Return the Cart: The Smallest Promise You'll Ever Keep

Have you ever stared at a lonely shopping cart in an empty parking lot and thought, “They have people for this…”?

The decision you make in that exact moment might reveal more about your character than what you do when the spotlight is on.

Welcome to Episode 8 of The Jason Hewlett Show! Today we dive into the famous Shopping Cart Theory and explore what real character looks like when absolutely no one is watching.

From a simple parking lot moment to a fascinating global experiment involving 17,000 “lost” wallets, we’re looking at what the data says about honesty, integrity, and human nature.

Plus in this episode:

• A heartfelt tribute to my favorite person in the world turning 50
• A Ski Incident that may or may not have permanently damaged my dignity
• A powerful story of 250 semi-trucks delivering 10 million pounds of food
• And a surprising truth about what actually happens to your body after 35

In this episode:

• The Monologue: The Shopping Cart Theory & Your Character
• Freedom of Speech: What a Parking Lot Reveals About Your Soul
• The Full Story: The 17,000 Lost Wallet Global Experiment
• Faith & Hope: 250 Semi-Trucks & 10 Million Pounds of Food
• Father Time: Happy 50th Birthday to My Favorite Person
• The Funny Factory: The Ski Incident (You’ve Been Warned)
• Fitness Minute: The Surprising Truth About Your Body After 35

A huge thank you to our sponsor Cardio Miracle — the world’s best Nitric Oxide and Vitamin D3 supplement. Support your heart health and keep your promises to your body.

Get yours here:
 https://cardiomiracle.com/

If this episode resonated with you, hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE for more weekly inspiration, and tell me in the comments:

Are you a cart returner? 🛒

#ShoppingCartTheory #JasonHewlett #CharacterMatters #ThePromise #Integrity #MotivationalPodcast #CardioMiracle

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey, I'm standing in a parking lot. Tuesday afternoon, cold, and there it is, 11 steps away. Yeah, the cart return. I counted. 11 steps. And for one second, I just one second I thought, uh, they got people for this. Then little voice said, Well, that's not who you are. So I walked the 11 steps, nobody saw it, nobody clapped, no award, no Yelp review. Yes, I'm talking about the shopping cart. I went straight home that night feeling completely quietly, exactly like myself. They say how you treat a shopping cart says everything about your character. I think they're right. And today I'm gonna prove it. Welcome to the Jason Hewlett Show. Yes, welcome to the Jason Hewlett Show. It is March 12th, 2026. This is where we use lots of F-words: faith, family freedom, fatherhood, fitness, funny and farce, as well as the fulfillment of your promises. And today we're building an entire episode around the smallest promise you'll ever keep. In the freedom of speech, we talk about what a shopping cart in an empty parking lot reveals about your soul. And then in the full story, scientists drop 17,000 wallets in 40 countries to find out what people do when no one's watching and the stakes are real. What they found defied every prediction, the economists got it backwards. And the data will show that change how you feel about human character. From the news feed, Bam Adibayo. Yes, Bam Atabayo just scored 83 points, the second most in NBA history, and the world couldn't decide whether to celebrate it or tear him apart. We're calling this one the Fanatic Fan, and it's about a whole lot more than basketball. In faith and hope, we're talking about 250 semi-trucks, 10 million pounds of food, all 50 states, because some promises come in freight. In Father Time, my favorite person in the world turned 50. And I've got some things to say about 2600 Tuesdays and what a kept promise looks like on her face. In the funny factory, well, we're gonna talk about a ski incident I had. So get yours while you can. All of that right now on the Jason Hewlett Show. Please don't go anywhere, and thank you for being with us today. You know, before we roll into the freedom of speech and the returning of the shopping cart, I did want to say that I have a new setup in my studio. In fact, we've made a couple of changes for today's episode just to see if it will be uh it'll be more congruent with what I normally would do on a stage, let's say. So people know me generally for playing the piano and singing, and I've added a little bit of singing throughout some of the episodes. I'm curious if you're gonna be able to hear me because this is the first time we've ever tried it live. I don't know if this is gonna work. If it doesn't, I'm really bummed because then it'll be like a minute of dead space. But I am gonna shoot for it. We have a nice setup here. I'm gonna switch cameras and I'm gonna go sit at my keyboard. Let's see if you can hear this. All right, here we go. Alright, we're at the keyboard. I sure hope you can hear me. I sure hope you can see me on the podcast if you're listening later. I'm sitting at the keyboard in my office. If you can hear this, maybe just put it in the comments so I know it's okay. This is often trying to go say this. It's a little bit funny. That was the try for today. We'll see if it worked. I'm going back to the other side of the studio. All right, hopefully that was cool. I see some people saying whoop whoop. Maybe that means it worked. Okay, I hope so. And uh thank you guys for letting me know you can hear me loud and clear. It looks like Captain Kindman is here, one of my dear friends, Randy. