Speaker 1: Everybody, granger Smith here, Welcome back to the Grangersmith podcast.
Speaker 1: We put out new episodes every single Monday, and we've
Speaker 1: been doing this for I guess since twenty seventeen. So
Speaker 1: what the format is is, I answer your questions you
Speaker 1: email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. We'll put it
Speaker 1: in the queue. Ant Man, my producer, We'll get them
Speaker 1: together and I pull these up and I read these
Speaker 1: questions as if you're a friend asking me a question,
Speaker 1: very low key, very relaxed and informal. I don't have
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of notes in front of me. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to read the question as if you're asking
Speaker 1: me in front of a campfire, and the answers will
Speaker 1: be very off the cuff, in fact, so much so
Speaker 1: that sometimes I could think about it later and perhaps
Speaker 1: want to change my answer a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: don't get that opportunity. I think the podcast is better
Speaker 1: if you get the first response, the first reaction in
Speaker 1: my head today, I don't have a guess, it's just
Speaker 1: me and the first question comes from Ryan. Once again.
Speaker 1: The email is podcast at grangersmith dot com. One day.
Speaker 1: The plan is still to do this live somewhere as
Speaker 1: I create some kind of podcast tour, and we've been
Speaker 1: in talks with different people to come to your city
Speaker 1: and set up and maybe like a theater and have
Speaker 1: you have a microphone out in the audience, and we
Speaker 1: actually answer them live. That's the plan. The first question
Speaker 1: today comes from Ryan, and it says this, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: I'm stuck in a job where the environment is really toxic,
Speaker 1: and it's starting to take a toll on me, both
Speaker 1: mentally and emotionally. My boss is unpredictable and overly critical,
Speaker 1: making it hard to feel like I'm doing anything right.
Speaker 1: On top of that, the office politics are out of control,
Speaker 1: and it feels like no one trusts each other. It's
Speaker 1: a constant game of walking on eggshells just to get
Speaker 1: through the day. I thought about quitting, but I'm scared
Speaker 1: of what that might mean for my family. I'm the
Speaker 1: primary bread rent winner, and while I have some savings,
Speaker 1: it's not nearly enough to carry us for very long
Speaker 1: if I don't find a new job quickly. At the
Speaker 1: same time, the stress of staying in this environment is
Speaker 1: affecting my sleep, my mood at home, and even my
Speaker 1: physical health. I'm torn between sticking it out I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find a better situation. The idea of jumping into
Speaker 1: the unknown is terrifying, and so is the thought of
Speaker 1: continuing like this. How do you know when it's time
Speaker 1: to walk away from a bad situation, even if the
Speaker 1: future feels uncertain. What would you do in my position?
Speaker 1: Thanks for your advice, Ryan, Ryan, Thanks for the email, Brother,
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry you're in You're you're in a tough situation.
Speaker 1: It's it sounds like you've put a lot of thought
Speaker 1: into this, and it sounds like you're you're thinking in
Speaker 1: all the right ways because you're What I mean is
Speaker 1: you're you're kind of weighing the cost of what it
Speaker 1: looks like to be out of this job, to remain
Speaker 1: in this job, to be better in this job. And
Speaker 1: you know something you said in here where you said
Speaker 1: it's it's affecting my sleep. I've thought about that a
Speaker 1: lot lately, more than I have in the last four
Speaker 1: or five years. And I've been talking to Amber about this,
Speaker 1: because you know, I I have some friends that have
Speaker 1: told me, hey, you know, the more and more we
Speaker 1: read about sleep, the more and more we see how
Speaker 1: important it actually is. And I think about sometimes my
Speaker 1: uncle who was a Marine captain in Vietnam, and he
Speaker 1: was just an early riser. He would get up every
Speaker 1: single morning at four am and go for a run.
Speaker 1: As he got older, it was a walk, walk the dogs.
Speaker 1: And it didn't matter what time he went to bed.
Speaker 1: He was up at four vacation weekends, it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: And sometimes he would get, you know, four hours of
Speaker 1: sleep several times in the week, and he was always like,
Speaker 1: I'm fine, I just when I wake up. That's what
Speaker 1: we do in the Marines, you know. And we ended
Speaker 1: up losing him, and he suffered from pretty severe dementia.
Speaker 1: And I look back on that and I wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: the Lord is sovereign in all this, but I can't help,
Speaker 1: but wonder if if we could be responsible, more responsible
Speaker 1: in the area of sleep, me and my family and
Speaker 1: you listening. That's something we probably don't do enough in
Speaker 1: this world today. My friend Heath Evans told me that
Speaker 1: I need seven hours and Amber needs eight. Men need
Speaker 1: a little bit less, women need eight. Kids. I mean
Speaker 1: the kids need ten. I would say. Sometimes Maverick sleeps
Speaker 1: twelve hours. We put them down at eight pm and
Speaker 1: or seven thirty pm, and he gets up at seven
Speaker 1: thirty am or eight o'clock am. But I think it's
Speaker 1: so important that we take these extra precautions toward getting
Speaker 1: the appropriate amount of sleep. And so when you say
Speaker 1: that right in the middle of your email, that's one
Speaker 1: of the first things that pops out to me. It's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is affecting your sleep. Then that would also affect
Speaker 1: what you say next, my mood at home, and that
Speaker 1: would also affect the next thing you say, my physical health.
Speaker 1: So sleep is going to affect all these things. So
Speaker 1: if the job is hurting your sleep long term, it
Speaker 1: could actually be taking years off the end of your life.
