Feb. 20, 2025

The Unexpected Path to Fulfillment with Jonathan Davis

The Unexpected Path to Fulfillment with Jonathan Davis
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Season 21

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What happens when an Army Civil Affairs specialist discovers a talent for writing amidst his diverse career journey? Join us for an engaging conversation with Jonathan Davis, whose experiences as a government contractor, English teacher, and author are just the beginning. Jonathan shares his candid insights, filled with humor and authenticity, as we explore how childhood influences and family dynamics helped shape his life choices and motivations. Listen in as we discuss the reality of military life, unexpected career paths, and the raw power of persistence.

Ever found yourself chasing success, only to realize happiness might be closer than you think? Through the compelling parable of the Mexican fisherman, we reflect on the core of contentment versus the endless pursuit of more. Jonathan and I dissect the lessons from this story, questioning the societal norms of success and the importance of embracing the present. We also touch upon the joys of owning a husky and fulfilling childhood dreams as adults, providing a light-hearted look at finding joy in the everyday.

Creativity and goal-setting take center stage as we explore Jonathan's unexpected journey into writing. From sports enthusiast to author, this transformation highlights the importance of being open to new ideas and recognizing strengths. We discuss the challenges of publishing, the thrill of spontaneous travel, and the complexities of strategic life planning. This episode is a testament to the power of perseverance, the pursuit of personal fulfillment, and the art of appreciating life's current blessings. Don’t miss the insights that could just inspire you to find your own path to happiness.

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Life On Record


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Love & Light - Keep Hope Alive

Chapters

00:02 - Life on Record Sponsorship Discussion

07:35 - Journey of Self-Discovery and Fulfillment

17:43 - Discovering Writing and Changing Perspectives

34:21 - The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman

39:25 - Striving for Fulfillment and Happiness

44:51 - Personal Fulfillment and Creative Pursuits

55:48 - Future Plans and Goals Discussions

01:06:21 - Gratitude and Self-Reflection

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:02.745 --> 00:00:06.033
Hello and welcome to Keep Up Alive podcast.

00:00:06.033 --> 00:00:08.948
Today I have Jonathan Davis here with us.

00:00:08.948 --> 00:00:10.726
Welcome to Keep Up Alive.

00:00:10.726 --> 00:00:20.265
I'm so happy you're here because you are super talented, very smart individual and that's what I've learned about you.

00:00:20.265 --> 00:00:26.036
He is a former Army Civil Affairs specialist government contractor.

00:00:26.036 --> 00:00:31.047
You were an English teacher also, but most of all, you're an author.

00:00:31.047 --> 00:00:43.484
So we're going to dive into your story in just one minute because I have an important question to ask you Out of the past year, how many weddings have you been to?

00:00:45.046 --> 00:00:45.768
I've been to one.

00:00:47.332 --> 00:00:47.432
One.

00:00:47.432 --> 00:00:47.853
Okay.

00:00:47.853 --> 00:00:59.179
So when you walked into, let's say, the ceremony part, maybe to the right, there was something to sign to let the couple know that you were there at the wedding.

00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.270
What is that thing you're signing?

00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:04.224
Well, it was a guest book.

00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:06.365
Yay, definitely.

00:01:06.365 --> 00:01:10.121
Well, one of our biggest sponsors here is Life on Record and what they do.

00:01:10.121 --> 00:01:29.492
Instead of the guest book, they have a vintage rotary phone that they put out there for your guests to pick up and leave a message, and also right next to it is a QR code they can scan with their own mobile device so they can leave a message before or even after that event.

00:01:29.492 --> 00:01:35.927
Now I always use weddings, but this can go for birthdays, reunions, anniversaries, school events, church events.

00:01:35.927 --> 00:01:54.153
Whatever it may be left will either be burnt on a 12-inch vinyl record or a keepsake speaker, which is really cool because you can go back and listen to all your friends and family leaving these messages.

00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.884
Now the plans start at only $99.

00:01:57.884 --> 00:02:01.709
You get the phone number, phone number.

00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:10.506
You got to return the cute phone for one year and then, other than that, I think this is the best invention out there.

00:02:10.506 --> 00:02:15.062
I love it, and the way they set it up at these events is just cute.

00:02:15.062 --> 00:02:18.350
They have it on a stand greenery and you're picking.

00:02:18.350 --> 00:02:27.033
I wish I had the phone here because it's very vintage, like very old school, but I just love the fact that it's the gift of voice.

00:02:27.033 --> 00:02:33.450
So definitely go check them out at wwwlifeonrecordcom.

00:02:33.450 --> 00:02:40.752
All right, so my first question for you is who is Jonathan Davis?

00:02:42.641 --> 00:02:46.651
If I could comment on your sponsor, that's actually pretty darn cool.

00:02:46.651 --> 00:02:48.322
I got to say I'm impressed.

00:02:48.322 --> 00:02:51.651
The level that weddings are getting to nowadays is pretty awesome.

00:02:51.651 --> 00:02:56.763
I love it.

00:02:57.342 --> 00:03:11.573
Well, you know I was married oh, I can't believe I'm admitting this on podcast but three times, and unfortunately the last two did not pan out the way I wanted it to.

00:03:11.573 --> 00:03:15.675
But that's life and you move on, just like Frank Sinatra says.

00:03:15.675 --> 00:03:16.637
That's life.

00:03:16.637 --> 00:03:18.078
That's my favorite song.

00:03:18.078 --> 00:03:22.990
That's what people say.

00:03:23.030 --> 00:03:30.159
Yeah, oh, you sing, no Only in the shower or the car oh, okay, well, I do karaoke.

00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:35.120
I love singing and I know one of the people, yeah, one of the people that go there.

00:03:35.282 --> 00:03:44.781
He does Frank Sinatra, even though I love Frank, and I like Michael Bublé, dean Martin, all those, even Hank Williams, but I just can't sing it.

00:03:44.781 --> 00:03:45.342
But I think I't sing it.

00:03:45.342 --> 00:03:48.723
But I think I can sing it at home alone, which is really weird.

00:03:48.723 --> 00:03:57.030
My dogs know when I would put the record on and start singing hey, good looking what you got cooking.

00:03:57.030 --> 00:04:04.055
They would know, it is dinner time, oh okay, that's the dinner bell, that's pretty awesome yeah okay, that's the dinner bell.

00:04:04.235 --> 00:04:05.295
That's pretty awesome?

00:04:05.956 --> 00:04:07.097
Yeah, definitely.

00:04:07.097 --> 00:04:21.069
I actually have a little karaoke machine at my house for friends to come over.

00:04:21.069 --> 00:04:26.295
Now I want to get one of the first companies to really get this out on the market and start.

00:04:26.295 --> 00:04:39.660
I know there has been others that I've seen, but I always fall back on Life on Record because it is just very classic and they know exactly what they're doing and it's just a great company.

00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:43.838
So, but definitely so, jonathan, tell us about yourself.

00:04:43.838 --> 00:04:44.279
So, but definitely.

00:04:45.461 --> 00:04:46.524
So, jonathan, tell us about yourself.

00:04:46.524 --> 00:04:47.906
Yeah, that was a great question.

00:04:47.906 --> 00:04:52.293
By the way, I'm going to start to steal that question and use it all the time.

00:04:52.293 --> 00:04:54.701
Who is Jonathan?

00:04:54.701 --> 00:04:56.446
It kind of reminds me of Dr Seuss.

00:04:56.446 --> 00:04:57.127
You are you.

00:04:57.127 --> 00:04:58.911
You know what I mean.

00:04:58.911 --> 00:05:01.004
I'm going to butcher it.

00:05:01.004 --> 00:05:01.608
You are you.

00:05:01.608 --> 00:05:03.846
That is truer than true.

00:05:03.846 --> 00:05:06.848
There is no one alive more you-er than you, I think.

00:05:06.848 --> 00:05:10.166
But, I loved Dr Seuss when I was a kid.

00:05:10.166 --> 00:05:11.872
I don't care what people say.

00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:17.031
I just had to read the hot and the hot Green Eggs and Ham.

00:05:17.031 --> 00:05:18.704
Yeah, that's a good one, green.

00:05:18.783 --> 00:05:20.127
Eggs and Ham Really.

00:05:20.146 --> 00:05:24.168
Yeah, yes, they did marketing strategies.

00:05:24.168 --> 00:05:29.600
What all could we find out?

00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:30.221
of that book for marketing.

00:05:30.242 --> 00:05:31.242
So it was interesting.

00:05:31.242 --> 00:05:33.805
You know persistence, I'll give you that one.

00:05:33.805 --> 00:05:42.036
So in the book you know they kept bugging to eat the food but they would not let it go.

00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:49.245
You have to try green eggs and ham, you know, so they kept going.

00:05:49.245 --> 00:05:49.464
Let it go.

00:05:49.464 --> 00:05:51.709
You have to try green eggs and ham, you know, so they kept going after it.

00:05:51.709 --> 00:05:59.228
Yeah, yeah, I have the word relentless written on my car because, uh, I, I want to remember that sometimes that's that's really all that life is is being relentless.

00:05:59.228 --> 00:06:28.502
And I know that we talked a little bit before this and you said you wanted that chapter two, and the last thing I wrote interested you, and that's sort of the punchline is be persistent, because a lot of people sort of talk themselves out of doing things and they pass the blame on to fate or the universe or whatever you want to call it destiny.

00:06:28.502 --> 00:06:34.345
But really it's like well, maybe you just needed to try harder, maybe you just needed to try again.

00:06:34.345 --> 00:06:36.891
Try five times, try a hundred times, you'll probably get it.

00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:48.028
Exactly, exactly, and you know I've talked to somebody else on the show about that exact topic and it actually helped me.

00:06:48.028 --> 00:07:00.091
I made a big decision actually yesterday and I'm lifting on it because life is too short and I know the pathway I need to be.