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you watching. And yes, uh, he's a he's a good man. So thank you for being here. Okay, you guys, let's start off with uh let's start out with the character over performance, if you will. Um, the return of the shopping cart. You know, the return of the shopping cart is interesting to me because this might be a seasonal topic. I mean, really, I wrote a blog post that got a ton of comments in April 2023. Here we are, March, three years later, it's popping up again. But this was the story. I remember that we pulled into the only open parking spot in the grocery store lot, and only to suddenly have to back out due to a shopping cart that was already parked there. And I'm I'm just curious, what is the shopping cart promise? Is it real? Or is it something I just imagined? Please help me know if this is a promise or not. I mean, when you use a shopping cart in the store and push your purchases to the parking lot, you make an unspoken promise to return it, either to the store or to the shopping cart stall when you're done. This was actually the photo I took. Let's see if it'll pop up. This is the photo of where I was going to park. Come on, man. And this was the photo of the shopping cart. So at least three people, four people maybe, took some time. Oh, it looks like three. Yeah, so that was it. And I was a little disappointed as you can imagine. But, you know, I couldn't see a sign anywhere telling me that I had to return the cart. They were just suggestions. And I found multiple signs in the parking lot that said carts. So I placed mine there. Is that the right place? Because then I noticed how many shopping carts weren't in the cart return, and instead we're taking up two parking spaces, some halfway on a curve or a curb, four against a wall, two rolling away. So, my friend, if there is a shopping cart promise, what is it? Do you keep it? I'm not the cart, but the promise. I hope that you'll let me know in the comments. Is that a promise that you do, and or if not, why? I mean, the shopping cart theory goes back, well, it was born in 2020, from uh it argues that returning your cart is the ultimate character test precisely because it's optional. No reward, no punishment, just you and your conscience. In 2020, a viral post by 4chan went uh went crazy. And psychology backs this principle. Dr. Sanam Hafiz notes that the shopping cart represents larger fears we have about accountability and moral decay. A question not just about carts, but about whether people do the right thing when no one is watching. I know that when someone's watching, I probably would push the cart back. If they weren't, maybe it's a question. There's low effort, high meaning. Dr. Judy Ho explains the theory resonates because it's low effort, mostly anonymous, and framed as the right thing to do, making the choice feel morally charged despite its simplicity. So this the shopping cart theory isn't a perfect moral ruler, though. I just have to give this caveat. Disabilities. I mean, I remember when I had a surgery, I could not take my cart all the way back. In fact, I was leaning on the cart. So disabilities, small children, extreme weather, genuine emergencies, they're all legitimate reasons to leave a cart. But judging someone on a single anonymous act oversimplifies human character. I had a friend that even said, hey, I push the cart as hard as I can and see if it'll go in a straight line across the parking lot to the cart holder. And if it doesn't, I'm running because it's veering into a car. And then they said they also like to angle it up on a curb, and it's like, yeah, I'm I I know I've done the same thing, so it won't roll away. But when it comes to this, you know, it's a micro promise. Character isn't built in dramatic moments of crisis, it's built in a thousand tiny, unremarkable decisions, most of which nobody will ever know you made. And the promise is personal. Keeping the micro promise isn't about social credit, it's about the private conduct you hold with yourself and whether you're living up to it when it costs you absolutely nothing except a few extra steps. So I'd like you to think about the uh a moment last week when you did the right thing and nobody saw it, or you didn't do the right thing because no one was watching. I mean, what does that moment tell you? I see we've got a we've got Captain Kindman. He wrote in here, it says, it's little things we do that add up to the big big things. If we don't do the simple things, taking how our actions may impact others into consideration, how will we do with the big things? A hundred percent. I think that's awesome. Thank you, Captain Kindman. And my friends, as we wrap up this section, I hope that you're thinking about the ways that you do this in the simple small things. I mean, what would it feel like to be so consistently yourself in public and private that the question is anyone watching completely stops mattering? So let's transition. The shopping cart is small. The principle behind it is enormous. Let's go deeper because the parking lot is just the beginning. As we roll into the full story, 17,000 wallets and the truth about who we are, we're going to talk about something that's uh you may have not heard about before because uh I didn't even know about this study. But we just talked about the shopping cart, how one little choice, push it back or leave it, tells you everything about someone's character because there's no rule, there's no consequence, just you in the cart, the parking lot, and whoever you actually are when the world stops watching. And I know some of you are sitting there going, well, Jace, I always return my cart. Well, good. I believe you. I do it too. Thank you. Welcome. Most of the time, although I once left it in a handicapped spot during a rainstorm and thought about it every day since. So that's a whole other segment, I guess. But here's what I want you to know what happens when the stakes go up? The cart costs you what? 90 seconds and some mild inconvenience? What about when it's real money, real stakes, real temptation? Hmm. What happens to people, all people all over the world, when nobody's watching the stakes actually matter? Well, a group of scientists uh decided to find out, and what they found shook the entire field of behavioral economics to its core. The study was led by uh a couple of really interesting uh scientists and teachers, and they published it in Science, not a blog post or TED Talk. It was in Science, the most prestigious academic journal on the planet, in June of 2019. And here's what they did they made 17,303 wallets. Yeah, clear plastic cases, see-through. So you could see everything inside immediately. And in each wallet, they put three business cards with a fictitious name and an email address, a grocery list written in the local language, and a key. Then they sent research assistants into 355 cities across 40 countries over two and a half years. The assistant would walk into a bank or a hotel or a police station, a museum, and a post office. They'd hand the wallet to an employee and say, I found this on the street, I'm in a hurry, can you take care of it? And then they walked out. No follow-up, no pressure. The employee knew exactly how