Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 34 with Trevor Thompson

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

The final Full Auto Friday installment of 2020 and the first Full Auto Friday installment of 2021. Listener Q and A, somewhere around a five-minute time cap. 1. New Years Resolutions 2. Therapy recommendations for MIL/LEO 3. Finding your path, then sticking to it 4. When to cut ties in a toxic relationship enjoy

Okay, got the red smoke. Boom. Gun runs. North and south. West of the smoke. West up of smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke.

I'm looking at danger close now. I'm all winning, then. It can't... Boom. We are recording. You ready for this? Let's do it live. New Year's Eve.

I've actually been asking a few of my guests this. Are you a New Year's resolution type person? No. What's your theory or I thought? on it. That's, uh, if that's something that gets you to change a lifestyle choice, then all the better. But I don't feel like an arbitrary day that was picked out of a hat, however many hundred, thousands of years ago, right? Yeah, why not just make it that we now choose as a hallmark holiday, right? Where most people are, let's be honest, getting belligerently drunk

and celebrating your specific time zones changeover. Why does that... So far I support everything you're saying about the... There's no issue here. Make your life choices. Why is that your reason to have a kale smoothie every morning or, I don't know, get a divorce or not? Or go to the gym or go to the gym.

Exactly. And it's proven over and over and over that these things just don't, they don't follow through. Like people don't fix themselves because they're seeing it as a New Year's resolution on paper or not that maybe they'll go through with or whatever. What I would suggest, and I'm just not a New Year's resolution person, is tell yourself, I want to make a lifestyle choice,

and then pick a goal five years in the future, two years in the future, and a year in the future. Because if you have something in stone that you have to do and prepare for, whether it's diet, education, exercise, you're going to fucking do it as opposed to, I want to lose 25 pounds by when and for what? Yeah, and I would say instead of picking that date on the calendar, because I know people who, not a lot, but I know a couple people who have talked about New Year's resolution since

November. But like mid-November, they're like, okay, I'm going to do that after the New Year. Why not just make it tomorrow? Yeah, or the next day, because what I have noticed in myself and the times that I have thought about New Year's resolutions. Let's make it, let's talk about, I don't like the term diet, you know, eating habits or however you would want to describe it, because I think diets are totally temporary. You know, in eating habit is a little bit more permanent, but if you say I'm going to start a new diet on January 1st, and this November 15th, you're

going to eat like a fucking garbage disposal for those 45 days. I'm going to get all the pizza in. Do you know how I know that? I've done it. So it's, you know, Even, you know, I do it on the micro scale where it's Friday, I'm like, Monday is the day. I'm going to kick it in the dick. I'm going to kick it in the fifth gear and kick life in the ass. But then it's like, ooh, I got two days, which, and then I eat so much crap. I don't want to do anything on that Monday. I'm never drinking again until, well, next time.

I have quit drinking at least 100 times. And that's a low, that's it. That's it? So, yeah, I'm not any years as a loser person either. I think you should, if you decide you need to make a change, if you recognize you need to make a change or your life would be better, if you were going to make a change, why the hell would you wait until, like you said,

an arbitrary date on a calendar? Put together the plan. I'm a huge fan of the plan. I personally write shit down all the time. For me, there's a lot of power in the written word. But take the time you need to put the plan in place and then execute your plan.

Don't wait for that date. And to put a pen in it, maybe tell somebody for a little bit of... Accountability. Accountability. Yeah. All right. We have three questions for today

because, first off, people listening to this tomorrow if they can even maybe this will be all they do because we were just talking about getting you'll get literally drunk but three questions this probably ended up being like 20 minutes total I pick three different ones and for people who submit

if you want to submit a question for Full Auto Friday you can do it over social media through a direct message I do my best to keep a handle on those or there's a contact button on the podcast website cleardhotpodcast.com hit the contact button and that sends me an email which makes it easy for me to find because I go and into my inbox and just type in full auto Friday. Probably.

I do the best I can. But here's the thing. I often get repetitive questions, so I try to pick different tranches. Yeah. So if I don't answer your specific question, but I see multiple people asking similar questions, then I'll do the best I can. Like the number one question I get, and I bet you probably get on social media too, is, hey, I want to be a seal.

What do you recommend? And I've answered that so many times. All the time. Yeah, it's, I'm trying to figure, I don't know, maybe that's a written document that could be sent out. I don't know. But. Yeah, Stu Smith. He wrote a few written documents about that. I mean, I just think, I want to get back to everybody because I can, well. I want to try. Well, and I can imagine being in their shoes because you and I were both in their shoes, but I didn't have any connection or ability to reach out to people. So I do the best I can.