00:07:00.091 --> 00:07:12.233
I just hadn't put my foot forward until now, but I see all these positives happening for me now that I've done that and going into 2025.

00:07:12.233 --> 00:07:15.826
So I'm hoping it's a brand new journey in my life.

00:07:17.410 --> 00:07:18.211
Congratulations.

00:07:19.033 --> 00:07:19.533
Well, thank you.

00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:40.139
So, but definitely with the, I want to go back to Dr Seuss because you know, with those subject lines, did that help you create a path in what you do?

00:07:40.139 --> 00:07:44.069
It's hard to say, it's hard to really pinpoint what created the path.

00:07:44.069 --> 00:07:47.882
I've tried to narrow it down, but only recently that I start thinking about these sorts of things.

00:07:47.882 --> 00:08:05.250
Um, cause you often hear that the way we grew up or our experience with our parents, uh, shaped us, and that should seem obvious, I guess, now that I say it out loud but I never really put much thought into it.

00:08:05.250 --> 00:08:15.365
Certainly everything's shaped me the ups and downs, the trauma I recently pinpointed.

00:08:15.365 --> 00:08:22.281
Not that I have daddy issues and, just to be clear, I had a pretty good upbringing.

00:08:22.281 --> 00:08:38.562
I had a single parent, mom but probably the absence of my dad led to a lot of the decisions I made and what direction my life would take, because I didn't know much about him.

00:08:38.562 --> 00:08:50.297
But somewhere in the back of my head, the more I reflect, it seems as though trying to impress someone I didn't know very well was the motivation.

00:08:50.297 --> 00:09:05.764
Maybe if I just do this, then I'll be a good son and he'll want to get to know me, or maybe if I whatever the case may be and I think he left when I was too young to really remember maybe four or five, and I think he left when I was too young to really remember maybe four or five.

00:09:05.764 --> 00:09:14.472
But I remember him being impressed by something on TV, some Army Special Forces guys or something like that.

00:09:14.472 --> 00:09:18.336
It may have been the movie Navy Seals, actually with Charlie Sheen.

00:09:18.336 --> 00:09:39.450
It's a really crappy movie and that just kind of stuck, because what we idolize really just depends on where we grew up and and things of that nature Like if you, if you grew up in Jersey probably, um, having a little Mercedes coupe was like the sign that you had made it in life.

00:09:39.450 --> 00:09:44.549
But if you grew up in Alabama, the bigger your truck, the more successful you were.

00:09:44.549 --> 00:09:54.452
So a lot of people grow up thinking like I'm going to get a truck, I'm going to look like I've made it in life, and a Chevy or Ford truck or something.

00:09:54.639 --> 00:10:06.653
But my mom never really liked military stuff at all and part of that is because of, well, her upbringing Her father was, I think, a drill.

00:10:06.653 --> 00:10:15.384
Well, her upbringing her father was, I think, a drill sergeant in the army and he was abusive.

00:10:15.384 --> 00:10:17.105
So that left a bad taste in her mouth.

00:10:17.105 --> 00:10:23.373
Plus, she had two boys who were eligible to enlist when they turned 18 and she didn't want anything to happen to them.

00:10:23.373 --> 00:10:31.589
So she had raised us with you are never joining the army or any branch of the military.

00:10:32.250 --> 00:10:43.408
It's not for you, it's not for, it's for stupid people, it's for people that have no direction in life and, um, you know, whatever she could say to talk us out of it, but which isn't true.

00:10:43.408 --> 00:10:45.793
Some of the smartest people I ever met were in the army.

00:10:45.793 --> 00:10:47.303
Some of the dumbest people too.

00:10:47.303 --> 00:10:57.328
So, uh, it's just a mixed group like you would find anywhere, but, um, but so I had sort of put it out of my head for a while.

00:10:57.909 --> 00:11:00.886
And, um, but what's the next best thing?

00:11:00.886 --> 00:11:07.240
I I thought, well, maybe it'd be cool if, uh, I'm like an FBI agent or something like that.

00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:36.559
Right, we were talking off camera about how ego and think and what people think about us, what we think about ourselves, really impacts in our lives and how it affects our opinions and our career choices, and that was pretty much all of my career choices were what will sound cool to talk about at cocktail parties or what would impress people.

00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:59.653
And, as it turns out, you don't make a lot of money in the FBI, so that wasn't really the greatest choice, but so I went to school for Homeland Security Management and, uh and um, I guess somewhere around the mid twenties my mom and my brother and my best friend died um, not in the same year but pretty close succession.

00:11:59.773 --> 00:12:03.565
So it really made me stop to think.

00:12:03.565 --> 00:12:12.005
Well, if no one else left to impress what makes me happy, what did I really want to do?

00:12:12.005 --> 00:12:35.496
So I quickly put together a bucket list, and on the bucket list were things like travel the world, learn another language, play a song on the guitar, write a book, join the army, go to war, and so I checked them all off the list in record time.

00:12:35.496 --> 00:12:40.767
As it turns out, my mom was actually right the army wasn't for me, even though I had a good experience there.

00:12:40.767 --> 00:12:44.614
What people don't talk about is just how boring it actually is.

00:12:44.614 --> 00:12:46.947
It's incredibly boring.

00:12:48.322 --> 00:12:51.503
What makes it boring, though, like I thought you guys.

00:12:51.503 --> 00:12:54.409
You know, if you're not working is it drills.

00:12:54.510 --> 00:13:05.553
And yes, sir, like they show in the movies, it's pretty you know, the Army is different than other branches in that we say that it's full of smokers and jokers.

00:13:05.553 --> 00:13:07.486
It's actually kind of laid back.

00:13:07.486 --> 00:13:16.173
It's like somewhere between the Marine Corps and maybe the Air Force, also known as the Chair Force.

00:13:16.173 --> 00:13:18.366
I say that in a positive way.

00:13:18.366 --> 00:13:23.750
I mean those guys are pretty cool and they're down to earth in the Air Force.

00:13:23.750 --> 00:13:29.789
And they're down to earth in the Air Force but and Marines I've been attached to some of those units.

00:13:29.789 --> 00:13:32.653
They are, they're pretty darn strict.

00:13:32.653 --> 00:13:40.056
And the Army it's like, well, we're soldiers but also smokers and jokers.

00:13:40.056 --> 00:13:42.267
I don't smoke, just to be clear.

00:13:42.267 --> 00:13:45.048
But what was your question?

00:13:45.048 --> 00:13:47.366
I digress a lot.

00:13:48.581 --> 00:13:52.711
Well, you know, here I'm just listening and going, oh, but that's cool.

00:13:52.711 --> 00:14:02.674
But I mean, we were analyzing definitely like the start of everything for you going into where you are today.

00:14:02.674 --> 00:14:08.513
So we're just kind of taking a look at your history Now you know.

00:14:09.020 --> 00:14:10.243
I'm a single mom too.

00:14:10.624 --> 00:14:15.274
I'm a single mom my son and my daughter, but my daughter does have her dad.

00:14:15.274 --> 00:14:20.322
My son's dad never wanted to meet him, which makes it very hard.

00:14:20.322 --> 00:14:21.302
So I can understand that.

00:14:21.302 --> 00:14:26.683
So I can understand that and you know, as a mom, we tried to do our best.

00:14:26.683 --> 00:14:33.066
Now, I will admit I never said anything about the arm, but I was like you will not ride a motorcycle.

00:14:33.066 --> 00:14:56.013
And he's like, yes, I will, but I keep him very active and around family to stay active and I know there could be one day that he does look at, I want to meet him and I'm not going to ever hold anything back.

00:14:56.013 --> 00:14:57.833
I really am not.

00:14:57.833 --> 00:15:02.335
This is what I know and this is how you can follow that trail.

00:15:02.335 --> 00:15:07.256
So that's going to be his calling in life, if he wants to do it that way.

00:15:07.256 --> 00:15:10.298
But we don't know how that would outcome.

00:15:10.298 --> 00:15:12.658
But you know it is what it is.

00:15:18.484 --> 00:15:21.620
So but I'm sorry because I know it is hard to go through that.

00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:26.322
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess I guess it is Again.

00:15:26.322 --> 00:15:26.864
I don't want to.

00:15:26.864 --> 00:15:28.447
Yeah, I was very lucky.

00:15:28.447 --> 00:15:50.567
I grew up in a first world country and I was never abused and I mean, my mom was dirt poor but I managed to scrape together some, some sense of financial responsibility and all that, some sense of financial responsibility and all that and, and I guess, by some measures, have my life together.

00:15:50.567 --> 00:15:55.274
So I I'm fortunate, but but I also wasted a lot of time, you know, looking back.

00:15:55.274 --> 00:15:56.302
I guess everyone does.

00:15:58.466 --> 00:16:07.484
Yeah, when you look back, that is a reflection of what we've been through and it builds our character to make us stronger in life and how we move forward.

00:16:07.484 --> 00:16:25.048
So looking backwards, I could say you know the things that did happen, but we're in the now and we're looking at each day coming up also to make us prepare, for you know what life is going to be about.

00:16:25.048 --> 00:16:37.341
So you know, for me I'm, for example, like I know, last year I wanted to write a book but I never put it in action and I said enough is enough.

00:16:37.341 --> 00:16:40.548
This was like over two weeks ago.

00:16:40.548 --> 00:16:44.985
I said I'm going to start writing my book and that's what I did.

00:16:44.985 --> 00:16:50.793
So I wake up at five in the morning and just start writing for a good hour.

00:16:50.813 --> 00:16:53.000
You have a time hack or something like.

00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.567
I'm going to write from this time to that time and yeah, yeah.

00:16:56.749 --> 00:17:06.650
So, um, like it's so funny because the way I'm so sensitive to sound and anything, the dogs can wake me up.

00:17:06.650 --> 00:17:10.756
The baby can cry and wake me up, but then I can't get back to sleep.