to reach the wallet's quote unquote owner. They had no way to know anyone was watching. It was just them and the wallet and whoever they were. Here's where it gets interesting: half the wallets had no money. I know you were thinking that. You're like, well, if it had money. The other half had the equivalent of about$13 in local currency. So before the study went live, the researchers did something smart. They surveyed 2,500 ordinary people and asked, which wallet do you think employees are most likely to return? Empty one or the one with money? The answer was almost unanimous, as you can guess. The empty one. Of course. More money, more temptation, less honesty. That's just human nature, right? That's what we assume about each other. They also asked 279 professional economics, some of the sharpest analytics minds in the world to predict the outcome and people whose entire career is built around understanding human incentive structures. Same answer. More money, less return rate, obviously. Guess what? They were all wrong. In 38 out of 40 countries, people were more likely to return the wallet with money than the wallet without it. Let that land for a second. Empty wallet, 40% returned.$13 inside, 51% returned. And uh here's where Alan Cohn, who put this study together himself, had to do a double take. He said, I and I love this quote, people were more likely to return a wallet when it contained a higher amount of money. At first, we almost couldn't believe it and told him to triple the amount of money in the wallet just to see what happened. So they tripled the stakes. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland, they ran a third condition, a big money wallet with the equivalent of$94 inside. Yep, yet again, same finding. More money, more returns. The big money wallets came back at 72%. That's pretty cool. 72%. So, what's actually going on here? I mean, the first one is an altruistic concern, right? Genuine care for the person who lost the wallet. Do you know why they leaned into this? Remember the key in the wallet? Key is useful to a finder. It has no street value. You can't do anything with someone else's key. So to the owner, it's everything, right? Their house, their car, their storage unit, their whole day. Wallets that included a key were returned 10% more than wallets without one. So you might want to throw a key in your wallet. And uh it's it's not because the finder gained anything, but because the key made the owner feel real. Someone is locked out right now. Someone's looking for this. That human connection even implied many people did the right thing and even more. It's really beautiful to me. It tells me something about people. It tells me something about you. I know you're that kind of person. Then there's the second focus. This is the one that explains why more money means more returns. It comes down to a very specific word. Yeah, so it suddenly feels like stealing Christianism. And it feels like even more like stealing when the money in the wallet increases. So think about this with me. If you find a wallet with no cash and you don't return it, maybe you rationalize it. And you take anything valuable, I saved whoever's in the trouble with cancelling cards. I left that out of the bench. You can tell yourself a story or a small story, a story where you're still basically a decent person, but a wallet. With 94 dollars in it, the story gets a lot harder to tell. Because they're just keeping a found object in your feet. That's how we work. People behave dishonestly, everyone says, enough to profit, but honestly, enough to delude themselves of their own integrity. In other words, round up the expense reports, keep the return line, keep the wall in the cash, but only to the point where we can still look in the mirror and say I'm not gonna The bigger one, the closer that line gets, the most people.$24 cost. So I think about that for my own life. I think about I'm a keynote speaker, I travel around the world, I'm in hotel lobbies, airports, conference centers constantly. Over the years I've found plenty of things. I mean, a phone on a plane, a credit card, and a hotel elevator, an entire laptop, you know. I'll be honest, every single time I'm doing everything I can to get it back to that person right away. Put a nickel on the floor of an Uber, and I kept that. So it has to be the smaller thing. The question came down to thinking, you know, I want to be that person of integrity in all places. So let me bring this home and I mean this show, the Jason Hewlett show, is built around a concept I've spent my entire career returning to called the promise. Not the promises you make in contracts, not the ones with as five words written in the policies, the promise you make to yourself in the quiet of your own character about what you're going to be and who you're going to be. Promise you make to your family, your God, whatever you believe, the promise you make your audience your cover for your community. That's what they can expect from you and think you're hard to do. So, most people I think they're keeping their promise. I think anybody listening to this and watching this is keeping their promise of working with Captain Kindman is my my major commenter today here. So I'm gonna I'm gonna post what he just said. So this is a wonderful example of why we need to look for and believe again about each other. I agree, man. Thank you very much. He also said promises ourselves increased our personal confidence. Beautiful. If you think I'm lacking in confidence, then you keep a promise. And you will have a happier life with no questions. As we wrap up with some of the questions we've asked you, what's the promise you've made yourself? Is it still holding? The promise isn't a wedding vow or assigned contract, is the internal commitment about who you are. Think about one specific version of that promise right now. Is there a wallet you're not returning? I mean, not literally, but in the sense of the commitment quietly kept on the shelf. So 17,000 wallets. 