It gets tough sometimes. I digress. Three questions. All right. Question one. And I've decided everything will be anonymous on Full Out of Friday so people don't have to worry about their name or any of that stuff. Question one, what are your thoughts on therapy for Mill LEOs? LEO being a law enforcement officer. I am a law enforcement officer and has been difficult to find qualified individuals to discuss issues and trauma job, issues and trauma job or life related. What's the best way to find a therapist? Crap.

Well. You want me to go first? Because I actually think about this one. From the military side. Yeah. we have like it or hate it the VA to lean on right so at least you post service yeah you can start there yep beyond that so let me preface with I haven't been to a therapist or a psychologist or a psychiatrist ever in your life except for the out processing like talk through that you do

I don't even remember doing that so well I did you get out though 16 so it's three years after me but I say I had issues sleeping, which they took as a PTSD issue. So they sent me to the psych, and he's like, hey, what's the deal? Like, you having a problem sleeping? Like, yeah, my hip hurts all the time. He goes, oh, well, anyways, do you want to talk about anything? Which was fine. Like, we just bullshitted about my service. I think he just was giving me the open opportunity. That was a great experience because there was zero pressure. Something I've heard from a lot of friends that have had to feel like they needed to talk to somebody who wasn't in their personal inner circle is it can be a lot like a relationship where not every therapist or psychologist

is going to be the right one for you. So see a couple. I think that should be expected going in. Just because somebody is a therapist or has whatever acronym on their business card doesn't mean they'll be the perfect fit for you. Yeah. And it's a fit thing. Yeah. I actually, have, there's a sponsor of the Monday episodes called BetterHelp, and it's essentially online counseling, which is amazing, right, in the COVID era. But every time I talk about it or I do an ad read, I make sure I say, expect to, or don't be surprised if the first person you talk with isn't a perfect match. It's like a shoe, right? Like, you know, you're thinking about long-term goals here because talking with anybody about issues as easy as, you know, I get in arguments with my wife or

girlfriend to I've had thoughts of you know killing myself or whatever the range there is you need to be comfortable with that person and you need to understand that they're professional and that there's zero pressure for you to be coming back to them personally they just want you to feel comfortable to get the best experience possible not the best quote help because you might not need help you just want to talk and unload some of this emotional baggage. It is. It's okay to need help. Precisely.

Yeah. I think that's something that's very important. But they're not the one who's sitting there looking at them going, you need help. You know, you've self-identified with I need to unload something. Or work through something. Exactly. Do you have an aversion, adversion, an a version to sitting down and talking with those people or you've just never felt? I've just never felt the personal need to have to do that for myself.

Yep. I'm very willing to talk to a lot of people inside of my personal circle, and a lot of them I'm comfortable with unloading a lot of emotional information. So maybe I just haven't had things that I've needed to talk to somebody about. Yeah. Which is fine. There's a spectrum for everything. And so I have leaned on counseling at portions throughout my...

my life. So I'm going to unpack this a touch more for this man or woman. I actually screen grabbed it and indeed don't even have the name associated so I can't mess up because if it's in front of me, much like Anchorman, I might read it. There's something that I see in this sentence and I'm not sure that what this person is saying matches what I've seen. But I will have military people and law enforcement people reach out and they will say, I don't want to talk to somebody who hasn't lived through what I have lived through. Oh, yeah. Or has done the job that I have done.

And I think that's a mistake. Like you're saying, we come from a very tight-knit group of individuals. And there are friends that I have and have had that I would talk with things about, that I have talked with a counselor about. But what I will say is this. There is a difference between talking about a non-trained professional and your friends. Oh, yeah. And I'm not putting a value judgment as to which one is better or worse.

but what I'm saying is a trained professional doesn't need to live in the boots, the metaphorical boots that you walk in to be able to put a framework in place to help you. They have a better understanding, at least I'm speaking about my experience. They have an understanding of the human brain, emotions, stress, how those things can tie together. And the best counselors I've ever been to have not given me answers. they've asked me questions. And they probably have a repertoire of people that they've spoken to

with either similar or parallel experiences that they can draw on to then listen and help you unpack what you're talking about. And the best therapist I've talked to were not SEALs. Oh yeah. Do you actually, do you know of a SEAL psychiatrist

or psychologist? I do not. Not off the top of my head. There's more MDs and PAs. Correct. They're like in the weeds type people as opposed to that side. And the reason I bring that up is there are shrinks and sikes attached to the teams. And I don't know of one that's gone from being a team guy to that world.

That doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. But I would suspect in the LEO world, or I'm going to add first responder of any kind, somebody who responds or has a high level of stress and exposure to trauma, whether it's their own trauma or other people in trauma, I'm going to add to it that it's probably there's not that many people, that have gone from that occupation to the psych shrink world or therapist, because I'm assuming there's psych shrinks and therapists. Maybe there's all three of those categories.

Yeah. Obviously, I'm not an expert. But it shouldn't, don't let the fact that they didn't walk in your shoes disqualify them from somebody that you would want to be able to talk to. Yeah. They're not trying to train you to do your job. They're trying to help you unpack things going on in your shoes. your head with your emotions. So like that person isn't there to to try and tear you down. Like

they're trying to get you to live in a better space. Or if you find that person that's trying to tear you down, like get up and leave. Out. Yeah. And you don't actually have to stay the whole time either. You can, you know, give the one finger salute. And I'm not recommending this course of action, but you can give the old one finger salute and walk out. And for people, so this is an LEO. I would say that there probably is a robust group or stable of people. who are able to help you that your profession or your organization specifically, whatever department you are with, has been working with. So therefore, they have more experience. So I would pursue it through your department, just like in the SEAL community. And it's probably

free to start there. Yeah. Well, and the person is dealing a lot in and with the issues that you may want them to be talking about. Fire, I'm sure it's the same way. EMS, I'm sure it's the same way. The SEAL community shrinks, I mean, they're going on deployment. They're around the campfires. They're just there. They have a better understanding. They're immersed in that world. And I think that gives them as close to an optic as what the people are going through other than living it themselves, which again, I don't think it is a requirement. So I'd start with your department looking for counselors that they would recommend.

If you don't have the ability to do that or you don't feel comfortable to do that, if you have close friends, I would talk to close friends and say, hey, have you ever needed to talk to anybody? or if you did, who was it? Would you make a recommendation? If you don't feel comfortable doing that, get on the goddamn internet and do some research in your local area. Yeah. I mean, there's counselors everywhere.

Yeah. And they're not out there talking about your issues. You know, that person is a professional. Yeah. And they should be keeping it private. Which, I'm glad you said that. I think having somebody to talk to

who comes from a completely, different world than you do might actually make it easier because there's no worry of judgment. It's a blank slate. And you are a complete, not that you're an anomaly to them, but you are just a standalone individual, you're there. And another thing I hope people realize is that therapists are not there to fix you. They are there to facilitate you working through your issues in the hopes that you would fix yourself or however you'd like to describe it. So going and talking to somebody who was totally unknown might be amazing because you could totally open up to somebody because you're not worried about any blowback, whether it be from them talking to somebody you know or friends or

whatever it is. So bottom line, I personally cannot say enough about the value of counseling. I highly recommend it. Yeah, I think we probably hammered it. Hammered it. All right. Question number two, a longer one. I'm going to try my best to make this short and to the point. So I don't take up too much of your time. I'm a prior service army infantrymen that served in the 10th Mountain Division deployed to Afghanistan in 2016 and had an average enlistment for a modern-day infantryman, a bullshit CIB, which is combat infantry badge, and no school is under my belt. Went to Ranger School when I was a cherry private and quit like a bitch. Still haunts me to this day, which I have to say, regardless of your selection program,

people who voluntarily drop or drop on request at DOR haunts me. regrets. Like, those are the two things that I hear the most often with that decision. So, anyway, got out as a corporal in 2017 to go to school and fuck off as a civilian. I've been fucking off for the past couple of years, and I've gotten nowhere. I've been arrested twice for fighting in bars and have just been stagnant. About a year ago, after my second arrest, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I didn't like the person I saw it. So I decided it was time to make a change. I went to the record. recruiter and started my process of reenlisting as an 18 x-ray which I believe oh yeah green beret candidates

yep fast forward a year and I'm in the best shape of my life and turned around my mindset to a person I'm confident in one month before my ship date I tear my fucking ACL what period the period fuck period it's a kick in the dick for sure and I'd appreciate your perspective on my situation thank you Oh, buddy. It sucks. I mean, that's a tough one. Upside. He's seen the positive.