Speaker 1: That's my point. So add that, to add that to
Speaker 1: the worry of what's going on in this email, you
Speaker 1: say that the environment is really toxic and it's starting
Speaker 1: to take a toll mentally and emotionally. Now, I caution
Speaker 1: first of all saying that I believe we live in
Speaker 1: a world now, that is, we live in a job
Speaker 1: jumping world that our parents and our grandparents certainly and
Speaker 1: everyone before that just didn't do. Today, you ask any
Speaker 1: any joe off the street that's middle aged and younger,
Speaker 1: and you ask what they do, and there's probably several answers.
Speaker 1: I've done this, this, this, and I'm currently doing this,
Speaker 1: and my dream is to do this. And everybody before us,
Speaker 1: starting with my parents generation and everybody before that, they
Speaker 1: just pretty much worked one job. Either they had one
Speaker 1: skill and they just did that, or they landed one
Speaker 1: one kind of job and just did it for forty
Speaker 1: years and either did it until they died or did
Speaker 1: it until they retired because they physically couldn't. And but
Speaker 1: then then they did something similar after that. And so
Speaker 1: I think that it's it's admirable to think in that
Speaker 1: old way of just let's let's not be job jumpers.
Speaker 1: And here here's what I think part of the problem is,
Speaker 1: I think we have kind of built this illusion in
Speaker 1: this country and worldwide to see it worldwide, this fairy
Speaker 1: tale Cinderella illusion that there's always something better, there's always
Speaker 1: like you were born for this same way I caution
Speaker 1: against the idea of soulmate, which is a pagan idea.
Speaker 1: I think we should caution the same way in front
Speaker 1: of in terms of saying that there's like one job
Speaker 1: that's mysterio out there, and when you find it, your
Speaker 1: life kind of just aligns to it magically and the
Speaker 1: stars just kind of line up and you go, ah,
Speaker 1: this is this is what I was born to do,
Speaker 1: this particular thing, and now everything else is happy. And
Speaker 1: that's not the case. I do think that certain people
Speaker 1: certainly are are better at other things depending on their
Speaker 1: skill set. But I just think, I just think we
Speaker 1: there's no perfect job out there, So although we should
Speaker 1: climb ladders and work hard and grow businesses or grow
Speaker 1: within companies, we don't have to always be thinking about
Speaker 1: this is fine for now, but then I'm going to
Speaker 1: find something better because I know something better is out there.
Speaker 1: So there's prudence in here, right like we're we're we're
Speaker 1: kind of cautioning in all these areas, saying, don't be
Speaker 1: abused by your boss and just stick with it for
Speaker 1: four years. Don't be someone that has completely lost the
Speaker 1: American dream of you could do or be whatever you
Speaker 1: want to be. Like, let's stay within the guardrails of
Speaker 1: all this and go I'm going to think through these things,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to job jump just because my
Speaker 1: feelings are hurt or because there's a mysterious magical job
Speaker 1: out there that I don't know of yet. Because certainly
Speaker 1: I see social media people that work it. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: my foundation. I say all that to then say, after
Speaker 1: all that, I say this, I think it's time for
Speaker 1: you to get out of this job. From what I've
Speaker 1: read here and what I believe you're saying, it sounds
Speaker 1: like this job's crushing you mentally, emotionally, and you are
Speaker 1: still in it because you're scared to take a step
Speaker 1: out of it. That's what all this is coming from.
Speaker 1: You're scared of the unknown, which is a normal fear.
Speaker 1: If you could say, there, what's the what's the average
Speaker 1: fear of the average person, you would throw in there,
Speaker 1: the unknown. It's scary the dark. Why are dark hallways scary?
Speaker 1: Because at the end where the darkness is, you don't
Speaker 1: know if there's a door or not. You don't know
Speaker 1: if there's a stairway, you don't know if someone is
Speaker 1: standing in the darkness. But the reality is not not
Speaker 1: the person or the stairway or the door. The reality
Speaker 1: is the unknown of any of those things. So that's
Speaker 1: what we got to deal with. You're scared of the unknown,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be scary, And this is
Speaker 1: how you do it. You you work hard in the
Speaker 1: job you're in right now you you be respectful to
Speaker 1: your boss, you kind to your co workers, You do
Speaker 1: your job with excellence. You you dress appropriately for the gig,
Speaker 1: you show up on time, and you stay all the
Speaker 1: way till it's time to leave. You are you're you're
Speaker 1: consciously battling, battling against bitterness, right so that those are
Speaker 1: all the things you do right now, and then when
Speaker 1: you go home, you are networking. You're looking for You're
Speaker 1: looking through job ads. You're emailing or calling potential bosses,
Speaker 1: potential new job prospects. You're talking within your friend group.
Speaker 1: That doesn't leak back to your co workers that you're
Speaker 1: now on the market for a new job, talking to
Speaker 1: different people. Hey, I'm I'm I think I might be
Speaker 1: thinking about switching jobs. Here's my skill set. Hey, you're
Speaker 1: putting together a resume, not too long, not too short,
Speaker 1: right to the point. And as you put these feelers
Speaker 1: out there, you're still work any other job with excellence,
Speaker 1: and so there's no fear of losing out on the income.
Speaker 1: And I think the idea of the new job, and
Speaker 1: as you're working towards that, I think the excitement in
Speaker 1: that will start to supplement to kind of mitigate the
Speaker 1: fear and the emotional mental breakdown that you're getting from
Speaker 1: the other job will kind of be swallowed up by
Speaker 1: the excitement that you're getting because you're on the market
Speaker 1: looking for something new. And this is what you can control.