40 countries. And the answer is better than we expected. We've been looking inward at what people do, and the stakes are real noise keeping score. Now let's zoom out. What's happening in the world right now? Because integrity doesn't happen in the background from the news feed right now. From the newsfeed, we go into what I call fanatic thing. What I like about this is that yes, there is something really interesting that happened just the other day. It was Tuesday night. Today's Thursday. This is the end 48 hours ago. I need to tell you something that's a cool story. It's not it's a sport story, but it's not a sport story. It's a character story. It's a story about what we do when somebody else has their moment. Have you ever been jealous of someone's success? Or if you've ever had your own big moment without the world trying to shake it, that's what's for you. Have you ever heard of Dan? Yeah, he's the center for the Miami Heat NBA basketball team. He scored eighty-three. He scored eighty-three points in a single NBA game on Tuesday night. Eighty three. NBA. Only person above him is Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points in 1962. This is a long-standing record. The person below him now, Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 in 2006. And the moment it happened, the world split in two. This is an interesting thing. My son texted me while I was at the gym and said, Did you see Bam Adabao just scored 83 points? I said, That must be a typo. Because it's so out of character for his career so far. Not he's a great player, but here's the thing. On one side, there was celebration. His teammates were losing their minds. Coach Eric Spolster, a guy known for being robotic and analytical, he was smiling and laughing like a kid. I mean, he kept him in the game even though they were up by 20, and he just kept letting him shoot. Kevin Durant said, huge accomplishment, something we're going to be talking about forever. Giannis Atekumpo said, something I want you to write down. He said it doesn't matter how you got there. All that matters is you got it. 20, 10, 20, 30 years from now, no one's gonna remember how many free throws you shot all your members. 83. So LeBron James posted Bam, Bam, Bam with fire emojis, Dwayne Wade, Jalen Brunson, Peers Across League, Standing Ovation Energy. And then the other side was like a war. At crypto.com arena in Los Angeles. Yeah, home of the Lakers, Kobe's house. When the announcement of BAM's 83 points hit the PA system, the crowd booed. They booed a man who had just done something only two human beings in the history of the world have ever done. Or at least the NBA. Robert Ory, who played with Kobe for seven seasons, called it, I'm quoting here, a disrespect to the game. Don't cheat the game. Do you know why they they think it was cheating? Because they say he's stat padded. Uh should have an asterisk. Because they pointed out that the Wizards, the team that Heat played, are terrible. Bam shot 43 free throws. Yeah, I mean, 43 free throws, that's crazy. And yet, that's because he was getting fouled. So some call it disgusting and shameless. And all this happened to a man who just done something genuinely historic. Well, now let me just tell you who Bam out of bio actually is, because I think this matters. So there's a man who grew up in a single white trailer in North Carolina with his mother. His mom worked multiple jobs, most days all gone all day, walked to and from work. They had nothing. Bam made himself a promise. If I ever make it, I'm gonna take care of my mom. And he kept that promise. In 2020, right after signing his max contract, Bam surprised his mom with a brand new house for her birthday. He said, My mom never had nothing that she could call her own. So growing up, being able to do something different, but basketball be a special player, that was something I've always had in my mind. He put a photo of their old trailer right by the door of his new house, and he said, I want everybody to see where we actually came from. Are you cheering for him yet? I hope so. This is also a man who won the NBA Care's Community Assist Award in December for his off-court service. His annual Christmas drive, Toy Drive, gave 36,000 toys to over 2,000 children in Miami. This is one of the most decorated defensive players in the league. He's a three-time all-defensive team. I mean, a man known for doing the dirty work and sexy work, the work that doesn't show up in highlights, and Chipostra calls him a unicorn defensively. You can defend any player in any scheme. Yeah, Mr. Defense just scored 83 points. And half the world said, it doesn't count. He just shot free throws. Here's what stops me. And this is where it gets personal for all of us. When they asked Victor Wimbanyana, uh Wimbanyyama, he's a great player. He's gonna probably be one of the greatest we've ever seen. Uh he they asked him about BAM's 83. He said, Yeah, I saw it. Long pause. And then he said, I think we play in a league where there's plenty of inspiration to look up to, but yeah, I saw it. And then he shrugged and moved on. Okay, I don't think Wimbignana's being disrespectful. I should think he's being honest. And it he's a generational talent. He's he's he's an amazing guy, let's be honest. He's very unselfish of a player. But the internet ran with it and said, Wemby wasn't impressed, or Wemby doesn't care, Wemby shrugs off bam. So we turned a man's measured, because it was a measured response, gracious non-reaction into ammunition, because we live in a world that is addicted to conflict. We don't just want a story, we want sides. We want someone to be the villain. And so that brings me to the things I want to sit with you today. Number one, everyone has their moment. Bam Atabaya was not supposed to be the guy who scores 83 points. He's the defensive anchor, the glue guy, the guy who does the things that don't make sports center. But his career high before Tuesday was 41. He more than doubled it in one night against any opponent under any circumstance. 