Whoever this is, well, I'm going to, he has seen the positive from the life change in choosing the 18 X-ray route, right? Yep. You've completely flipped the script on the bullshit that you were involved in. You may or may not have moved. So hopefully the people around you are different. an ACL tear will heal, right? Takes a little bit of what we call time, though. Yeah.

You may have time. You may not. I mean, just based on the timeline, I mean, I'm guessing you still have time. You know, I couldn't have said it better with what you opened with. He recognized the path he was going down. Yeah. Not correct. Made the changes, which I'm sure were not easy.

Put a target on the wall, that 18 X-ray pipeline, was looking at that. blew out your ACL, knew that he was living with regret from quitting in the past. What I'm going to say is you've already established what it is and how much of a difference you can make in yourself. Maybe you're not going to get a chance to continue the 18x ray pipeline. Maybe that's going to be a disqualification. But what I would hate to see is all that hard work that this person put in to turn it around be lost because of that. And I get this a version, not like exactly this question, but I'll get questions from people saying, I never served and now it's later in life

and I have all of this regret for not serving and my response to them is... We talked about that. Yeah, my response to them is, well, what if your service wasn't what you wanted it to be? You still have to find a way to be a positive contributing member of a society or what I like to say to be a value add in every situation.

Yeah. Just like this guy. So you're in the best shape of your life. You've turned your mindset into a person that you're confident in. All that shit's awesome. Find a way to remove the 18 X-ray pipeline of that and be able to put some

something else, a target on the wall that you can drive forward. So not everything is tied to the title or name of the occupation. That's one thing that I really try to caution people around is the pursuit of the occupation is great. I'd never talk anybody out of it, but you should be super cost as having your entire identity and your motivation for being a good human being tied up into that. I think it has to exist separately. Especially being in the position that they're in and the older you're getting, right?

you know, if you're blinders on and you're 18 years old. If? Yeah. I mean when? Yeah. When you have your blinders on in your 18? When I was blinders on in 19 joining the Navy, yeah, it's a little easier to be so singular and micro-focused and not have this understanding that there's more to life.

You know, speaking to the question, ask you, like, you've seen how crappy you can be as a person, you don't like that person, you didn't have to hit the bottom, and you've made a change. Stay in that lane, stay in the lane, right? Being an SF guy is not what's keeping you in the lane. You're keeping yourself on this better life path, and anybody that's had the same sort of scenario

where they've blown an ACL out or torn their shoulder or broken their back, you know, there's any- Substantial injury that puts you on the side, lines. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah. Right?

And I mean, we both saw it in training. Yep. I saw guys blow things out and that's it. Amazing people. That's not the end of their life. That's the end of that specific program and that portion of their life is now on the sideline or gone. That's okay.

There's so many other things to do that you can focus what is now obviously positive energy. You want to serve. You want to be the best at something. There are other programs out there. from smoke jumping to rescue swimming for the Coast Guard. Like there are other things that you can figure out if you've been disqualified. Yeah.

If you haven't, take the appropriate measures to recover and come back stronger. I would say that's your plan A. That would be my plan A. For sure. I like you described it. You found your lane, so stay in the lane. Stay in the lane. Because obviously this dude looked in the mirror is like, hmm, these life choices.

And here's the thing. You know, getting a green beret is an amazing thing. I love green berets. But if you can't do that, maybe your passion is painting or like an arc. Fill in the blank. Whatever gets you back in that lane. Focus on energy. Yes.

Heading in the right direction. So for this guy, I get it. It's a kick in the dick. Look at this from a little bit of a bigger picture. It sounds like this probably just happened. So right now the injury is directly in front of your nose. All you can see is the injury and the potential impact that I'm sure it's to have because you're not going to ship in a month with a torn ACL. And if they give you the

option to do so, don't do it. Give yourself the time to heal. You need to go into these pipelines as healthy as possible. Do not go into a pipeline nursing and injury, but that's not part of this question. That's just advice for anybody listening. Oh, my God. That's the main thing I tell everybody. Eat, be healthy, don't be sick. Yeah. And be lucky. Like, I don't know what else to say. Yeah. But take this injury in the proximity that it is right now and just expand your horizon a little bit. Look at the next year as opposed to the next month, put a plan in place. And I can't say it better than you did, Trevor. Just stay in the lane and don't let yourself go back to the person who was fighting in bars and looking in the mirror and not liking what they saw.

You know, and at the end, do not let, I mean, you've already been through process, but do not let your recruiter or whoever is in charge of you bullshit you into leaving before you want or taking a deal you would not take. Yeah. If you have not signed on the dotted line, don't do it unless you are 100% comfortable with that decision. Yeah, because once you ship off... That's it?