Speaker 1: You can't control your boss, you can't control who hires
Speaker 1: you on the next job, but you could work with
Speaker 1: excellence in the old job and be taking small steps
Speaker 1: day by day towards the new job. You might have
Speaker 1: to cut back on some bills. I think I said
Speaker 1: this a few podcasts ago, that you might have to
Speaker 1: give up some of the luxuries you have in your life.
Speaker 1: Like maybe that car you have that that costs seven
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month, maybe you have to trade it
Speaker 1: in at the dealership and get something that's two fifty, right,
Speaker 1: and then you just you put four hundred and fifty bucks
Speaker 1: in your pocket and you say, okay, this is this
Speaker 1: is working for me. And you do that several times,
Speaker 1: and you you take four hundred here, five hundred or
Speaker 1: six hundred here, a thousand here, and and you kind
Speaker 1: of equal out your your living expenses and all that.
Speaker 1: Giving up the car, giving up the Netflix account, you know,
Speaker 1: giving up all these things is worth your is worth
Speaker 1: getting rid of this the mental monster that the current
Speaker 1: job is and taking a job that pays a little
Speaker 1: bit less, and you'll be You'll be happier in the end.
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Josh says Greater. I'm recently divorced,
Speaker 1: and one of the biggest challenges has been figuring out
Speaker 1: how to co parent our two kids in a way
Speaker 1: that's healthy and consistent. My ex and I both love
Speaker 1: our kids deeply and want what's best for them, but
Speaker 1: we approach parenting very differently. For example, I'm stricter when
Speaker 1: it comes to discipline, but my ex tends to be
Speaker 1: more lenient. This leans to leads to situations where the
Speaker 1: kids get mixed messages. And that's okay sometimes, but it's
Speaker 1: also not I'm worried this inconsistency might confuse them or
Speaker 1: even make them feel like they can play against each other,
Speaker 1: play us against each other. Josh says. It's also starting
Speaker 1: to cause a lot of tension between me and my ex.
Speaker 1: Even though we try to keep things civil, emotions from
Speaker 1: the divorce start to create been in small disagreements about
Speaker 1: parenting can turn into bigger arguments. I don't want my
Speaker 1: kids to pick up on this conflict or feel like
Speaker 1: they're stuck in the middle of it all. I know
Speaker 1: that co parenting is not easy for anyone, but I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that we are creating a stable,
Speaker 1: loving environment for our kids. How do you navigate co
Speaker 1: parenting effectively, especially when you and your ex don't see
Speaker 1: eye to eye. Think of your help and your wisdom
Speaker 1: that you share. Josh, Hey, Josh, thank you brother. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry for the situation. I hope you know that I
Speaker 1: personally have not been in this situation, so I would
Speaker 1: only be speaking my best encouragement to you as a friend.
Speaker 1: And you already know it's not easy. You're out there
Speaker 1: taking arrows. I talked about this with a friend just today.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you got to take the arrows. And sometimes in
Speaker 1: order to improve, because I know you're firing arrows too, Josh,
Speaker 1: in order to improve, you need to fire one less
Speaker 1: arrow than she does. That would be improvement. It sounds
Speaker 1: like you're a big hang up. Is is discipline and
Speaker 1: given given what you're dealing with right now, like you
Speaker 1: can't change what has happened. And ideally parents need our
Speaker 1: kids need two parents, and that's that's God's design. Is
Speaker 1: that kids have two parents, and that the the two personalities.
Speaker 1: Typically what we would see is the the dad has
Speaker 1: has authority and the more the more of the discipline
Speaker 1: aarian than then that the mom, and the mom has
Speaker 1: the nurturing, compassion and wisdom in protection, and then the
Speaker 1: father carries out the protection and carries out the discipline.
Speaker 1: So that that's the partnership. When men and women in
Speaker 1: the Bible are created equal, they they are created equal,
Speaker 1: but that that does not mean equal roles. That means
Speaker 1: that means equal value, but but not equal roles. That's
Speaker 1: really practical, easy to understand. And that's not the point,
Speaker 1: and that's not that's not the point of your email.
Speaker 1: But but I do think it's it's important to remember
Speaker 1: that when parents break up and get a divorce, and
Speaker 1: it's it's not as if two equal parts have now
Speaker 1: split into two and there's one half here and one
Speaker 1: half here. It's equal valued parts have broken up that
Speaker 1: have that have different roles, and so that now the
Speaker 1: roles are split. And that's where the difficulty that that
Speaker 1: you're you're talking about comes in. So what do you do?
Speaker 1: What do you do? I don't know how old your
Speaker 1: kids are, You don't say that. Do you know if
Speaker 1: you said if you said how old the kids are,
Speaker 1: they could start to it could start to help because
Speaker 1: as they get older, you could have conversations about this.