00:17:10.756 --> 00:17:29.244
So I said you know what, instead of getting so frustrated with the dogs every morning, I'm just going to wake up and do this and then I'm going to spend a good hour, hour and a half, writing the book, but I also want to take the courses to learn all the new AI technology.

00:17:29.244 --> 00:17:43.343
So I do that with the other half until I have to take my son to school, and then the rest of the day is working on finding a new job and my podcast, and then whatever errands I have during the day I got to quickly get done.

00:17:43.343 --> 00:17:57.593
But you know, having that schedule set for me and setting those goals and looking forward and trying to have this wonderful positive vibe that's going to help increase the direction of where I'm going in life.

00:17:59.844 --> 00:18:01.490
Yeah, yeah, positive vibes.

00:18:01.490 --> 00:18:02.957
I've got to get better at that, because that's everything.

00:18:02.978 --> 00:18:05.663
Yeah, the positive vibes I've got to get better at that, because that's everything.

00:18:05.663 --> 00:18:07.424
Oh, it is, it is, and you know what.

00:18:07.424 --> 00:18:09.567
You wrote a book too.

00:18:09.567 --> 00:18:11.570
So how was that?

00:18:11.570 --> 00:18:14.414
How did you know you wanted to get everything in writing?

00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:21.788
Tell us about the book and everything Well.

00:18:21.788 --> 00:18:24.551
So this comes back to sort of.

00:18:24.551 --> 00:18:43.924
Actually, I'm reminded of who was it, viktor Frankl who said the only real freedom a man has is the freedom to choose his mood, or something like that, in any given circumstance given circumstance.

00:18:43.944 --> 00:18:47.446
Um, well, so anyway, uh, back to your question.

00:18:47.446 --> 00:18:58.392
I, um, I was told that, uh, I was good at writing in college.

00:18:58.392 --> 00:19:03.038
And that was a surprise to me because, um, I thought I was only good at, like, baseball or skateboarding.

00:19:03.038 --> 00:19:06.103
You know, I had no idea.

00:19:06.103 --> 00:19:07.806
I never considered riding anything.

00:19:10.959 --> 00:19:19.855
And it goes back to what we were saying earlier about how our choices in life, or at least my choices in life.

00:19:19.855 --> 00:19:22.699
I wasn't asking the right questions.

00:19:22.699 --> 00:19:25.857
One of those questions should have been what am I good at?

00:19:25.857 --> 00:19:26.968
What do other people say that am I good at?

00:19:26.968 --> 00:19:29.214
What do other people say that I'm good at?

00:19:29.214 --> 00:19:32.423
We always think that we're better at things than we really are.

00:19:32.423 --> 00:19:36.721
But other people were saying that I'm good at writing and I just thought that I was.

00:19:36.721 --> 00:19:40.377
I was told that I was athletic and things like that.

00:19:40.377 --> 00:19:55.220
I played baseball and to my mom, my meal ticket was baseball, like that's how I was going to get into college and that's how I was going to get college paid for and things like that, and so she really leaned into that.

00:19:55.220 --> 00:19:57.896
But I actually didn't really like baseball much.

00:19:57.896 --> 00:19:59.365
I kind of hate sports.

00:19:59.365 --> 00:20:03.891
I mean, I like to play them but I'm not into following them at all.

00:20:04.019 --> 00:20:05.862
Yeah, I'm not into following them at all.

00:20:06.402 --> 00:20:10.906
Yeah, and I still run and go to the gym and pick things up and put them down.

00:20:10.906 --> 00:20:20.893
But so in college I had a professor say you know, your papers are the best.

00:20:20.893 --> 00:20:23.057
Why are you going to school for Homeland Security Management?

00:20:23.057 --> 00:20:25.342
You should be a writer, or something like that.

00:20:25.342 --> 00:20:30.732
And I was like like shocked, I had no idea.

00:20:30.732 --> 00:20:43.515
And then, about a year later, I heard the same thing from another professor, and so I thought maybe there's something to this, and I had always written things just in my spare time, just random things.

00:20:43.595 --> 00:20:59.555
But, um, then I I got a little more coherency in what I was writing by about that point and um, and sometime after that is when everything happened and I wrote down my bucket list, which was to, uh, to write a book.

00:20:59.555 --> 00:21:08.309
And what my professors told me is that no one's going to read what I write because, uh, the market is flooded with authors.

00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:09.972
But but I just do it.

00:21:09.972 --> 00:21:36.984
It's inside of me, I'm just going to keep doing it and so, and so I needed to focus on something that was on topic for a book, not just random things, of course and something that was really important to me was critical thinking and keeping an open mind and opening other people's minds, because it's really hard to do.

00:21:36.984 --> 00:21:46.094
So I sort of chose that and I started by writing chapters.

00:21:46.094 --> 00:21:48.516
And this is a great way to write.

00:21:48.516 --> 00:21:50.636
It's a great way to write a paper.

00:21:51.337 --> 00:21:53.699
So I struggled through school.

00:21:53.699 --> 00:21:54.920
I really struggled.

00:21:54.920 --> 00:22:08.307
But when the teacher said we're going to have a writing assignment, and this big sigh went over the room and they would say, oh, don't worry, you've got two months to write it, I would be like, great, this is a freebie.

00:22:08.307 --> 00:22:16.683
And the next morning I would get out my computer and I would have the whole thing done before I finished drinking coffee, and then I would go on to something else.

00:22:16.683 --> 00:22:19.398
And so it was just a piece of cake for me.

00:22:19.398 --> 00:22:24.563
And how I do that is, I would get sort of bullet point ideas.

00:22:25.411 --> 00:22:28.832
So I would have bullet point, bullet point, bullet point, fill in the blank.

00:22:28.832 --> 00:22:30.737
So I'd start back at the beginning.

00:22:30.737 --> 00:22:45.657
So my bullet points were chapters, yeah, and so I wrote down 12 bullet points and then I started from the beginning and I started to fill in and I did sub chapters and things like that.

00:22:45.657 --> 00:22:54.179
But then after I I wrote that, I I was like this is really just a bunch of information and so it's probably not going to be that interesting to people.

00:22:54.179 --> 00:22:56.615
What do I like in books?

00:22:56.615 --> 00:22:57.458
Well, I like stories.

00:22:57.458 --> 00:23:05.580
So I add stories into it so that it's it's more digestible when you're listening to it or reading it.

00:23:05.580 --> 00:23:09.420
But then I thought, you know, this still may not resonate with people.

00:23:09.420 --> 00:23:16.763
I need a prerequisite here, because none of this is really going to mean anything to people unless we have some prerequisites.

00:23:16.763 --> 00:23:24.984
So I put an introduction which is basically 10 ways to listen effectively.

00:23:25.890 --> 00:23:28.498
We have this just to give an example.

00:23:28.498 --> 00:23:29.580
We have this voice in our head.

00:23:29.580 --> 00:23:30.711
I call him yeah, but guy.

00:23:30.711 --> 00:23:55.809
So yeah, but guy takes this otherwise good point that you hear and he will think very hard of a context, a very specific context, in which this good point doesn't work and, um, the problem is is that he starts to form this idea while you're talking, so he never really listens to what you're saying.

00:23:55.809 --> 00:24:05.938
So, to give an example, it would be like um well, you know what goes around comes around and that's pretty good, right, that's relatively true, relatively true.

00:24:05.938 --> 00:24:13.180
But you have a guy will say, yeah, but I know a guy in Alaska with four chickens and he was always a jerk and nothing ever came back to him.

00:24:13.180 --> 00:24:16.681
So what you're saying isn't always true.

00:24:16.681 --> 00:24:20.837
Aha, gotcha, but it's like dude, that wasn't the point.

00:24:20.890 --> 00:24:55.288
The point was like, generally speaking, like if you're a jerk, people don't want to do business with you, and if you're a jerk people don't want to do business with you, and if you're nice, you probably have nice things happen to you, and so, uh, so that's that's the introduction, and um, and keeping an open mind, as it turns out, is much more difficult than you might think, because it really has nothing to do with the mind.

00:24:55.308 --> 00:24:55.670
In a basic sense.

00:24:55.670 --> 00:25:02.933
What we're talking about here, what we're dealing with as far as having an open mind, is we're dealing with hormones.

00:25:02.933 --> 00:25:24.125
So we identify with our beliefs and we become attached to them, and usually those beliefs come from our group or our tribe, and the tribe is more or less a family.

00:25:24.125 --> 00:25:50.756
The tribe is more or less a family, and the family, well, that's oxytocin, right, so we have oxytocin coming into our system when we hear certain things that we're used to hearing from our tribe or from our family, and then when we hear something that's contrary to it, it's just like whoa, that's an attack on my family and I can't have that.

00:25:51.210 --> 00:25:54.740
But that's not exactly the thought process that we're conscious of.

00:25:54.740 --> 00:26:09.573
And so what needs to happen in order to change our minds is well, we need to change our hormones, and a lot of times we need to change our geography, our proximity to ideas.

00:26:09.573 --> 00:26:14.223
Right, they get outside of the echo chamber, get outside of the bubble.

00:26:14.223 --> 00:26:21.035
You may need to move to a different state, get a different job, get different friends or even get away from your own family.

00:26:21.035 --> 00:26:23.320
So it's like now we're talking?

00:26:23.730 --> 00:26:26.316
Were we talking before?

00:26:26.316 --> 00:26:28.741
You nailed it right on the spot for me right there.

00:26:29.911 --> 00:26:34.221
Now it's like okay, so in other words, it's basically impossible for some people.

00:26:34.221 --> 00:26:37.074
Yeah, yes, it's hard.

00:26:39.058 --> 00:26:39.800
Yep, it is.

00:26:39.800 --> 00:26:41.731
It is, and I noticed that.

00:26:41.731 --> 00:26:50.483
You know, here I am at age 47, and I'm just happy that my eyes are wider open this year and going okay.

00:26:50.483 --> 00:27:02.375
Well, you know, I took two trips to the more country part of Texas and I was like there's something about the country it's peace, it's calm, it's not living in the city, I'm less stressed.

