one of the other things that I think about often is and this is a hard thing to say, and some people may look at it as an excuse, like you're you're just trying to make yourself feel better of why you didn't make it to the level you wanted to, is I believe God had a different plan for me, and had I achieved the things I wanted to, and the monetary things that came with that, I don't believe I was mature enough at the time to handle those things, and I think I would have probably relaxed too much, and God made sure that I didn't do that. Yeah, I don't think that's an excuse. I mean, I I think if you're if you're honest with yourself, like it's it's not an excuse. Um, but again, it's also like a harsher reality of like I look back and I'm like, I tell people all the time, I'm like, head, if I had NIL money as an 18-year-old kid, like I don't know, I'd still be alive right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Like, oh dude, so that's yeah, because the the same thing for me, I kind of took the opposite route as you. Like I just like every other high school football player, you all want to go pro. Right? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You just that would be a dream. Whether you're like, I know it's not gonna happen for me, but I still got a shot. I'm only in high school. I think for me, I did not go pro, did not go to Notre Dame, went to Indiana State, small school, but I found something that I got addicted to in CrossFit, and I did it for free. So, like you're saying, if you would have had NIO money, if you would have, you know, made it and got like who knows, God had a different plan for you. And I think for me, I learned to that there are things you can do that give you so much that don't cost anything, and I spent all my time doing it. And when I started CrossFit, the winner of the CrossFit games, like the fittest person supposedly on earth, you know what they won? $2,500. The winner. The winner when I started. And then the year after I started, it got upped to $25,000. I remember my mind was blown that you could make $25,000 doing this. This is I would do this for free.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Rich, you never have to work again.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Yeah, and then the next year it was $250,000. And then it just kept going, and then we made more money. But I say that because I I look and I'm like, if if there was a ton of money when I started and I was doing it for money, like you, like I probably would have been more disappointed in myself. I probably would have had a lot more issues, and it taught me that I don't need a whole lot. Like there are a lot of things that I can do that are different than how other people do them, and I can enjoy that. Um, I'm a the way that I live my life is much different than a lot of people. Um, a lot of that is based on that person who did all these things and then eventually grew in this sport, and then there was money and then businesses and kind of grow inside of what it is, and that allowed me to be where I am right now. So I think like we all have these stories, and I think a lot of times people just stop the story.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Yeah, and to give everyone a reference, there Nick's like one of the cheapest human beings you'll ever meet. Like, I I I have to beg him to buy new running shoes for himself, which he still hasn't done. But thankfully, we got Chelsea who she takes, she'll she'll have a couple Amazon packages at the house and go.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

I'm I'm frugal. I grew up with nothing, man. I don't need much. Um the we joke, and you've heard me say, and I joke about it with my wife, before we were married, when I met her, and she was not. She was like, she had a dog named Prada. Like, she yeah. So I was like, man, if I wouldn't have met you, I'll I had a plan that I was gonna buy a mobile home and I was gonna live in it and just save all my money. And uh yeah, just like be super rich and have nobody have any idea that I am because I didn't care about what people thought about me. Like case in point with how I went, did not care, do not care. Um, and I and I think that that's a blessing and a curse. Uh but I just love this is way off topic at this point. I just love life. And I don't need anything to make somebody else think I love it because of this. Any other reason. Like, I just do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Like I don't need any You had a good car purchase.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

That's not for real.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yeah, I do have a nice car purchase. But that you earned that though. I didn't so people will be like, oh, you deserve it. I don't deserve anything.

Frugal Living Progress Versus Motion

SPEAKER_00 39:16

I chose that.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

I chose that, I chose it, I've wanted it for a long time, and it just it if I make a decision, it's pretty quick. Yeah. So like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

I thought you were gonna tell everyone where you got all your coffee cans of cash buried.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

I can't do that. Can't do that. Oh man. And anyway, hopefully you guys are having a good good time listening to this at this point.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

No, I think it it's helpful to tell the stories because it's it's all not glamorous. And most of it's not. Yeah, most of the time it's not. You can be fooled by that with social media, and you know, I think it's these are some of the harsh realities of the behind the scenes of what's what's the real that goes on, uh whether it's in professional sports or CrossFit or whatever it is. Um and and it's not to say also like the Tom Brady's of the world, right? Right, some of these guys who are at the at the top, like they have stories too. Yeah, they don't start at the top. And they don't, and they're not gonna go around telling, you're not gonna see that side most of the time. Um but everyone's got a story of what they went through, and and obviously people know Tom's story with you know not being a starter and things happened, and he took advantage of that and became who he is today.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