Speaker 1: But what you want to do is always be respectful
Speaker 1: towards your ex wife. You never want to throw shade
Speaker 1: on her or talk behind her back, or give any
Speaker 1: allusion to your kids that you're doing things right and
Speaker 1: your mom's messing it up because well, for a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons, because but one of the reasons is that's
Speaker 1: their mama, so you don't you don't want to put
Speaker 1: their mama in a bad light. And that concept is
Speaker 1: kind of lost in split parenting right now. The idea
Speaker 1: that if anyway, this is kind of a known thing,
Speaker 1: you talk to anybody about their mama in a negative way,
Speaker 1: and we get mad, we get defensive because that's our mama,
Speaker 1: Dad's that includes you when you have divorced the mama
Speaker 1: and that's your ex wife. Just because it's your ex
Speaker 1: wife doesn't give you now a free pass to talk
Speaker 1: negatively about their mama. Just as just as a guy
Speaker 1: in a grocery store or a guy in a bar,
Speaker 1: or a guy in the street or a guy in
Speaker 1: the football team wouldn't say anything negative about someone else's
Speaker 1: mama without them being triggered. That goes with the husbands
Speaker 1: of the ex wives as well. Don't talk about your
Speaker 1: kids mama in a bad way. Wives, I can't speak that.
Speaker 1: I can't speak for you, but I could speak to
Speaker 1: you and say you should take the same advice. And
Speaker 1: so as they get older, you could start to just say,
Speaker 1: you know, your mama loves you so much. She's a
Speaker 1: great mama, and everything she does is out of love. Now,
Speaker 1: we do see things a little bit differently when it
Speaker 1: comes to discipline, and you could probably tell that when
Speaker 1: you come to my house, I'm a little bit stricter
Speaker 1: with this. And I told you that you can't eat
Speaker 1: froot loops because it's sugar and it's bad for you,
Speaker 1: and you know you can get cavities, and so I'm
Speaker 1: sorry that when you come over here, my rule is
Speaker 1: that you can't have froot loops. And when you go
Speaker 1: to your mom's house, she lets you. And that's not
Speaker 1: because I love you more, She loves you least. It
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with that. She just she doesn't
Speaker 1: see it. And she's your mama, and so you got
Speaker 1: to re expect her rules when you go to her house. Okay,
Speaker 1: and she has things that you can't do that I
Speaker 1: let you do. But because we're in this situation and
Speaker 1: I wish we weren't, you're gonna have to go buy
Speaker 1: my rules when you're in my house, and then you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to go buy her rules when when you
Speaker 1: go to her house, and those rules sometimes they don't
Speaker 1: go to each other's house. So these conversations you could
Speaker 1: have with a six, seven eight year old that you
Speaker 1: can't have with a four year old that don't quite
Speaker 1: understand it yet. And these are the difficult conversations that
Speaker 1: come with h you split parenting, And I don't think
Speaker 1: I don't think there's inconsistency there. You're worried about inconsistency
Speaker 1: and confusion. I don't think that that is there. If
Speaker 1: you lay it out like I just did, or you're
Speaker 1: just you, you tell them when I discipline, I do
Speaker 1: it this way. When you're I'm a discipline, she does
Speaker 1: it this way. I'm not saying that your mama is
Speaker 1: doing it wrong. But this is my house and my rules,
Speaker 1: and that's her house in Hurles. Just be very clear
Speaker 1: on that, and I don't think that creates inconsistency. It
Speaker 1: creates inconsistency if they don't know and that's not communicated
Speaker 1: and they just go in there like I think, Dad,
Speaker 1: I thought I could have fruit loops, and you go,
Speaker 1: you're a mama, Let you have those fruit loops. I
Speaker 1: don't know why she does it. That just tears your
Speaker 1: teeth apart and messes up your belly and gives your pimples.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't need that sugary stuff. You know. That's throwing
Speaker 1: shade on mama. Do your best to stay away from that, Josh.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're in the situation, man, And I hope
Speaker 1: this helps just a little bit.
Speaker 2: A lot of people thinking about twenty twenty five and
Speaker 2: New Year's resolutions, and a lot of those are business related.
Speaker 2: In fact, a lot of people listening right now are thinking,
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Speaker 2: get a hold of me, an easy way to do
Speaker 2: it is Cameo dot com slash Granger Smith cameo dot
Speaker 2: com slash granger Smith. You could order a video message
Speaker 2: from me saying whatever customizable message you want me to say,
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Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast on, I would encourage you
Speaker 2: to check out the YouTube version of this. Every podcast
Speaker 2: that we do, we put it out on YouTube as
Speaker 2: well on my YouTube channel Granger Smith.
Speaker 1: Super easy to find. If you go to YouTube and
Speaker 1: search for Granger Smith podcast, it should pop right up
Speaker 1: for you and you might be listening to it on
Speaker 1: there right now as we speak. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people aren't a lot of people are on the other platforms.
Speaker 1: YouTube's good for a few reasons. One, you can see me, Hey,
Speaker 1: we can have these conversations. Sometimes I watch videos on
Speaker 1: here and commentate them, and you could watch the videos
Speaker 1: with me. And the other thing that's really cool is
Speaker 1: you could comment and I do go through those comments,
Speaker 1: and so that's encouraging. If you go to the YouTube
Speaker 1: version you hear something, maybe one of the questions, and
Speaker 1: you want to double down on something, or you want
Speaker 1: to reviewed me on something or agree with me, whatever
Speaker 1: it might be, you can comment right there and I
Speaker 1: see that, and it's of course you could email me
Speaker 1: podcast at grangersmith dot com like all of these emails
Speaker 1: and say that. But sometimes that idea might get lost
Speaker 1: because you'll say, hey, Grangeer, I at a certain episode,
Speaker 1: you said this, and so many weeks might have gone
Speaker 1: by and I already forgot. So if you go to
Speaker 1: that YouTube, actual video, that version, then I'll see that,
Speaker 1: and that's helpful. Another thing you could do to help
Speaker 1: this podcast is on the other another platform, Apple. If
Speaker 1: you're listening on Apple podcast, you could give me five
Speaker 1: stars or four if you're not inclined to do five
Speaker 1: and you could you could also rate it and comment
Speaker 1: on that give me a rating of some sort that
Speaker 1: helps the podcast. But that that and that's great and
Speaker 1: I hope you do it, but that doesn't help it
Speaker 1: as much as you actually sending it to somebody. So
Speaker 1: if you you know, I always provide these for free
Speaker 1: for the listeners, and the best way for me to
Speaker 1: get a return for giving out the free podcast is
Speaker 1: for you to share it, so that would be that'd
Speaker 1: be great for me. And then lastly, if you want
Speaker 1: to ask a question, email podcast at grangersmith dot com
Speaker 1: like Steven did, who says, Hey, Granger, I'm a longtime
Speaker 1: follower and fan, I'm curious to know your opinion on
Speaker 1: population growth. Do you think we will run out of
Speaker 1: farmland if we keep developing it to support new homes.