83 points is 83 points. And uh, does the world let you have it when you have your moment? Number two, I'm curious. This is one I really want you to sit with. Do we celebrate other people's greatness? Or do we find the asterisk? Because that's what happened Tuesday night. I mean, it even happened with me. I said, there's no way that's possible because he's a defensive player. Like, what happened? And do we celebrate when somebody does something great? Unfortunately, I think often we don't. But the fanatic fan, and this is what I'm calling this segment today, the fanatic fan isn't the person that stands cheering too loud. The fanatic fan's a person who can only cheer for their own team, their own hero, their own version, how things are supposed to go. When someone else has a moment that doesn't fit the script, they boo. They audit, they find the asterisk. Don't be the fanatic fan. Be the person who can watch someone else have the best night of their life and career, even if it's complicated, and say, man, that was amazing. I'm glad you got to see you. Because here's the promise underneath all of it. The way you treat someone else's moment reveals everything about your character, not your sports knowledge, not your basketball IQ, but your character. And bam out of bio, the kid from the trailer, mr. Defense, the man nobody expected to score 83. He had his moment. Kobe? What would Kobe say? Kobe would have told him, do it again. Eighty-three points, one moment, and a choice we all face every single day. Celebrate or audit. I know which one I'm choosing. Now, let's talk about faith. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Captain. Kind man. Celebrating other greatness a testament to our own character or lack thereof, depending on how we respond. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing, yeah. And so, no, we're gonna move on to faith. Because the biggest delivery in America right now isn't a scoring record, it's something much heavier. Think about something that's interesting. I want to ask you something. I won't you really sit with us? Man, I'm itchy today. I've got some kind of static in this room. Okay. When was the last time your faith got heavy? Not your feelings about faith, not your opinions about faith, not your Sunday conversation about faith. I mean, when did your faith actually weigh something? When did you load it onto a truck? Because here's a thing I've been thinking about a lot lately since I heard this. And I think it matters whether you're religious or not, you know, whether you go to church or you go to golf course on Sunday morning. Honestly, both places have their share of prayer, right? But I've been thinking about the difference between faith you hold and faith you haul. So there's a story playing across this country right now that stopped me in my tracks. And I'm proud of this story. So I'm sharing this here, and I hope you'll enjoy this with me, celebrate it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is my faith tradition, the church I grew up in, the community of Shaped Me, is doing something for America's 250th birthday. That I think is one of the most quietly remarkable things I've seen in years. 250 semi-trucks, each one carrying 40,000 pounds of food. Yeah. That's 10 million pounds of food being delivered to food banks in all 50 states. Think about that. Not as a press release, not as a hashtag, as actual trucks, actual food, actual people and actual communities who are hungry. Right now, tonight, and this delivery lands on their doorstep like a promised cat. That's not a feeling. That's freight. The first delivery went to Grand Blanc, Michigan. Now, when I saw this, I was touched because the I want to tell you why this matters, because this isn't just a logistic story. Is a community that rallied around their local LDS congregation after a shooter, a guy drove his truck into the church, and as they ran to help him in the congregation in the middle of their meeting, where the whole house was packed, he opened fire and started killing people. So he targeted the church. That's a hard thing to go through. This is the first place that the church took the food to. This is amazing. The first delivery of the historic 250 truck convoy, they said, we're going to Grand Blanc first. And because that's what promises look like. They're not random, they're responsive. Elder Garrett W. Gong, whom we believe is an apostle of our church, said something I wrote down the moment I heard it. He said, This anniversary is something to be celebrated by people of faith, people of goodwill, people of community everywhere, not just members, not just one denomination, everyone, because the 250th anniversary of this country belongs to all of us. I'm going to show you a picture. And for those that are just listening, this is a her name is Barb Smith. And uh yeah, she's got thumbs up next to a truckload of boxes that are going to be delivered. It's such a wonderful thing that uh this was made for a lot of people. It's gonna help a whole ton of people. What really got me on this was a man named David Brown, who runs the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles. He said this one million people a year walk through our doors needing a hot meal and a place to enjoy it. And one million people, one city, right? He said this food donation will have direct impact right now. Like not eventually, right now. And then a man named Eddie Trask from Catholic Charities of Idaho, a different faith tradition entirely, said something I hope that you'll listen to. He said, if if you don't take the freedom you've been given and use it for good in helping neighbors, then what good is the freedom? Somebody give that man a microphone. Actually, I guess he already has one because he's on the show now. No, he's not here. It's just me talking about him, but that is the promise. That's the whole thesis we've been building the show around for eight episodes so far. And the promise is not the wedding, promise is not the ceremony, the promise is what you do with the freedom you've been handed. And so, that's why I love um my faith. I'm proud of I'm proud of my church, and that's why I love what there's an organization called Just Serve. If you go to just serve.org and see what they're doing, you can help. On March 17th, there's a worldwide devotional for women in our church, and and women anywhere can attend. It's the Relief Society Gathering. It's the longest standing women's organization in the world. And uh they're talking about themes of resilience, family, strength, and community. By July 4th, 2026, the actual birthday of this nation at 250 years old, the goal is 250 million acts of kindness. Yeah. That should be good for Mr. Captain Kindman who's watching me. And uh that's one of the kindness, one act of kindness for every year this country's existed. I mean, how how awesome is that promise? I love it. So, um, yeah, I love that quote. If you don't use your freedom to help other people, what good is that freedom? Thank you, Captain Kindman. What a deal, what a guy. Thanks for being here, man. My friends, I have four kids. Four, yeah. I know we learned uh what caused