But um, everyone's got a story. Michael Jordan, didn't he like create like makeup stuff people would say sometimes to be like, I never said that. Yeah, yeah. Just to like get him motivated, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Yeah, but he also got cut from his high school basketball team, too.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Yeah. I mean, I look at that, I look at that right now in my youngest daughter's life. She just she got cut from her volleyball team in seventh grade. She's like kind of like always been like, I'm not really that great. Just talk down to herself, and now she's running track for the first time, and she's like, Dad, I'm really fast. Like, I'm actually running. And I was like, Yeah, but you're gonna get beat. How are you gonna handle that? Like, it's easy to be the best when you're young or the worst or in the middle, and then you get to choose, like, what where am I going? But you can't go anywhere else but down from the top. You can obviously try to hang on as long as you can, and you can't go anywhere else but up from the bottom unless you quit. So, like, for her right now, we're in that stage of what are you gonna do with it? What are you gonna do with it? Cool. You've got all these things you're doing, like, yeah, you've been cut, you've played well in these things, and now you feel like you're really good here. We all have that. We all have those things that we're really good at that we're not, and I always try to pride myself in trying not to hide from what I'm bad at. Example, I signed up for a soccer league now still, and I don't play soccer. But I'm also like trying to continue to strengthen my strengths, and I do most of that in the in the quiet. I don't need to publicize those things. To your point, talking about nothing's glamorous in what you know, like there's a lot of struggle that I've gone on. I'm still looked at as one of the strongest people in like the sport of CrossFit. Still at 42, probably I am. I lifted my entire life and only learned how to lift, and I spent so much time honing in on it to have somebody ask, what's the secret? That's the secret. Time. And consistency. Yeah, like and it's consistency. There are so many people who are consistently inconsistent. I'm in every single day, but I'm not really like, eh, but I'm like in. There's there's a difference between somebody who is consistent in progress and growth over somebody who's consistently inconsistent. Meaning that's a person who like you're probably just like going through the motions, doing stuff, whatever, not really moving somewhere. Right. Don't don't confuse progress with motion. And you don't have to go anywhere. I I have nothing wrong with if you said to me, like, oh, I I just come in every day, I don't really care, doesn't really matter, don't have any big goals, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, then you're on the right path. But most people don't go that way. They have this idea of where they want to go, but the better thing of saying is like they don't know how to get there, so instead they're like, but I'm showing up, I'm showing up, I'm showing up. I'm like, no, you're clocking in and you're sitting down and then you're clocking out. It's what are you doing from when you clock in to clock out? And then what are you doing after you clock out? Because you're not always on the clock. Sometimes you right, like you get a choice. You've got something, you gotta be up early and do something, and a buddy calls, like, hey, you want to go out, grab some drinks? Nah. Yeah. But right there was a time where you're like Yeah, and and and eventually you have to say, Is this what's best for me?

365 Days Of Burpees And Closing

SPEAKER_01 44:12

But at the time of this recording we're 91 days in, 92 days in to uh 365 days of burpees. Oh yeah. Where you at? I don't I haven't added up since the end of January. I probably should do that.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

I'm pretty sure I'm on I'm spot on on my burpees, maybe a little bit over on my burpees, and I'm probably 20 miles, 15 to 20 miles short on my mileage.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah, I mean I the burpees I've so 55 a day is kind of where we need to be to be on track. And so like there's been days where I've done one, there's been days where I've done 10, there's been days when I've done 400. Like it just, you know, so I'm not as concerned. I'll I'll tally them up so I know exactly where I'm at. But you know, if I need to catch up on a thousand, I can do that in a couple days, and so I'm not too worried about it. Now, old Braxton would have been like a thousand burbies, that might take me three months. Um, but again, the consistency game, I mean I feel like now I can just rip them.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

Well, and it's not, and I I would say it's a consistency game and not beating yourself up when you don't meet your expectation, right? Like, oh shoot, I said I was gonna do this. Okay, yeah, next.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

As long as it's one. Yep, next.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

I honestly have done a lot of days where I've done zero burpees, but I've ran. I've only had one day. I know I've said the never I had one day where I did zero, zero. Zero miles, zero burpees. Zero anything. Yeah. Couldn't even say I walked, I didn't do anything that day. Now my training is crazy to where I'm like, I'm working out so much and trying to run and trying to do burpees. Um and I love it. I love the feeling of like I might fail this. But am I really failing it? Or is there something more? And that's where I'm at. It's like I'll get it. This was fun. It was good. We were all over the place, but most really good ones. Yep. Thank you guys for listening. As always, we should put this in the beginning. Subscribe, follow, do all the stuff that they say to do. Tap the bell. Tap the bell. That's what they say. Anyway. Appreciate you guys. See y'all.