Speaker 1: This is something I struggle with. I can't wrap my
Speaker 1: head around the fact that we are called to reproduce
Speaker 1: as Christians, but we only have a limited amount of
Speaker 1: farmland to sustain us. It seems counterintuitive. How do we
Speaker 1: approach this in a godly way? Wow, Steven, that is
Speaker 1: an interesting question. I don't think of all the questions,
Speaker 1: I've never gotten one quite like this. Like I usually
Speaker 1: think that a lot of a lot of questions are
Speaker 1: just the same, rewarded differently, this one was not. Steve.
Speaker 1: That's a great thought. And you know, I have thought
Speaker 1: about this before, and it does it bothers me. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I have every time I've moved somewhere in my life
Speaker 1: part of them of the decision of moving there. It
Speaker 1: kind of sits upon this idea of will the will
Speaker 1: the neighbors develop this land and turn it into like
Speaker 1: a trailer park or at a neighborhood or an industrial park,
Speaker 1: you know, And it's it's always a little it's always
Speaker 1: a scary two to move someplace and think, Man, right now,
Speaker 1: I love this. I love sitting on my back porch
Speaker 1: and looking at these trees and maybe one day a
Speaker 1: bulldozer will come in and knock them all down and
Speaker 1: they'll put they'll put a target in a hobby lobby
Speaker 1: here right right behind me. And so it's definitely it's
Speaker 1: definitely a fear. But but I don't think I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a it's it's necessarily anything that you and
Speaker 1: I have to think of in our lifetime. And there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways to approach this, and and
Speaker 1: and another thing that kind of comforts me, for instance,
Speaker 1: is you know, I've heard people then the next city
Speaker 1: over from where I am now is Austin. Austin is
Speaker 1: like very progressive, very liberal, and I've I've known people
Speaker 1: there that have like one acre of land, and they
Speaker 1: think that if you don't touch it, then that's the
Speaker 1: way Mother nature, as they would put it, intended for
Speaker 1: it not to be touched by man. We have seen
Speaker 1: recently in the news with the with the fire in
Speaker 1: California that when you do that and man doesn't intervene
Speaker 1: and instead just lives and doesn't doesn't work the land
Speaker 1: at all. Uh, it not only becomes very dangerous for
Speaker 1: fires because of the the underbrush and and but but
Speaker 1: it's it ends up the unkempt land ends up being
Speaker 1: pretty ugly and pretty dead. I think about this in
Speaker 1: my that I have some woods behind me, and since
Speaker 1: I've been here, I've gone through a lot of those
Speaker 1: woods and taking out some of the the vines that
Speaker 1: get up into the oak trees, and taking out a
Speaker 1: lot of the thorns that have grown in the in
Speaker 1: the brush on the ground. And when I do that
Speaker 1: and I pull away the brush, and I pull away
Speaker 1: the thorns and the and the big vines. You see
Speaker 1: the new growth coming in. You see the pretty flowers
Speaker 1: in the grass, and then you see the trees start
Speaker 1: to thrive when you cut off the dead branches and
Speaker 1: you prune them as they go.
Speaker 2: Up, and.
Speaker 1: The land just gets more vibrant and prettier and healthier.
Speaker 1: As man, as commanded in Genesis, cultivates the land and
Speaker 1: works the land. So there is a sense Stephen, that
Speaker 1: that man working the land, even if it's developing, it
Speaker 1: is better for it. I've definitely seen neighborhoods go into
Speaker 1: cotton fields that the cotton fields have lost all their
Speaker 1: nutrients and they're they're kind of worthless, or there's some
Speaker 1: kind of rocky land that was valueless, and the neighborhood
Speaker 1: goes in there. And then what happens with the neighborhood
Speaker 1: a good neighborhood is that they put a couple of
Speaker 1: trees in every front yard and a couple of trees
Speaker 1: in every backyard, and and over time the trees get
Speaker 1: big and the neighborhood gets older, and it's it actually
Speaker 1: creates a bit of a forest in a in a
Speaker 1: land that used to be just rocky cotton field. So
Speaker 1: there are positives, even though they're harder to find there,
Speaker 1: there are positives in development. And I could probably go
Speaker 1: on and on with some more ideas like that, but
Speaker 1: but I think ultimately this is not something you and
Speaker 1: I are gonna have to deal with because I live
Speaker 1: in Texas and I see millions of acres of undeveloped land.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you're you're sitting in in New York City
Speaker 1: and you're going, man, is there anything else we could
Speaker 1: possibly develop? I don't think. I don't think we can.