that eventually. But I want to tell you what I hope they learn from watching how Tammy and I try to live. I want them to grow up thinking faith is something you pack. You pack into your truck, you drive it somewhere that needs it, you unload it with your arms, not your arguments, because the world doesn't need more people who are right about what they believe. They the world needs more people who act like what they believe is real. 250 trucks, 10 million pounds, 50 states. That's not a feeling, that's faith with freight attached. Speaking of keeping promises, the biggest promise most of us ever made, we made in a suit or a wedding dress, and I've been thinking about mine a lot lately because my favorite person in the whole world has just hit a big birthday, and the only appropriate response is to be absolutely ridiculous about it. Yeah. I'm talking about father time, which we're talking about next. When we talk about father time, I have to just say I'm a lucky man. I I made a promise once in a really nice suit. I I don't remember every word I said that day. I'm a performer and I had jitters like anybody else, but I was 20-something years old, standing there, feeling the weight of this. Her name is Tammy Spenced, and then she became Tammy Spence Hewlett. Yeah, she she was a stockbroker with Fidelity before we got hitched, and then she kept that job for a little bit until I told her, hey, you need to find something a little bit different, meaning, quit your job and let's go to Vegas. So that's what we did. And I got a job with Legends in Concert as an Elton John impersonator. That was a long time ago. So here's what I want every husband watching this to understand is that, yeah, the the promise isn't the wedding. The wedding's the announcement of the promise. The promise is the 10,000 ordinary Tuesdays that come after. And it's the Tuesday when you're both tired and someone still has to make dinner. It's the Tuesday when she's been dealing with the kids all day, and you walk in with all your stuff from the road and you have to choose between dumping it on her or picking up what she's carrying and care for the kids too. That's the promise. And if I'm honest with myself, I always try to be honest. I've not always gotten a Tuesday. I mean, sometimes gotten a Tuesday C minus. But sometimes I barely show up for Tuesday at all. I've been on the road, so you know, we had four children five years. I'm glad they didn't run away. Which I consider one of the greatest acts of faith I've ever personally witnessed. But when your wife turns 50, here's what you do: you don't buy flowers and call it good. You don't post something nice on Instagram and think you made the deposit. Nope. You throw a party, even if you can't afford the amount of party you're gonna throw. My wife has so many friends that I didn't know who not to invite. We gathered as many as we could in the space. It was special. And here's the other thing. She has a best friend named Courtney. They've been best friends since seventh grade. Uh we did a surprise party for them when they were 40. Um, Courtney's husband, Bo, and I. And we call uh they're the Carlsons, we're the Hewlett, so we call ourselves the Carlettes. And so we travel together, we're all best pals, it's amazing. It's a great friend, greatest friendship I've ever seen, because these two girls together are just dynamic and they serve so many people. Well, we couldn't just celebrate 50 by blowing out some candles. So we put together a surprise party. I thought I should show you the video. Um I I I couldn't believe we pulled it off. You know how many people could have spoiled it? Well, they didn't. They had no idea. Photo of her, and for those that are listening on the podcast later, this is a photo of her kissing me while I'm holding the cake. With her best friend Courtney looking on. Bo was somewhere over the side, and uh this was me kissing her back. I want you to look at her face for a sec. I mean that face right there, that's what a promise kept looks like. That's twenty five years this year of Tuesdays. You know, that's believing despite all evidence of my limitations as a human male that I was showing up. And that right there is ROI and a promise. This was our group. This is me and Tammy and our beautiful friends uh Courtney and Bo. So we pulled it off. It was very, very difficult, very expensive, very awesome. So glad it happened. I'm so actually glad it's over. But I'm also so thankful to celebrate the most important person in my world. And women, you can listen to this too because it applies in both directions. Because I'm gonna get real with the men. We are performers, every single one of us. We perform at work, we perform for our friends, we perform on social media. I talk about this every episode. We become extraordinarily good at crafting a highlight reel that says nothing about who you actually are at home. And so your spouse doesn't need your tribute, they need your presence. They need you in the kitchen at 6 a.m. They need you to remember the thing she mentioned three weeks ago about the restaurant you want to try. They need you to ask how her day was, and then, and this is the hard part, guys, actually listen to the answer without already thinking about what you're going to say next, and absolutely put the phone down. I hope that you will. As I wrap up this section, I appreciate you watching this enjoyable time with me and my beautiful wife. Happy birthday to her, 50 years old, amazing. I'm gonna be there in a few years, exciting. Yes, we've been married 25 years this year, very special. But what is one specific thing you could do this week? Not for points, not for Instagram, that would tell your important person you love the most. I see you, I'm still here, and I kept the promise. Alright. We're now 43 minutes into this show, my friends. This is normally a 45-minute show, but I am going long today, and so I hope that you understand. We gotta get into the funny stuff, that's okay. I thought I'd tell you a little bit about every family that has that story. It's the ski incident story, you know the one. I mean, it starts with someone, you know, um, saying the five most beautiful words. It'll be fun, I promise. Ends up with someone in the neck brace. So I've been skiing for years. In fact, I made a post about this yesterday in anticipation of sharing the story today. I shared this photo of myself in my ski mask. I