00:27:02.375 --> 00:27:05.259
I want this for my life, you know.

00:27:05.259 --> 00:27:08.856
So it comes to a part.

00:27:08.856 --> 00:27:09.980
What is it?

00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:10.541
You know?

00:27:10.541 --> 00:27:15.659
Does the person need to live the remainder of their life?

00:27:15.659 --> 00:27:16.882
What did they want?

00:27:17.303 --> 00:27:23.130
You know, after the halfway point and I think that's where I'm at I don't want to call it a midlife crisis.

00:27:23.130 --> 00:27:25.199
Or well then, maybe, yeah, I pierced my nose, my ear and my belly button, so maybe it a midlife crisis.

00:27:25.199 --> 00:27:29.315
Or, well then, maybe, yeah, I pierced my nose, my ear and my belly button, so maybe it is midlife crisis.

00:27:29.315 --> 00:27:29.797
Who knows?

00:27:29.797 --> 00:27:42.773
But going through these changes, see, they're different, they're kind of rewarding and it feels like the journey will create this whole new opening and even looking for a new job.

00:27:42.773 --> 00:27:57.657
Yeah, I might want to like, dial it back a little bit, what I used to do in marketing, but just go enjoy the simple things in life and kind of live what I did at age 20 or even 18.

00:27:57.657 --> 00:27:58.240
I don't know.

00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:03.071
So I'm just kind of keeping an open mind and it is a mindset yeah.

00:28:04.938 --> 00:28:22.130
So I agree with you a mindset yeah, so I agree with you, yeah, yeah you brought up a whole lot of a whole lot of things just there and uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know where to go with that, but yeah, where do I start?

00:28:22.130 --> 00:28:25.035
So well, tell me more.

00:28:25.035 --> 00:28:29.943
Tell me more what this is interesting, so what?

00:28:30.364 --> 00:28:32.255
you want to interview me now, you can do that.

00:28:32.255 --> 00:28:33.699
You can definitely interview me.

00:28:33.959 --> 00:28:35.090
What's some of the questions.

00:28:35.090 --> 00:28:37.237
Well, I feel like a jerk, I mean.

00:28:37.237 --> 00:28:41.594
I mean I realize you're interviewing me, but it's like, uh, I don't, I don't want to.

00:28:41.594 --> 00:28:52.837
It makes me feel kind of nasty, like I'm like I'm trying to promote my book constantly, but you make me think of Chapter 12, which is the end, like where do we go from all this right?

00:28:52.837 --> 00:28:54.914
What's the conclusion?

00:28:54.914 --> 00:28:55.657
What's the goal?

00:28:55.657 --> 00:28:59.038
What are you trying to accomplish?

00:29:03.172 --> 00:29:19.960
And what I've come up with is that sometimes the goal doesn't really matter, cause I've made a whole lot of goals and, quite frankly, by the time you achieve a goal, it's already in the past, and the past has never been enough to make me happy.

00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:23.450
So I'm setting myself up for failure.

00:29:23.450 --> 00:29:36.011
This is the hedonic treadmill where I'm just constantly chasing one goal after the nut, after another after another, and um, and it's led to a lot of unhappiness, quite frankly.

00:29:36.011 --> 00:29:41.959
And um, and so should I change my goals?

00:29:41.959 --> 00:29:50.378
And then the other thing is that my goals do change, so achieving them didn't really mean much.

00:29:50.650 --> 00:29:59.821
Like, for example, I didn't spend much time with my brother, and there's nothing I wouldn't give to have him back to spend time with him again.

00:29:59.821 --> 00:30:11.541
He was a big Eagles fan and every Sunday he would invite me to go out and watch the Eagles game with him, and or or he would invite himself over to my house.

00:30:11.541 --> 00:30:14.539
And I was always working on one of my stupid goals.

00:30:14.539 --> 00:30:19.141
And the thing is I changed majors three times in school.

00:30:19.141 --> 00:30:30.473
So sometimes I was working on some stupid scheme of mine and it never really panned out scheme of mine and it never really panned out.

00:30:30.473 --> 00:30:35.131
And so it's like I didn't spend time with my brother because I was working on something that I never really followed through with, so it was just a waste.

00:30:35.131 --> 00:30:41.653
I should have just spent time with my brother, but even then I wouldn't have enjoyed my time and even if I was working on something.

00:30:43.454 --> 00:30:54.329
Yeah well, even if I was working on something, spending my time working on something that was worthwhile, like school, I changed my major a few times until I landed on Homeland Security.

00:30:54.329 --> 00:30:59.182
So back at the time that my brother was alive, I was going to school for nutrition.

00:30:59.182 --> 00:31:02.259
So those were all wasted credits anyway.

00:31:02.259 --> 00:31:20.381
So our goals change and I think maybe a better goal for me would have been to prioritize relationships and and, of course, you got to do things that make you happy, because that's downstream effort right, rather than just suffering through a job.

00:31:20.381 --> 00:31:24.503
There's a big difference between a job and work, in my view.

00:31:24.523 --> 00:31:27.865
Job and work in my view and I made a little video about that.

00:31:27.865 --> 00:31:42.593
It's like most of us have jobs, unfortunately, which is what we do to pay the bills, like scanning a barcode at a cash register all day, like that's no one's goal in life, right.

00:31:42.613 --> 00:31:57.326
Yeah and um, but work would be, for some people, fishing or building that like I just built a cabin and no one paid me to do this.

00:31:57.326 --> 00:31:59.394
I just did it because I enjoyed it.

00:31:59.394 --> 00:32:08.480
I thought it was fun and the time flew by I didn't even realize I was working when I'm writing.

00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:09.280
It's the same way.

00:32:09.280 --> 00:32:11.144
I mean eight hours can just disappear.

00:32:11.144 --> 00:32:19.972
Yeah, definitely the big difference between a job and work.

00:32:19.972 --> 00:32:21.096
It's more important to to work, but we can't.

00:32:21.096 --> 00:32:22.520
We don't all don't have that luxury.

00:32:22.520 --> 00:32:24.433
Sometimes work doesn't pay the bills.

00:32:25.616 --> 00:32:29.131
That's the world yeah we live in that is the world.

00:32:29.531 --> 00:32:36.053
Yeah, it is, and it's very sad because it's the crossfire, like podcasts there's.

00:32:36.053 --> 00:32:41.022
There's some podcasters that do make the money, but there's podcasters that don't.

00:32:41.022 --> 00:32:44.115
And then we need to have that fallback job.

00:32:44.115 --> 00:32:48.003
And that was the same story when I was a professional photographer.

00:32:48.003 --> 00:32:51.780
I always had to have the fallback job to pay the bills.

00:32:51.780 --> 00:33:02.481
And then, yes, of course, if I got hired to do a wedding, it's the extra income, like, oh, we can take a trip with this money or I can pay the bills in advance and just move forward.

00:33:02.481 --> 00:33:05.517
So, always having that it's important.

00:33:05.636 --> 00:33:36.300
So, but you know, also learning what I learned, and I did take a step back from the direction I was going and, to be very honest with myself, I mean, yeah, I had a great job, but at the same time, I wasn't achieving my career path that I needed to be on, and that was something that was playing a huge factor into my life and I had to reevaluate where do I really want to be?

00:33:36.950 --> 00:33:47.105
And then, of course, when it came down to money, I was like, okay, well, I used to have this job doing the same thing, but I was getting paid a lot more.

00:33:47.105 --> 00:33:50.733
So why am I taking the back trail.

00:33:50.733 --> 00:33:51.757
You know what I'm saying.

00:33:51.757 --> 00:33:58.577
It's like why am I falling backwards and it's not landing me to the goals that I need to get my own place.

00:33:58.577 --> 00:34:07.990
It's putting me in a place of what are you doing and how are you going to use your time management now to even find anything better?

00:34:07.990 --> 00:34:15.023
Like everything just froze and I locked down and I was like, okay, we got changes so.

00:34:15.023 --> 00:34:18.639
But definitely I totally understand where you're coming from.

00:34:20.010 --> 00:34:21.012
Yeah, it's like the.

00:34:21.012 --> 00:34:26.485
The only problem with the parable of the Mexican fisherman is that?

00:34:26.485 --> 00:34:32.280
Well, unfortunately, if you don't pay your property tax, the government's going to come and take it.

00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:37.340
Are you familiar with the parable of the Mexican fisherman?

00:34:38.331 --> 00:34:39.476
I have no idea what that is.

00:34:39.989 --> 00:34:44.902
It's my favorite, so I'll try to be as concise as possible, just going by memory.

00:34:44.902 --> 00:34:50.994
Be as concise as possible, just going by memory.

00:34:50.994 --> 00:34:55.471
Probably nowadays they might want to say something other than Mexican, I don't know, but I think it's a positive story, so I'll just keep it the same.

00:34:55.471 --> 00:35:07.422
There is a investment banker vacationing in Mexico sitting on a beach and he watches a fellow local.

00:35:07.422 --> 00:35:23.333
This guy bring in a large yellowfin tuna and he compliments the local on the quality of his catch and says you know, you ought to stay out longer and just catch more fish.

00:35:23.333 --> 00:35:29.081
And he says why this is enough.

00:35:30.481 --> 00:35:36.932
And so the American says well, let me ask you, what do you like to do?

00:35:36.932 --> 00:35:43.221
And he said well, I enjoy siestas with my wife Maria.

00:35:43.221 --> 00:35:45.764
I like to spend time with my kids.

00:35:45.764 --> 00:35:46.605
I like to fish.

00:35:46.605 --> 00:35:52.092
I like to spend evenings with my friends.

00:35:52.092 --> 00:35:54.295
They come over and we all play the mariachi.

00:35:54.295 --> 00:36:08.543
And so he said well, picture this, so you catch more fish and you can sell more fish and eventually you can buy a couple of boats.