Speaker 1: But in America, uh, we we have millions and millions
Speaker 1: and millions of acres. And so I say, if we
Speaker 1: do it responsibly, then man and should come in and
Speaker 1: develop and do it with integrity, and do it with excellence,
Speaker 1: and do it with class, and and and do it
Speaker 1: with keeping the original owner in mind, keeping the farmer
Speaker 1: in mind. And you have a lot of farmers that
Speaker 1: lose their land to development, but then now they have
Speaker 1: a few million bucks to go and and get an
Speaker 1: even prettier piece of land farther out of town. I
Speaker 1: see this happen to farmers all the time in central Texas.
Speaker 1: There I don't think they're too sad when a developer
Speaker 1: comes in and buys their old grandpa's farm because they
Speaker 1: have so much money now in the bank that they
Speaker 1: get to go and and and share that with others
Speaker 1: and disperse it among their grandkids and get another farm
Speaker 1: somewhere else side. I don't see too much sadness when
Speaker 1: it comes to that stuff. So so, buddy, I love
Speaker 1: your heart. I love that you that you see that
Speaker 1: the bulldozers come in and you you get a little
Speaker 1: upset because I know that feeling. But as we go
Speaker 1: out and intend to tend to the land and multiply,
Speaker 1: if we do it with integrity and love, I think
Speaker 1: it is a good thing. This question comes from Michael says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: been trying to get in shape for a while now,
Speaker 1: but it just can't seem to stay consistent. Life always
Speaker 1: seems to get in the way between a demanding job,
Speaker 1: family responsibilities, and just trying to keep up with the
Speaker 1: day to day life. I find it hard to carve
Speaker 1: out time for exercise. I've tried starting out workout routines
Speaker 1: and meal plans, and for a couple of weeks I'm
Speaker 1: all in, and then something happens, word, gigs gets hectic,
Speaker 1: and kids need extra attention, and then I lose the
Speaker 1: motivation to keep on going. Before I know it, I'm
Speaker 1: right back where I started. It's so frustrating. It's not
Speaker 1: just about losing weight or looking a certain way. I
Speaker 1: really want to feel healthier and have more energy to
Speaker 1: keep up with my family. I know it's important, but
Speaker 1: sticking with it feels impossible when everything else seems to
Speaker 1: be so urgent. How do you stay motivated to prioritize
Speaker 1: fitness when life gets busy, and do you have any
Speaker 1: advice for making it less overwhelming and more of a
Speaker 1: long term habit. Thanks for taking your time to read this, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, Michael, Yeah, it's a good question, man. And
Speaker 1: how do I answer this? Because you could always tell
Speaker 1: with somebody how much they want something, how much they
Speaker 1: desire something, by the result of it and the progress
Speaker 1: of it in their life currently. So if you say
Speaker 1: my kids' lives are a huge priority for me, being
Speaker 1: there at their sporting events is a huge deal to me, Granger,
Speaker 1: and then you're out every week playing golf and missing
Speaker 1: the sporting events and you're with your buddies, I would
Speaker 1: say it looks like golf is the main priority here,
Speaker 1: not the kids. Right, that's easy to see. Super practical.
Speaker 1: Same thing with working out, Same thing with staying in shape.
Speaker 1: When you say you began your this whole email saying
Speaker 1: I've been trying to get in shape for a while
Speaker 1: now and just I can't seem to stay consistent, I
Speaker 1: would say, if you can't stay consistent and you've tried
Speaker 1: it for a while, then you just don't really want
Speaker 1: it as much as you want other things in life.
Speaker 1: And when we're talking about working out, that's not a
Speaker 1: bad thing, you know. That's not like reading the Bible.
Speaker 1: I would say. If we're talking about spiritual disciplines and
Speaker 1: reading your Bible, I would say, there you must drop
Speaker 1: other things to feast on the word of God, because
Speaker 1: man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word
Speaker 1: that comes from the mouth of God. So as you
Speaker 1: would not skip a meal, you cannot skip your personal
Speaker 1: devotional time with the Bible. But we're talking about working out.
Speaker 1: I think that's very important, but not as important as
Speaker 1: some other things. But I would say this, Michael, in
Speaker 1: the same way I would be talking about spiritual disciplines,
Speaker 1: I would say, I bet you, I bet you don't
Speaker 1: ever skip lunch, and you might not ever skip breakfast.
Speaker 1: And I would say your lunchtime is about an hour,
Speaker 1: probably forty five minutes at the least, a slot in
Speaker 1: your day for what you're asking, Because what you're asking
Speaker 1: is you're asking for me to help you with your
Speaker 1: schedule because you're busy and things come up. I don't
Speaker 1: know where you work, I wish I did. I don't
Speaker 1: know your work routine. I wish I did because I
Speaker 1: could directly help you with that. But I would say,
Speaker 1: if it's not waking up early, which is the number
Speaker 1: one recommendation, would be set your alarm thirty minutes earlier.
Speaker 1: You don't have to go to a gym. You could
Speaker 1: do a workout online and you don't even need weights.