know I almost look like a bot, a robot, but yeah, there's me with my ski mask. I look pretty cool. This is this this is the view of where I was. It's just unbelievable. Utah, Wasatch, unbelievable. I was in Brighton Ski Resort where I go every time, and so this is me with my ski mask. I look, I got the goggles, the helmet. I didn't realize how important this was gonna be today. But here's what happened. I've skied my whole life. I grew up in Park City, Utah. I'm a very good skier, and I ski every chance I get, even for an hour if I can get up there and just burn my legs out and go as fast as possible. Well, this particular day I decided, you know, it might be a good day to wax the skis. I haven't waxed them in a while, and I thought it'd be fun to make a video for you to watch me learning something about uh keeping your tools in shape. And then uh this isn't the accident, it wasn't caught on film, but this was prior to the accident, and I think part of the reason for it, you're gonna see that I was pretty disappointed when uh when I was on that lift because uh something also happened before the main accident. I hope you enjoy this video. Let's see if it works. Alright, I'm here up in uh Brighton Resort, Utah. Haha, yeah, look at that hair, brothers and sisters. So I've just done my third run and I wanted to tell you a little bit about the importance of sharpening the saw or making sure that your tools are in working order before you go do something like skiing on a gigantic, beautiful mountain like these. So, for the last two times that I've been up here this winter, which I've only been up here essentially in the last two weeks, it's been such a struggle just to get here. That I just jumped right on the ski runs and just went for it, right? As fast as I could, as hard as I could, got in a bunch of runs, burned my legs, and it's awesome. For the last few times, I've been thinking I really need to wax my skis, but I haven't ever waxed them. And when I was a kid, we used to do that a lot, like we would just do it ourselves. But I thought, no, I'll just do it another time. Well, today I got up here, I did one run, snow sticky, it's a weird winter, and I thought, you know, I'm gonna go see how much it is.$25. Took 15 minutes, 15 minutes to wax my skis. I just had two of the best runs of my life. Huh. I have to laugh about it, right? Because like I have enjoyed it the last few times, but it's been hard because my skis are sticky into the snow. And how often we do this, right? We just think, uh, I'll get to it later. I'll I'll work on something that I really ought to, but I don't have time because then they'll slow me down from getting the project done. Well, starting the summer. There's a reason coming to me. There's a reason why they say when you're chopping down trees, you guys take some time to show you that saw because as I have now skied on my new let me show you. My new oh my gosh. I just dropped awful. My my new skis feel awesome. So what's funny is I just dropped the poles. Oh well. I'll have to come back and get them. I'm on whatever run I'm on, so that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Anyway, trying to teach a lesson and skiing, it's a silly idea. So, anyway, here we are. Good times. Sharpen the saw and don't drop your poles.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Oh my gosh. I'm trying to teach this profound lesson. Show you my skis and my poles dropped off the left. That's what led to the incident. So I I was disappointed as you can see as I'm wrapping up the video, where I'm like, yeah, I heard the saw, and then it's like, ah daya! My poles! Yeah, you kind of need poles, especially with the stuff I like to ski. And so I went down the ski run, looked for the pole. I only found one. You need two, but you know, one looks fine. It's like, yeah, hey, I'm skiing with one pole. I look awesome. And so I just kept going down the same run, which is a very steep run, under right underneath the lift, of course, where it's just steep as can be. And then about the eighth time down, I I had one of the biggest accidents of my entire life. I mean, we're talking yard sale, if you know anything about skiing, that's what they call it. My gloves, my one pull, my glasses, my goggles, uh, everything smashed off. And my head hit back so hard on, and this was an icy slope. And so my head hit back so hard I thought I had a concussion. I mean, I was I was sliding down the mountain, self-arresting as I'm turning around. I'm like, what is happening? My skis are everywhere. A couple guys skied down to see if I was okay. They were like, dude, do we need to call a helicopter? I was like, no, I'm fine. Do you know where my my lenses to my glasses are? So, you know, I mean, we could joke that, like, I could, I would love to tell the story, you know, like, and then uh the medical came and they put me on the thing, and Tyler drove me down the hill. It didn't happen. What happened was I just kind of gathered my things, stumbled down the mountain to where I could put them back on right under the lift as everyone's watching me as they go by. Like, ha ha ha! And yeah, put my skis back on, went back down the hill. Alright. Uh, I could have hurt myself real bad. I mean, I did hurt myself. I I've been in pain for a while now because of it, but I think the concussion is going away a little bit. Who knows? But you know what I'm saying. It's just why would I share the story with you? Because, in my opinion, it's funny. I mean, this is this is the face that I had, you know, before. I thought I was pretty cool. This is the face after. And I wasn't gonna tell my family what happened until I got home and they looked at this photo. If you if you're watching this, you can see the photo. My my forehead had a crease down the middle from my widow's peak to my eyebrows. Like, and that was from hitting my head so hard with the helmet on the back of it that it made some stamp on the front. And uh, yeah, there were some other hurt parts, but my my wife and son said, What happened, Dad? And I was like, What do you mean? And so I tried to get out of not telling them, but they noticed. And that's my ski story. You know, I hope that you understand that it's good to wax the skis, it's good to sharpen the tools, it's good to uh sharpen the saw or fix the tools. Don't drop the tools because the poll uh dropping and me making a video for you, yeah, led to me doing