00:36:08.543 --> 00:36:10.750
You could buy two or three boats.

00:36:10.750 --> 00:36:13.577
You keep this up and eventually you can buy a fleet of boats.

00:36:13.577 --> 00:36:23.811
Then you open up your own manufacturing facility where you start to can these things and ship them out.

00:36:26.630 --> 00:36:29.597
The Mexican fisherman says okay, then what?

00:36:29.597 --> 00:36:44.355
And the American says well, then you open up another office in New York and you expand even more into other territories, and the fisherman goes okay, then what?

00:36:44.355 --> 00:36:47.414
And the American goes oh well, that's the best part.

00:36:47.414 --> 00:36:58.985
Then eventually, you launch your IPO and you sell your company and you make millions.

00:36:58.985 --> 00:37:04.134
The Mexican fisherman goes okay, then what?

00:37:04.134 --> 00:37:31.570
And the American said well, then you can go fishing all day and spend siestas with your wife Maria, and spend time with your kids and teach your kids, and you can, in the evenings, you can play the mariachi with your friends and I see how that circle of events like you to get here, you need to do this and that and that.

00:37:31.751 --> 00:37:55.619
So yeah, I see, it's like, um, when, when making goals now, what I do is I, I try to and I'm no expert at being happy, so don't take my word for for anything I say about content or fulfillment but usually what I do is I say, okay, what's the goal, and then I say, then what, then what, then what.

00:37:55.619 --> 00:37:58.697
And then I ask myself can I have that now?

00:37:58.697 --> 00:38:15.474
Right, so it's like so I live in a place now in my house that has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, and, yeah, I probably have enough money, but I'm always trying to.

00:38:15.474 --> 00:38:21.445
I'm like you know what, if I just had like twice as much money, then I wouldn't have to worry about this, that and the other thing.

00:38:22.429 --> 00:38:27.574
And we're always thinking of so many reasons not to be happy now.

00:38:27.574 --> 00:38:28.956
Like, I'll be happy then.

00:38:28.956 --> 00:38:58.411
I'll be happy when this, I'll be happy when I graduate, I'll be happy when I finish this, uh, next book, I'll be happy when I whatever, whatever, when I buy a new house, um, and, quite frankly, uh, you know I'm not married or anything, but I like to sit on the couch with my dogs and, um, will that be more enjoyable when I live in a house with five bedrooms or 10 bedrooms?

00:38:58.411 --> 00:39:02.255
Probably not, probably gonna feel about the same.

00:39:04.237 --> 00:39:12.586
But having a full house dogs maybe you know a spouse one day, you know, is that going to be rewarding.

00:39:12.586 --> 00:39:23.664
That can go on your bucket list, you know, definitely For me, like I have, my dog is actually knocking at the door and you guys cannot hear it because Zoom is great.

00:39:25.320 --> 00:39:31.320
But I hear my husky downstairs going I've always wanted a husky.

00:39:31.481 --> 00:39:33.686
I just don't want to clean up after them.

00:39:33.686 --> 00:39:36.835
They're beautiful dogs but they shed so much.

00:39:36.835 --> 00:39:39.342
You don't want a husky, you don't get one.

00:39:41.132 --> 00:39:43.016
He's my best friend, I mean I love him to.

00:39:43.016 --> 00:39:49.789
Yeah, it takes a whole lot of work for that guy oh my God, yeah, yeah.

00:39:49.789 --> 00:39:51.302
And they're sled dogs, you know.

00:39:51.302 --> 00:39:51.969
So they're athletes.

00:39:51.969 --> 00:39:54.197
It's not enough to just walk around the block with them.

00:39:54.197 --> 00:40:07.418
He's got to run 10 miles or more, and so I get out my electric skateboard or electric bike and because I run with him but that's like walking to him, it's a joke, joke.

00:40:07.418 --> 00:40:09.893
My idea of exercise is just a joke to him.

00:40:10.534 --> 00:40:14.623
so I gotta see a video of you doing the electric skateboard.

00:40:14.663 --> 00:40:22.844
I didn't even know they had electric skateboards, so yeah, yeah, something I wish they invented when I was a kid.

00:40:22.844 --> 00:40:26.802
But now that I'm 40 I can actually afford some of the uh, the things that I couldn't when I was a kid.

00:40:26.802 --> 00:40:29.851
But now that I'm 40, I can actually afford some of the things that I couldn't when I was a kid.

00:40:29.851 --> 00:40:33.039
So part of me is still trapped in my youth.

00:40:34.001 --> 00:40:36.452
Yeah, that's a good thing, though that's a really good thing.

00:40:36.452 --> 00:40:39.659
So I do that with karaoke when I go out.

00:40:39.659 --> 00:40:50.184
I got married way too soon and I didn't get to have a teenage not much of a teenage year and not much of the 20s.

00:40:50.184 --> 00:41:03.271
It was surrounded being married, being the perfect homemaker you know, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kiddos but I never did anything for me and that was a lesson I had to learn at age 30.

00:41:03.271 --> 00:41:04.894
30.

00:41:04.894 --> 00:41:10.052
Yeah, so my 30s were my 20s, twenties, and now I'm in my forties, I think I'm in my thirties.

00:41:10.052 --> 00:41:12.878
So you know, it's just one of those things.

00:41:12.878 --> 00:41:18.974
It's like trying to relive what I missed, to see, but you know yeah.

00:41:19.835 --> 00:41:26.161
Yeah, but like when I hear you talk, you're like I'll be happy when.

00:41:26.161 --> 00:41:31.226
But have you ever tried to change that mindset?

00:41:31.226 --> 00:41:32.652
I'm happy now.

00:41:32.652 --> 00:41:38.891
I'm going to set this as my goal and, of course, I'm going to be happier when I reach that goal.

00:41:38.891 --> 00:41:40.014
But you know what?

00:41:40.014 --> 00:41:44.614
I'm going to enjoy what I have right now in front of me, because I'm blessed to have it.

00:41:46.157 --> 00:41:49.952
Yeah, yeah, you, you need to teach me that I do try.

00:41:49.972 --> 00:41:53.242
Yeah, okay, I charge blah blah, blah an hour.

00:41:54.184 --> 00:41:58.797
I have, I'll buy your coaching or the coaching courses.

00:41:58.797 --> 00:42:00.782
That's kind of a tongue twister coaching course.

00:42:00.782 --> 00:42:05.177
But um, I, yeah, I have tried and I do try.

00:42:05.177 --> 00:42:21.081
But I'm just stuck in what's called the striver's curse, where I'm just always, always trying, always trying, always trying, and it's difficult, difficult to be mindful.

00:42:21.081 --> 00:42:22.806
The risk of sounding cliche.

00:42:22.806 --> 00:42:29.182
So I am working on mindfulness and being happy now and that sort of thing.

00:42:29.182 --> 00:42:30.592
It's tough.

00:42:30.592 --> 00:42:32.835
I haven't mastered it yet.

00:42:33.918 --> 00:42:41.699
I hear you, I really do, and it does take a while, but you got to want to do it in your heart and soul and be ready for that.

00:42:41.699 --> 00:42:46.193
So definitely, what's I going to say?

00:42:46.193 --> 00:42:48.661
I totally slipped my brain.

00:42:50.409 --> 00:42:51.052
However.

00:42:51.192 --> 00:43:02.621
I'll go back to that because I'm just getting old, Okay, but you know as far as what?

00:43:02.621 --> 00:43:05.184
No, no no, I already forgot.

00:43:05.184 --> 00:43:07.155
See, that's how my brain works right now.

00:43:07.155 --> 00:43:07.675
Go ahead.

00:43:07.717 --> 00:43:08.619
Yeah, you and me both.

00:43:08.619 --> 00:43:14.059
Yeah, I was trying to jog your memory and now I've just tripped you up.

00:43:14.059 --> 00:43:18.802
You were going to sell me your course on being happy.

00:43:19.710 --> 00:43:24.081
Oh, that was the course you just created for me that I haven't even worked on yet.

00:43:24.081 --> 00:43:26.559
But that's my future.

00:43:28.731 --> 00:43:34.315
So yeah, Give me the freebie now what?

00:43:34.315 --> 00:43:35.599
Do you got on?

00:43:43.789 --> 00:43:47.949
So fulfillment, yeah, that would be a 30 minute conversation and, um, it's a zoom call and you know that would be something I would charge for.

00:43:47.949 --> 00:44:04.659
But fulfillment, that's something I want to use the word strategizing, like, if you know what you want out of life, how do you fulfill those moments too, to make it equal what you were looking for?

00:44:04.659 --> 00:44:10.057
So it's like having a playbook, being on my someplace football.

00:44:10.057 --> 00:44:20.949
So you know you're out there on the field and you know you're seeing all the different markers for how many yards you can run down and you got to score that touchdown.

00:44:20.949 --> 00:44:29.199
So what can you do with each run to fulfill the things that you want, basically?

00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:38.652
So when you sketch that out, maybe it's the career, it's the financials and getting the bills paid on time, it's the relationship status.

00:44:38.652 --> 00:44:42.661
It's like, hey, I got some pets, I love my pets.

00:44:42.661 --> 00:44:46.414
What can I do for them, you know?

00:44:46.414 --> 00:44:51.275
Or taking time out for you for, like a vacation you always wanted to go and do.

00:44:51.898 --> 00:45:03.112
So those are the things I struggle with and I, you know, I told my son like I'm not going to just tell you every year we're going to go do this and it falls through.

00:45:03.112 --> 00:45:10.375
I'm going to put it in the form of a Christmas gift, and now I feel a little bit more like this will happen.

00:45:10.375 --> 00:45:13.380
This is his Christmas gift, you know.

00:45:13.380 --> 00:45:18.858
So this past year it gave him two things a trip to Galveston.

00:45:18.858 --> 00:45:22.733
We could go to Oklahoma, go camping, maybe go Arkansas or Colorado.