Speaker 1: Or you can go to Academy Sports and buy some
Speaker 1: of those adjustable dumbells that they go from ten pounds
Speaker 1: to sixty pounds and they're just two units and you
Speaker 1: could adjust it. You could buy those and a bench
Speaker 1: and you could pay a couple hundred bucks and be
Speaker 1: in and cancel the gym membership and do this in
Speaker 1: the garage. Set your alarm thirty minutes earlier. And do that, or,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, if that's not possible, if getting
Speaker 1: up earlier is not possible, because what we talked about
Speaker 1: earlier with sleep, then I would say skip lunch. And
Speaker 1: if that sounds shocking to you, then I would say
Speaker 1: that you must not be that serious about it. Eat
Speaker 1: if you like to eat, eat a bigger dinner. And
Speaker 1: my brother Tyler, I'll tell you what. That guy's crazy.
Speaker 1: He only eats dinner and he's been doing this for
Speaker 1: years and that's just the way he is. Like I'll say, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to go to lunch. He'll go, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna eat. He has trained his body in
Speaker 1: this way. Or he doesn't even get hungry. Now. He'll
Speaker 1: eat twenty five hundred calories at night in one sitting
Speaker 1: because he could do that. But he didn't need breakfast
Speaker 1: or lunch, and it sureed us free up his day
Speaker 1: a lot. So he'll go with me to lunch, but
Speaker 1: he'll just sit there and drink water. So have you
Speaker 1: ever thought about that? I mean, there's a thousand things
Speaker 1: we could talk about, Michael, But I would say, but
Speaker 1: you haven't thought about I bet you haven't thought that
Speaker 1: lunch is an option, and if you go to work
Speaker 1: every day you probably do, then there's there's probably a
Speaker 1: gym that costs twenty bucks a month that's walking distance
Speaker 1: or a quick drive from wherever you work, and you
Speaker 1: can get off for lunch like you usually do. So
Speaker 1: you get off it and you say you usually leave it
Speaker 1: noon and come back like one fifteen to work. Leave
Speaker 1: it noon, go to the gym that takes ten minutes
Speaker 1: to drive there. Now it's it's twelve to ten. You
Speaker 1: work out for thirty minutes, it's twelve forty. You get dressed,
Speaker 1: you take a shower if you need to at the gym,
Speaker 1: have it all in a bag, and you hit the
Speaker 1: road at one and you're back at the office at
Speaker 1: same time about one ten, one fifteen. So you've just
Speaker 1: traded one thing for the next, and you will feel
Speaker 1: better for this, and you'll feel healthier if you're If
Speaker 1: you're like man, I can't skip food like that, then
Speaker 1: take a couple of protein bars in the bag and
Speaker 1: eat some high calorie protein bars or a high calorie
Speaker 1: meal replacement supplement powdered form. Mix it with some water
Speaker 1: or some almond milk or something like that. Shake it
Speaker 1: up in a little one of the little shakers, you'd
Speaker 1: be good to go. And once again it goes back
Speaker 1: to how bad do you want this? Like, are you
Speaker 1: really serious about this? Because we could, we can go
Speaker 1: down a whole list of options. I would say maybe
Speaker 1: one of the problems that you're having is you're you're
Speaker 1: you're thinking about the workout as too much of a
Speaker 1: time commitment, and you're not thinking that you could do
Speaker 1: what you need to do in thirty minutes. I hesitate
Speaker 1: to talk about me because we're all so different, and
Speaker 1: we're all motivated by different things, and we all physically
Speaker 1: benefit from different kinds of exercises. But I've done I've
Speaker 1: done strength training. I'm not a big cardio guy. I'm
Speaker 1: not a big definitely not a CrossFit guy, but I've
Speaker 1: done I've done like chest on Monday, back on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: legs on Wednesday, shoulders on Thursday, and arms on Friday.
Speaker 1: I've done that for maybe twenty years. I remember doing
Speaker 1: it in high school before that, so a long time.
Speaker 1: When I was on the road touring, I did it
Speaker 1: in the mornings. I always found a local gym I
Speaker 1: had a membership at anytime. Fitness and Planet Fitness and
Speaker 1: a monthly membership at each of those it was like
Speaker 1: twenty bucks. And so wherever city I went through, there
Speaker 1: was always either and Anytime Fitness or a Planet Fitness.
Speaker 1: And if there wasn't, then the venue I was playing
Speaker 1: suggested something else that was almost always free to go
Speaker 1: work out, or sometimes a ten dollars day day fee
Speaker 1: sometimes And so I worked. There wasn't an excuse not
Speaker 1: to do it. And so I have several workouts for
Speaker 1: each of those different muscle groups, I said on my
Speaker 1: phone on my notes app, So I could go in
Speaker 1: there and there's little videos I could press play, and
Speaker 1: they're like thirty five minutes each. So when I want
Speaker 1: to do a chess workout, I could find any gym
Speaker 1: in the country or some adjustable dun bells and press
Speaker 1: play if I have a bench and do a thirty minute.
Speaker 1: At every hotel, by the way, that I've ever stayed
Speaker 1: in has something to do, you know, some kind of
Speaker 1: exercise room. Some are better than others. But when I
Speaker 1: go to speaking and engagement now, I will always get
Speaker 1: up that morning. I'll get my coffee, i will read
Speaker 1: my Bible, I'll do my devotion, I'll fill out my journal,
Speaker 1: I'll do my Bible memory, and then I will walk
Speaker 1: downstairs at the hotel to the gym and I will
Speaker 1: do my workout, and then I'll come back to my
Speaker 1: hotel room and start my day and by the way,
Speaker 1: skip breakfast typically, So that's how about do you want it? Michael?
Speaker 1: How about do you want it? One more thing? Having
Speaker 1: a plan before you get to that day is pretty critical.