something I was going too fast and shouldn't have. And that's just how I I roll. I go all in, right? And I hope that as you're thinking about it for yourself, how are you still enjoying something that could absolutely hurt you? Because that's what it was. So um now speaking of bodies that need some care, as we wrap up this whole episode today, we've got one segment left. We've got research that's gonna hit different for everyone in this audience who's over 35. And and maybe that's many of you, which you know means this is personal. So don't touch the remote. We're talking the fitness minute coming up right now. And as I talk about the fitness minute, I hope that you'll think for yourself about you know where you're at, how you're feeling, how you're doing these days, depending on your age. It's either gonna land as a gut punch or as the most encouraging thing you've heard all week, but I've got some news for you. Um this was just released, uh, a 47-year study. They followed 427 people from ages 16 all the way to 63. Here's what they found human physical fitness peaks at age 35. Yeah. Have you passed that yet? After 35, you decline about half a percent per year. And by the time you hit 60, the decline accelerates to more than 2% per year. So by the time you're 63, physical capacities drop somewhere between 30 and 48% from your peak. So I'll give you a moment with that. And and I want you to be honest with yourself. Honest with you about your body, your relationship with your body. I'm I'm a speaker, I travel, I live on hotel breakfasts, and I'm I'm in the terminal at 6 a.m. looking for anything healthy. I'm not a fitness influencer, I do not have a six-pack, I've tried very hard for a long time, and I have what you would describe as a very nice padded midsection that uh just reflects my deep respect for good food and my wife's cooking. But here's what I've learned in my 40s: my body is a tool of my craft. I speak for a living, I perform on stage, I need energy, endurance, vocal health, mental clarity, and the ability to be fully present for two hours, sometimes that long, on stage. And every investment I make in my physical health pays a direct dividend in my ability to do that. And this isn't vanity, this is maintenance. And so I want to just tell you about Cardio Miracle. And if you've watched me or listened to me for a while, you know that I'm gonna talk about Cardiom Miracle because it is our family company. My dad is the founder, my brother's the VP, I'm the uh president of the company, and I just I just have to say thank you to them as a sponsor of this show and of a sponsor of so many things and events that I do. Cardiomiracle is a nitric oxide supplement that is focused on heart health and blood pressure. So if you know anybody, and maybe it's you, if you need some help with your heart health or with your blood pressure, this is the this is the right product. All you do is you mix it in your water, it's very simple. And I want to tell you why that matters, specifically in the context of research. Um here's what's interesting. When you combine exercise with nitrate supplementation and nitric oxide specifically, uh, which is what cardiomerical does, it it doesn't have nitric oxide in it. You pour it in the water and then you drink it, and once it's in your bloodstream, the nitric oxide's ignited. In fact, we're the only published, or we're the only supplement company with published scientific studies that says this lasts for 36 to 48 hours in your body. So this is a humongous deal for anybody that takes it. But you get greater improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness. Your blood pressure uh outcomes are better. So, especially for people with elevated resting blood pressure, in other words, this the exercise and the supplement aren't competing. In fact, they're working together, they're multiplying each other. So, one of the quickest ways that I recovered from my ski incident was I drank as much cardio miracle as I could down. And I believe that this helped me that fast. Uh, I'm fully recovered, I feel fine. Uh, that's the only reason I'm sharing this story about being in the accident. And cardio miracle is worth looking at. If you want to grab a screenshot or if you want to use your phone for this QR code, this just takes you to Cardio Miracle. You can check it out. There's a 60-day money-back guarantee. It's a great product. It's changed my life. I take it every single day. I promote it because they're a product that I believe in and I love. Our family knows that it's helped so many people. So that's your fitness minute. And uh yeah, it ran a little bit long each of these this whole show, but I had so much I want to share today with you guys. It's been fun to be able to be here with you and thank you for taking the time to watch and to listen if you're listening after. Thanks to the many comments I got from so many wonderful people. In fact, even uh Captain Kindman will show his last thing he said. I can vouch it's a fantastic product. That's very kind, brother. Cardio Miracle is a good thing for everybody that's willing to check it out and try it out. So as we wrap up the show, we started today with a shopping cart, 11 steps, nobody's watching, and I pushed it back not because I had to, and not because anyone would know, but because somewhere along the way I made a private promise to myself about who I was going to be, and that's the promise. That's what every segment today is about. The shopping cart in an empty parking lot, the 250 trucks loaded with faith and food and freight, a wife who deserved a party that said I was paying attention, a ski slope that reminded me I'm a physical object that can be broken, and I'm grateful for the supplement Cardio Miracle that helps me recover quickly. All was the same test, same question, the same promise. What do you do when no one is watching? When there's no reward for getting it right, when the cart is right there and the corral is 11 steps away. Return the cart. Keep the micro promise. Load the truck. Show up for Tuesday. Get ridiculous about celebrating the people you love. Take care of the body you've been given. Cause character's a habit. Habits are built one cart at a time. I'm Jason Hewlett. This is the Jason Hewlett Show. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next week. We do this every Thursday at 3 p.m. Same promise, different parking lot.