00:45:22.733 --> 00:45:24.900
We'll just go out there and do it.

00:45:24.900 --> 00:45:25.681
Now.

00:45:25.681 --> 00:45:29.873
Something I'm going to share is I've always had this philosophy.

00:45:29.873 --> 00:45:31.956
I just want to say 48 hours.

00:45:31.956 --> 00:45:41.041
I want no map, I just want to drive and see where I end up and that's where we're going to stay Right at that 48-hour mark.

00:45:41.041 --> 00:45:45.623
That is going to be our vacation spot and learn about it and watch it.

00:45:45.623 --> 00:45:51.436
It will be in the desert, in the middle of nowhere and there's no gas stations and who knows so.

00:45:52.418 --> 00:45:58.460
But you know it's just one of those things you got to keep to make sure that you do accomplish it.

00:45:58.460 --> 00:46:12.000
But if you don't accomplish and get that fulfillment, then you work out the strategy of how can I do this better and move towards that goal and make myself accomplish that.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:25.501
So but I'm going to stop talking there because but I could give you a whole course outline and we could set goals, so but you know, it's kind of like with your book writing.

00:46:25.501 --> 00:46:28.400
How long did it take you to write your book?

00:46:28.420 --> 00:46:53.130
Yeah, um, well, I've written three, uh one of them, this last one, I guess about a year, a little less than a year oh, okay, gotcha okay, and then I didn't realize I had one book done, but you have two other books yeah, um, they're all question things, question things, but by jonathan davis.

00:46:53.130 --> 00:47:03.739
Question Things by Jonathan Davis, and there's a little bit of a series, but I removed the other two because I just kind of thought they were stupid.

00:47:03.739 --> 00:47:06.561
So there's really only one that I'm happy with.

00:47:07.121 --> 00:47:18.635
That's the most recent one Now are all three on Amazon, or is it just one on Amazon?

00:47:18.635 --> 00:47:20.159
There's just one on Amazon now?

00:47:20.159 --> 00:47:20.519
Yeah, gotcha.

00:47:24.365 --> 00:47:32.780
Because that's the one I did see and I added it to our storefront so our listeners can actually go to keepupalongpodcastcom, go to the store and find your book and purchase it.

00:47:33.625 --> 00:47:38.827
There's also an audio book, but, um, yeah, the amazon.

00:47:38.827 --> 00:47:54.994
I've had trouble with amazon because, uh, the thing is is, yeah, I feel bad referring people to amazon there's, there's one on there that's available and it's the good copy, but there's one on there that's not it.

00:47:54.994 --> 00:48:07.987
I uploaded the wrong manuscript by mistake and it was basically my notes and uh, and then I went, oh phoo and uh, I tried to delete it and amazon doesn't let you delete books.

00:48:07.987 --> 00:48:22.456
It's there forever and um, so the best thing you can do is make it unavailable, because they're like once we've assigned a barcode and an ISBN number.

00:48:22.958 --> 00:48:27.106
It's there and so I tried and tried and tried with customer service.

00:48:27.106 --> 00:48:33.027
They're like look, we're not removing the book, can't do it, so there's one bad copy on there.

00:48:33.027 --> 00:48:34.269
Just make sure you get the good one.

00:48:34.269 --> 00:48:38.239
I think it says addition to in the notes down below or something like that.

00:48:38.425 --> 00:48:44.068
But I'll have you take a look and make sure I got the right one on there and everything so.

00:48:44.068 --> 00:48:46.596
But I mean that is something.

00:48:47.985 --> 00:48:49.128
But all the world is just one.

00:48:49.128 --> 00:48:53.067
So it's you can't go wrong with the all of the one, but that's fine.

00:48:53.789 --> 00:48:55.032
You're probably going to write more.

00:48:55.032 --> 00:48:57.175
You know Probably.

00:48:57.195 --> 00:48:58.119
You got to have that motive.

00:48:58.119 --> 00:49:00.932
I keep telling myself I got to stop writing.

00:49:00.932 --> 00:49:02.969
I never do so I'm sure there's going to be more.

00:49:03.811 --> 00:49:06.150
Good, okay, good, I am so glad to hear that.

00:49:06.150 --> 00:49:13.039
But really quick, I'm going to let our listeners know that we do have another sponsor.

00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:21.336
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00:49:21.336 --> 00:49:32.173
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00:49:58.961 --> 00:50:04.672
And using the mantra word as you're snapping does help Now for me.

00:50:04.672 --> 00:50:12.032
I use it for when I'm in the hospital because I feel like I need a gift card there, but I'm always having something done.

00:50:12.032 --> 00:50:20.454
But I am a hard stick for blood work, so I'm always kind of like I hope and pray that they can find a vein.

00:50:20.454 --> 00:50:22.998
In the first time I get a laugh at it.

00:50:22.998 --> 00:50:28.740
It's not working, but it does help me, you know, redirect that thought process.

00:50:28.740 --> 00:50:31.106
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00:50:31.106 --> 00:50:32.128
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00:50:32.128 --> 00:50:35.978
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00:50:35.978 --> 00:50:41.271
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00:51:18.577 --> 00:51:21.121
Right, let's get back to our story here.

00:51:21.121 --> 00:51:29.251
So I can see your mind turning right now, so I can tell you also have.

00:51:29.251 --> 00:51:37.440
I feel like I don't know you that well, but I feel like you have so much information and you're very knowledgeable.

00:51:38.039 --> 00:51:49.242
I am picking up your creative soul, and I say that because, looking at my life, I struggled in school, forced that I had to make a quick decision after 12th grade.

00:51:49.242 --> 00:51:51.222
What are you going to do?

00:51:51.222 --> 00:52:01.255
I was like, well, I guess I'll just go into hotel, restaurant, hospitality.

00:52:01.255 --> 00:52:03.532
But it wasn't what I wanted to do.

00:52:03.532 --> 00:52:10.695
I wanted to be a certified wedding planner, and anything with the bridal industry is what I wanted to be.

00:52:11.929 --> 00:52:15.101
And I remember one day at the apartment a fly got in the house.

00:52:15.101 --> 00:52:27.646
I'm looking around for any kind of paper and I had a green sheet and I took that, got it on first try but it fell out of my hand and I'm like, and I look at the bottom and there's this ad with a big circle around it.

00:52:27.646 --> 00:52:30.972
It says full-time bridal consultant for Macy's Dallas Galleria.

00:52:30.972 --> 00:52:35.500
I was like, okay, I called, I said are you guys still hiring for the position?

00:52:35.500 --> 00:52:37.650
Yeah, what experience do you have?

00:52:37.650 --> 00:52:40.277
And I went into detail and they were like, can you come right now?

00:52:40.277 --> 00:52:41.827
I was like, sure.

00:52:41.827 --> 00:52:49.568
So I threw on my work clothes, drove to Dallas, went in, I got the job right away and I've just, I've been happy.

00:52:49.568 --> 00:52:55.818
It allowed me to go back to school, get my certification at Weddings, beautiful and you know there.

00:52:56.726 --> 00:52:59.951
But those little things, you know, I don't know what I want to do.

00:52:59.951 --> 00:53:02.532
But I do know what I want to do.

00:53:02.532 --> 00:53:12.913
But why is, you know, family telling me to do this A and B, and you want to be this and that, but that's not what my heart wanted.

00:53:12.913 --> 00:53:26.949
You know, I knew that being a photographer may not be the best of professions, but I knew I can make that money and being happy, but it was going to be always a pull.

00:53:26.949 --> 00:53:32.867
How many weddings could I get out of a month, you know, because there's so many different photographers.

00:53:32.867 --> 00:53:35.431
So it's just setting those goals and everything.

00:53:35.431 --> 00:53:38.135
But that's my analysis of you so far.

00:53:38.135 --> 00:53:39.257
Am I anywhere right?

00:53:40.418 --> 00:53:53.666
yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, that I think that, um, perhaps the more creative you are, the harder jobs are, and the more important work is.

00:53:53.666 --> 00:53:58.969
So some people would probably interpret that as laziness.

00:53:58.969 --> 00:54:04.253
Right, like you don't want to go to your job all day, every day, so you're lazy.

00:54:04.253 --> 00:54:10.978
But really it's like those sorts of people work more than anyone else.

00:54:10.978 --> 00:54:12.938
They just work on something else.

00:54:12.938 --> 00:54:30.827
Right, and probably in your mind, scanning a barcode all day, every day isn't work.

00:54:31.666 --> 00:54:42.891
You know, it's like if I were to just leave you to your own devices, you would probably do a whole lot of stuff.

00:54:42.891 --> 00:54:44.411
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely.

00:54:44.411 --> 00:54:54.597
So, other than that, now, I asked you earlier what part of the state you lived in, and you told me Delaware, which is great Texas.

00:54:54.597 --> 00:55:03.420
We're very, very bipolar here, so it's like 11 degrees right now and next week it's 75.

00:55:03.420 --> 00:55:05.001
So you never know what you're going to get.

00:55:05.541 --> 00:55:09.282
Wow, I didn't know that it's the same number of times all the time.

00:55:10.362 --> 00:55:10.822
Do I?

00:55:10.822 --> 00:55:12.204
Yeah, I love the heat.

00:55:12.204 --> 00:55:17.114
I can't stand the cold, me cold, so I'm sitting here shivering.

00:55:17.153 --> 00:55:32.590
I don't know if it shows up on camera, but I I was just thinking myself I gotta turn the heat up in here, but it's cold outside and yeah oh well, if you need to turn on the heat, you can, because I can definitely talk to the listeners while you do that.

00:55:32.590 --> 00:55:33.813
We want you to to stay warm.

00:55:33.813 --> 00:55:35.777
No, no, no, no, I'm fine.

00:55:35.777 --> 00:55:38.713
I'm going to put on my hoodie, though, okay.

00:55:39.965 --> 00:55:46.967
Yeah, definitely do that, but definitely as far as your goals.