Speaker 1: So for instance, if I'm in a hotel per se,
Speaker 1: i will check in, go put my bags up in
Speaker 1: the room, and then I'll go back down and I'll say,
Speaker 1: where's your fitness room, and they'll say, second floor, into
Speaker 1: the hall. So I'll go get an elevator. I go
Speaker 1: to the second floor. I go to the end of
Speaker 1: the hall and I peek in there just to look
Speaker 1: at it, and I'll go, Okay, they got a bench,
Speaker 1: they have dumbbells that go up to fifty pounds. They
Speaker 1: have two treadmills, and a like a medicine ball. And
Speaker 1: then I'll go back to my room and then I'll
Speaker 1: know in my mind, I know tomorrow is shoulder day,
Speaker 1: and so I've got a I've got a little video
Speaker 1: on my phone that work for the dumbbells. They go
Speaker 1: up to fifty pounds, a treadmill and a medicine ball,
Speaker 1: and that'll work for my shoulder day. So that's my plan.
Speaker 1: And then I'll look at look at my schedule and
Speaker 1: I go, Okay, the best time because my morning's gonna
Speaker 1: start about eight thirty. That means I need to be
Speaker 1: in that. See, I'll get up at six. So I'll
Speaker 1: look at my watch. It's it's ten thirty right now.
Speaker 1: So I'll try to get in bed. And then I
Speaker 1: need seven hours. So if I can get to if
Speaker 1: i'll read a little bit, if i can get to
Speaker 1: sleep by eleven, then I'll wake up at six, that's
Speaker 1: seven hours. I'll get my coffee and oh, and I
Speaker 1: get up. I literally get up in the hotel room.
Speaker 1: This is every time I'm in a hotel. And I
Speaker 1: will get that coffee that's in the little plastic bag,
Speaker 1: and I'll there's a cup for that little plastic coffee maker.
Speaker 1: I'll take the cup out of the plastic bag and
Speaker 1: I'll set it in the coffee maker, and I'll get
Speaker 1: the coffee pod and I'll put it right next to it.
Speaker 1: And then I'll get my water bottle and I'll put
Speaker 1: it right next to that, and I get it all
Speaker 1: set out, so then my alarm goes off at six.
Speaker 1: I go over there. I'd put that. I take the
Speaker 1: cup of the cup for the coffee, fill it with water,
Speaker 1: put it in the machine, put the pod in, hit power,
Speaker 1: I take my iPad, I hit start on my daily
Speaker 1: reading plan in my Bible. I start reading, and I
Speaker 1: go through the reading and I do my little journal.
Speaker 1: I drink the coffee, and then by now it's six
Speaker 1: forty five. I go downstairs and I go in At
Speaker 1: seven o'clock, I'm working on my shoulder workout. And then
Speaker 1: I go from there back upstairs, and now it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's seven fifteen, seven twenty, and I could check some emails,
Speaker 1: get dressed, and I'm out the door at eight to
Speaker 1: whatever I need to do. But that comes from the
Speaker 1: plan of the night before. It would be harder if
Speaker 1: I woke up that morning at six and been like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's see is there coffee in this place or they
Speaker 1: have breakfast downstairs. I wonder if they have a gym,
Speaker 1: And if they do have a gym, I wonder if
Speaker 1: they have free weights, like yet, I would that I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. It's so much better
Speaker 1: to have a plan. So that's my hotel plan. I
Speaker 1: have my home plan. But for you, Michael, gets your
Speaker 1: shoes ready, get your your your shorts and your T
Speaker 1: shirt that you're gonna wear. Get your little earbuds that
Speaker 1: you're going to listen to the workout on. Lay them
Speaker 1: all out the night before, look at your watch, know
Speaker 1: your plan. If you're going to do the lunch thing.
Speaker 1: If it, put it in your bag real neat Your
Speaker 1: wife says, what are you doing. I'm getting my getting
Speaker 1: my gym bag ready, put your shoes in there. Heyre's
Speaker 1: here's another side note. If you don't have good gym shoes,
Speaker 1: go buy some. I'm not an advocate for buying junk
Speaker 1: or things just to buy new things. I'm not. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, if you have shoes that you like,
Speaker 1: like gym shoes that you like, it will help motivate
Speaker 1: you for some strange reason. So what I mean is,
Speaker 1: don't have like hybrid like these these will work. These
Speaker 1: will be okay. You know, I wore them in the
Speaker 1: mud yesterday in the in the field, but they're okay. No,
Speaker 1: get you some gym shoes, you know, get you some
Speaker 1: modest gym shoes. Put them in the bag. Put your
Speaker 1: clothes in there, and put your put your little zip
Speaker 1: block bag with protein powder in it. Throw you a
Speaker 1: little a little protein bar in there, something high calorie.
Speaker 1: Zip it up, put it right there by whatever you
Speaker 1: got to take the work or put it in your truck.
Speaker 1: The more you prepare the night before, then you get
Speaker 1: up that next day and there it is ready to go.
Speaker 1: The planning is out of it. It's just waiting for
Speaker 1: you to execute the plan. How bad do you want it?
Speaker 1: That's the question. Love you guys. Email me podcast at
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com. Don't forget to go to YouTube and
Speaker 1: go to this video or any of the podcast episodes
Speaker 1: and comment below specifically on that things you like, things
Speaker 1: you don't like, And then if you're listening on Apple,
Speaker 1: make sure you give me a five star and a
Speaker 1: review and above all that, send it to a friend.
Speaker 1: Love you guys, See you next Monday. Thanks for joining
Speaker 1: me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys.
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