00:55:46.967 --> 00:55:52.311
What are your big plans for this year, going into next?

00:55:56.472 --> 00:55:59.335
Well, I'm trying to have fewer goals.

00:55:59.335 --> 00:55:59.974
I really am.

00:55:59.974 --> 00:56:07.000
Um, I know that goals are important and this is the thing about, yeah, but guy is like, you know, there are a lot of.

00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:19.592
There are a lot of different people in the world, so good advice, um, well, it doesn't apply to everyone all the time, in every part of the world, in every context.

00:56:19.592 --> 00:56:26.773
But, um, good advice for me would probably be to uh, have fewer goals, but to someone it might be the exact opposite.

00:56:26.773 --> 00:56:29.686
It might be like you know, what you need to do is get off your butt and get some goals.

00:56:29.686 --> 00:56:35.619
But, uh, for me, I'm trying really hard to have fewer goals, believe it or not.

00:56:35.619 --> 00:56:50.074
Um, but I am going to take a couple of classes I haven't decided which ones yet, just things that that interest me and, uh, I'm gonna learn to enjoy myself.

00:56:50.074 --> 00:56:51.777
I might take a vacation.

00:56:51.777 --> 00:56:53.568
I've never really done that before.

00:56:53.568 --> 00:56:57.971
I've traveled a lot, but it was usually always for work where.

00:56:58.030 --> 00:57:03.025
I made work out of it, so I've never really relaxed, I don't think.

00:57:04.228 --> 00:57:06.693
Oh yeah, I totally get that.

00:57:06.693 --> 00:57:09.918
I remember after my daughter was born.

00:57:09.918 --> 00:57:20.931
I remember taking a trip to Pennsylvania just to relax and be with family on my dad's side that I haven't seen for so many years.

00:57:20.931 --> 00:57:29.309
But I remember that feeling of oh, I can breathe, like this feels so good.

00:57:29.309 --> 00:57:35.179
But heading back home, knowing all the responsibilities, I was like I was ready for it.

00:57:35.179 --> 00:58:02.516
But you know, out there in Pennsylvania it was an interesting trip because everybody had a ghost story out there and I remember the taxi was taking me back to the airport and I was like there is something up with my family, seeing shadow people and all this stuff and I was just laughing and he's like the cab driver goes oh, that's where they film signs right there.

00:58:02.797 --> 00:58:08.795
I too, see shadow people all the time and I was like what made me intrigued?

00:58:08.795 --> 00:58:12.409
When I got home I was like what is a shadow person?

00:58:12.409 --> 00:58:16.927
So I started looking into that and why was there so much history?

00:58:16.927 --> 00:58:25.481
But I think that's where a lot of battles were fought too, maybe the people who weren't supposed to die at that time, and you know, I don't know.

00:58:25.481 --> 00:58:30.847
But anyways, I'm not going to go into a whole scary podcast here.

00:58:30.907 --> 00:58:31.547
No, let's go.

00:58:31.547 --> 00:58:43.856
I just got land about 15 minutes maybe west of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and there are tons of stories there in Gettysburg, as you can imagine.

00:58:43.856 --> 00:58:49.581
I just made one on my YouTube channel called Question Things.

00:58:49.581 --> 00:58:50.762
It's pretty simple.

00:58:50.762 --> 00:58:58.288
Youtube for question things is pretty simple for youtube for us question things.

00:58:58.288 --> 00:58:59.230
But um, there there are tons of scary stories.

00:58:59.230 --> 00:59:08.757
Um, a lot of them are just ghost stories really, um, but there's a lot of history there and pennsylvania is pretty cool all together anyway, I mean, I never really appreciated it.

00:59:09.724 --> 00:59:18.289
Yeah, but the more I explore up there, there's there are huge waterfalls in Bushkill Falls, pennsylvania.

00:59:18.289 --> 00:59:30.536
There's ski slopes, there's a lot of trails at Jim Thorpe, pennsylvania, and my house is about four seconds away from a ski slope you can see it from my backyard.

00:59:30.536 --> 00:59:49.199
But, um, but, yeah, I, I'm, but I'm still, I'm still struggling to, uh, to not make a goal out of that, that property, cause I'm, I'm like, uh, I got this place in Pennsylvania to.

00:59:49.199 --> 01:00:09.978
I had this vision of me kind of relaxing on the porch after it's built and watching my dogs play, and I'm already starting to think like maybe I can Airbnb it and then maybe I can get another part of land in some other place and Airbnb that too.

01:00:11.385 --> 01:00:40.373
And when I got it I actually didn't know it was near a ski slope, so that's a good idea and I think you know here in Texas we're about to get universal studio and I think a lot of people who live out by that way, where they're going to be building, they're thinking about Airbnb and their places too, because there's going to be so much travel out here.

01:00:40.373 --> 01:00:51.291
And I know in Little Elm I have a friend who thought about doing that for his home because he's like going to be 15, 20 minutes from where they're building.

01:00:51.291 --> 01:00:57.932
So it's just, you know, it's so different, things change and everything, but that's a good second source of income.

01:00:57.932 --> 01:00:59.297
I would definitely do that.

01:01:00.846 --> 01:01:02.769
Well, I've been thinking about moving to Texas.

01:01:02.769 --> 01:01:04.534
Actually, it seems so.

01:01:04.534 --> 01:01:09.068
Everything I hear about it is so rad that I'm like maybe I should go there.

01:01:09.068 --> 01:01:12.632
Plus, I didn't know Universal Studios was going there.

01:01:12.632 --> 01:01:19.940
We got the Tesla Gigafactory and these tunnels and all these podcasters are going there.

01:01:20.065 --> 01:01:23.114
So it's like for me, that's the place to be.

01:01:23.114 --> 01:01:25.672
That's why I'm trying to get out of Texas right now.

01:01:25.672 --> 01:01:26.235
Who knows?

01:01:27.465 --> 01:01:31.297
What part of Texas is Universal Studios Dallas area?

01:01:32.347 --> 01:01:35.056
Oh well, we can call it the Dallas area still.

01:01:35.056 --> 01:01:47.094
So it's going to be more towards Frisco and Prosper area, I believe, is where they're building it and it's beautiful out there.

01:01:47.094 --> 01:01:49.072
They got PGA out there.

01:01:49.072 --> 01:01:57.425
Now the Cowboys built their new training camp stuff out there too, so they're building it up like a city.

01:01:57.425 --> 01:02:03.737
But that's the thing with Texas is, you know, this part is very city fast going.

01:02:03.737 --> 01:02:09.369
I mean, it's like another LA, it feels like so, but there's a lot of opportunity.

01:02:09.931 --> 01:02:21.875
So when you know you're looking at, do you want to be at the city for the next 20, 30 years, if that's what it is or are you looking for something a little bit subtle?

01:02:21.875 --> 01:02:26.376
For me, I'm looking for more subtle, like Cheers everybody knows your name.

01:02:26.376 --> 01:02:28.431
It's a good town to live in.

01:02:28.431 --> 01:02:41.650
So, yeah, I think what was it that Netflix series, virgin River, I think it was called or something, but it gave that home feeling and I was like you know what?

01:02:41.650 --> 01:02:46.007
For me it's about nature, everything I'm thinking.

01:02:46.007 --> 01:02:49.034
You know I may want to just get out to Oklahoma.

01:02:49.034 --> 01:02:50.197
I enjoy the weather.

01:02:50.197 --> 01:02:51.646
I would love.

01:02:51.646 --> 01:02:56.617
I hate to say this, but I'm such a weather nerd I want to see a tornado.

01:02:57.824 --> 01:02:58.347
Me too.

01:02:58.347 --> 01:02:59.711
Me too.

01:02:59.711 --> 01:03:06.452
I mean maybe that should be my goal, but because that's definitely a bucket list item is to see a tornado.

01:03:06.492 --> 01:03:07.275
What a tornado.

01:03:07.905 --> 01:03:33.414
Yeah, apparently they're hard to see, though there is this guy I want to say he was from Japan who spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars traveling from Japan to Oklahoma the border of Oklahoma and Texas every year during tornado season, right there in Tornado Alley, to try and see a tornado, and he didn't see one until well, when I was watching this documentary.

01:03:33.414 --> 01:03:38.688
Had never seen one, but since he has, he has since I saw that documentary.

01:03:38.688 --> 01:03:44.987
But uh, I mean he spent decades trying to see one and never did so, apparently it's harder than I.

01:03:45.608 --> 01:03:49.291
I anticipated, but yeah, I've got a tornado.

01:03:49.291 --> 01:03:50.733
That's really high on my list.

01:03:52.436 --> 01:03:53.376
High on your list?

01:03:53.376 --> 01:03:55.579
Well, definitely so.

01:03:55.579 --> 01:03:58.967
And just, you know the travel thing.

01:03:58.967 --> 01:04:02.856
So, yeah, it sounds like you, you do have goals.

01:04:02.856 --> 01:04:06.369
You said no more goals, but you do have the traveling goal.

01:04:06.369 --> 01:04:17.619
You, you know you may want to open Airbnb, so you are open to the idea of creating this new path for you is what I'm sensing.

01:04:17.619 --> 01:04:22.811
So that's a great outlook and you should be very happy about that outlook.

01:04:23.733 --> 01:04:30.552
Yeah, yeah, in all honesty, there's no reason why a person can't have goals and be happy.

01:04:30.552 --> 01:04:46.065
In fact, there is a quote from someone I forget who said this but the root of psychological well-being is accepting life the way it is, while working to make it better in the future.

01:04:46.065 --> 01:04:58.469
So yeah, there's no reason why a person can't have goals and be present right in in the moment and try and appreciate things.

01:04:58.469 --> 01:05:00.452
Um, I just suck at it.

01:05:00.452 --> 01:05:06.965
I guess that's what I'm saying I'm a striver something else.

01:05:07.005 --> 01:05:11.307
I I mean, I even wrote about it and they say if you want to master something like, teach it.

01:05:11.307 --> 01:05:13.929
And it just hasn't worked for me.

01:05:13.929 --> 01:05:21.514
But I often think about like even trying to elicit.

01:05:21.514 --> 01:05:47.157
Going down the four steps outside of my front door to take out the trash is going to be a task too laborsome for me to manage and I'll have to be some old guy who pays a young neighborhood kid to do that for me.

01:05:48.985 --> 01:05:50.110
Or just build a ramp.

01:05:51.405 --> 01:05:56.217
Yeah, or I could just get one of those scooters, and which is probably what I'll do.

01:05:56.565 --> 01:06:00.532
You don't need a scooter upramp, it's just easier to walk down.

01:06:00.532 --> 01:06:17.958
You know, especially when it's snowing and ice, I'm always scared of the stairs and even without weather, like when I'm at church and I'm in choir, you know they have stairs going up but I don't know why my fear is going down.

01:06:17.958 --> 01:06:20.652
It Like I'm always used to the rail.

01:06:20.652 --> 01:06:27.259
But you know, I had to learn to accept recently because I had a knee surgery, back surgery and everything.

01:06:27.259 --> 01:06:29.572
I have this young girl.

01:06:29.572 --> 01:06:40.809
She'll always turn around and grab my hand to help me down with the last couple steps and I'm like you know it's a funny feeling because you're like in your head, thinking this is not happening.

01:06:40.969 --> 01:06:41.932
And then I was just.

01:06:41.932 --> 01:06:44.318
I turned it into gratitude and appreciation.

01:06:44.318 --> 01:06:53.251
I was like thank you so much, you know, because eventually we're all going to need that somebody to be there and look out for us too.

01:06:53.251 --> 01:07:02.385
So but when you're you're single and you don't have that, your brain starts to think, no, I gotta learn to do this on my own and be by myself.

01:07:02.385 --> 01:07:08.985
And then we are stubborn and we just don't want to accept the help and that becomes a negative energy.

01:07:08.985 --> 01:07:24.996
But if you turn it around being like you know, you know what Thanks, this is great, you know you're turning that power of thinking around to you know make things better so yeah, I like what you said about gratitude.

01:07:25.184 --> 01:07:31.831
That's really important to turn as many things into gratitude as we can, because we have so many reasons to be grateful.

01:07:32.804 --> 01:07:32.905
And.

01:07:33.688 --> 01:07:48.974
I spent a year like on a gratitude practice in the morning and I should really get back to it because it's really, it really is good, like just the amount of things that you can enjoy in the day while keeping gratitude in mind.

01:07:48.974 --> 01:08:08.032
Like I mean, just think about someone who had it as good as they could possibly have had it Like I don't know King Louis II or something I'm just making up random names but he didn't have access to like proper dental care, like he probably walked around with toothaches.

01:08:08.032 --> 01:08:10.472
He didn't have air conditioning.

01:08:10.472 --> 01:08:14.373
He didn't have washing machines.

01:08:14.373 --> 01:08:16.207
Have air conditioning?

01:08:16.207 --> 01:08:17.390
Um, yeah, it didn't have washing machines.

01:08:17.390 --> 01:08:25.551
I don't know how often they bathed, but it's like you couldn't just like turn on the faucet and jump into a hot shower and the amount of luxuries I have in my house.

01:08:26.113 --> 01:08:32.149
Well, it absolutely crushes anything that a king had some hundreds of years ago.

01:08:32.168 --> 01:08:42.512
Yeah, I'm literally living better than kings you see, yeah, and definitely, we're taught to think the kings had it all.

01:08:42.512 --> 01:08:46.865
It was royalty, right, so you would think they had it all.

01:08:46.865 --> 01:08:54.797
So, um, you know, talking about that, thinking you have it all, I actually stepped into.

01:08:54.797 --> 01:09:15.493
Well, I had church choir, like I was talking about, but it was a youth ministry and I heard one of the pastors I've never heard, you know, teach because he's only the, you know, freshman, senior class one, but he nailed it on the spot and as an adult, being my age, sitting there and going.

01:09:15.493 --> 01:09:27.284
But you know he was talking about the cell phones and plugging, and when batteries die we're unconnected and we're trying to find a charge anywhere right in life.

01:09:27.284 --> 01:09:35.899
And then you know, being connected and having that faith also, that's what we need to connect with also.

01:09:35.899 --> 01:09:47.150
So not only our, you know AirPods or cell phones that need to be charged all the time we got to charge ourself up and know that, know, you Know the direction.

01:09:47.150 --> 01:09:51.694
You know be happy, love yourself, to move forward.

01:09:52.046 --> 01:09:57.997
So you know there was many different lessons that I saw that came out of it.

01:09:57.997 --> 01:10:06.048
You know I'm not sure how you know young kids, you know, will sit there and listen to it, but as an adult.

01:10:06.048 --> 01:10:08.275
I was like I went up to him.

01:10:08.275 --> 01:10:09.971
I go, I really don't know you.

01:10:09.971 --> 01:10:15.809
You know my son, you know, because he goes to Sunday school, but I go, that was inspiring to hear you talk about that.

01:10:15.774 --> 01:10:18.600
You know my son, you know, because he goes to sunday school, um, but I go, that was inspiring to hear you talk about that, you know.

01:10:18.600 --> 01:10:29.664
And as I was hearing the other people in my choir go, oh yeah, there's an adult service before you do choir and I was like, oh okay, but you know what I found myself?

01:10:29.664 --> 01:10:34.921
I like the kids one so much I was like I probably want to go back to the kids one so much I was like I probably want to go back to the kids one.

01:10:34.921 --> 01:10:40.572
Yeah.

01:10:40.572 --> 01:10:47.608
So just many different goals and I want to make sure we covered everything today in this podcast with you.

01:10:47.608 --> 01:10:53.399
How would people find you connect to your socials and stuff like that?

01:10:57.164 --> 01:10:57.826
We'll never cover anything we can.

01:10:57.826 --> 01:11:04.158
I'd be glad to talk again in the future, by the way, but uh okay they can find me uh question things.

01:11:04.158 --> 01:11:06.927
Um, it's all over the place.

01:11:06.927 --> 01:11:14.037
It's uh facebook, uh instagram, audible, uh amazon.

01:11:14.037 --> 01:11:16.199
I mean it's all over.

01:11:16.841 --> 01:11:17.520
And it's everywhere.

01:11:17.520 --> 01:11:22.300
And YouTube is where I saw the clips of you doing like question.

01:11:22.300 --> 01:11:23.604
Yeah, yeah, youtube.

01:11:24.204 --> 01:11:34.289
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to select that username early on, when they started allowing usernames, so I got the name.

01:11:34.289 --> 01:11:35.092
Question things.

01:11:35.092 --> 01:11:38.854
No punctuation underscore anything, just question things.

01:11:39.904 --> 01:11:40.726
That is really good.

01:11:40.726 --> 01:11:44.256
It's always good to have it right there when it starts.

01:11:44.256 --> 01:11:57.541
And I know, like when I chose my photography company name, I lost the domain for a month and I was okay, nobody's gonna take it because it was a dot com.

01:11:57.541 --> 01:12:02.497
Nope, somebody grabbed it right away and they wanted like four thousand to get a bit back.

01:12:02.497 --> 01:12:04.934
I was like, no, not doing that.

01:12:04.934 --> 01:12:08.126
And then I called the provider and they go well, no, it's not really taken.

01:12:08.126 --> 01:12:12.552
We don't know who would have emailed you and asked for that much money.

01:12:13.354 --> 01:12:15.757
I was like you just never know.

01:12:15.757 --> 01:12:21.436
So if you see something, it could still be false and you need to follow up you know, with that provider.

01:12:22.586 --> 01:12:23.208
Question things.

01:12:23.208 --> 01:12:23.730
There you go.

01:12:24.625 --> 01:12:25.207
Question things.

01:12:25.207 --> 01:12:33.250
Yep, well, I want to say thank you for coming on and to our listeners, I do have the book in the store.

01:12:33.250 --> 01:12:36.056
We'll double check and make sure it's the correct one.

01:12:36.056 --> 01:12:38.292
If it's not, I'll get that corrected today.

01:12:38.292 --> 01:12:43.938
But wherever you guys find your podcast, you will be able to find Keep Hope Alive.

01:12:43.938 --> 01:12:54.056
If you would like to be a guest on Keep Hope Alive or even leave us a message, you can go to our website at wwwkeephopalivepodcastcom.

01:12:54.056 --> 01:13:00.069
To the right-hand side there is a leave a message function that you can tell us.

01:13:00.109 --> 01:13:04.418
Hey, I want to hear stories on this, or I have a question for Jonathan.

01:13:04.418 --> 01:13:06.189
I will get back with Jonathan.

01:13:06.189 --> 01:13:09.516
Let him know those questions so we can get those answered for you.

01:13:09.516 --> 01:13:15.537
So please give us a review and tell us what shows you liked on Keep Hope Alive too.

01:13:15.537 --> 01:13:20.417
But once again, jonathan, thank you so much for coming on to Keep Hope Alive.

01:13:20.417 --> 01:13:33.876
We really enjoyed talking to you, getting to know you and learning about the book process and everything like that and your future goals and, yes, I'm going to follow up with you right away.

01:13:34.305 --> 01:13:37.331
Probably, yeah, within 26, the next year.

01:13:38.894 --> 01:13:41.078
All right, well, you're the best, thank you.

01:13:41.078 --> 01:13:42.078
Thank you all so much.

01:13:42.078 --> 01:13:43.368
Thanks everybody for listening.

01:13:44.292 --> 01:13:44.694
All right.

01:13:44.694 --> 01:13:46.850
Well, you guys, until our next show.

01:13:46.850 --> 01:13:47.793
Love and light.

01:13:47.793 --> 01:13:49.359
Bye-bye, Bye-bye.