Yeah, you're on the vessel. You know, and like for me, if you sign a contract, you signed a damn contract, period. You are abiding to that thing. Agreed. Question three, last one for 2020. Oh, shit. This one is about not letting others have a damn contract.

negative impact on you. This person says, let me provide some context. Ever since I was a kid, my dad has been on a self-destructive path. He's been an alcoholic for decades and has avoided responsibility and discipline his whole life. This summer, everything has caught up and he's about to lose everything he owns. When all this happened, I dropped everything in my life and went to live with him to help. After two to three months of living with him, I had to continue with my own life, but I still feel like I'm quitting on my dad. I know that I force, I know I can't force him to do anything and can't have his life dragged down my own, but it's hard to actually apply that to my life. Thank you for any help or advice you could give would be awesome. This is a

tough one. Yeah, it's a tough one because it's a blood relative, but you and I both have. What does family actually mean? We've talked about this. Is it the DNA that ties you, or is it how people actually treat you? Why should you let somebody who has a genetic tie to you treat you like an absolute piece of shit? And I'm not, I'm not directly answering this question. I'm talking about in general. Who gives a fuck if you share DNA and somebody treats you like shit? Why should you tolerate that when you would never tolerate it from somebody who is not a blood relative? And not even that. At the end of your life, you're the only one dying with you. so you have to live with the choices you've made

and if you've kept somebody around father, mother, brother, sister, friend, co-worker that made you miserable that was your decision. Now, and life is too goddamn short. This is separating out like truly abusive relationships. So there are people that are in scary relationships and they're stuck there.

Yep. Because they're in fear for physical damage, you know, financial retribution. Okay, let's, Eliminate that. We're talking about an alcoholic father that obviously you've tried to help. There comes a point when you can love a person and not have anything the fuck to do with them. And I think there comes a point where...

Like, what's your mental state worth? Yeah. Not only does it come to a point where you can love somebody and not have anything to do with them, I think it comes, it can come to a point where you could have a point where you could have a all the love for somebody, but you have to make that decision to cut ties so that your life doesn't get ruined by the decisions that they're making. Let's look at alcoholism as an example. You are obviously not pouring booze down your dad's throat. Yeah. I can only imagine, I mean, and the son and father relationship, I'm sure, very similar to mother and daughter. And not that,

you know, mothers and sons and fathers and daughters can't be equally close, but these two Those are kind of like the archetype. I can't imagine a situation more difficult than this. You're probably looking at somebody who, probably part of your very first memories. But getting to a place, and the person said this in the email, I can't force him to do anything

and I can't let his life drag down my own, but it's hard to actually apply that to my life. He's identified the problem right there. The difficulty in making that decision to cut somebody free... Well, and it's really cutting. yourself free. You're not cutting them loose. You're cutting yourself loose. You're removing yourself. You're taking the life raft on the sinking ship is what you're doing. Exactly.

You're not throwing weight onto their vessel. Precisely. You are taking the life raft. So what you've been doing, right, is not throwing them a life ring. It's not bailing out their boat, right? It's pulling them up into your boat and weighing you. You, down. You haven't built a new boat for them. You haven't helped them move in a direction more than they can help themselves, right? And you're not a counselor, you're not a life coach. Sometimes this takes other professional help, and if you don't think they're ready for that or they won't accept it, that is not your, that's literally not your job to do that. You're living your own life and letting somebody destroy your emotional well-being,

think about all the other help you can be doing for other people that are in your life that need help, that are obviously a little more receptive. Yeah. I mean, it's, I don't want to tell somebody like, ah, fuck them, but... Well, here's what I'll say. I won't tell somebody you should do this. What I'll say is you have to draw a line in the sand.

That would be my advice. You have to draw a line in the sand. For yourself, not them. Correct. You're telling yourself, this is my line. And I think the line, actually, though, is the easy part. Yeah. Holding the line is the hard one.

Drawing boundaries. Correct. And I think it's, I think it is incredibly healthy and fair to verbalize those boundaries to the person that you're drawing the line in the sand for. And then you have to hold it. You cannot, I think what ruins this concept, and it's ruined it for me, is that you start letting it creep incrementally. Because then not only is it fucking with the person

you're trying to draw the boundary with, but it's messing with yourself. And then you're worried about what emotional statement. By having a good day, I'm having a bad day. Oh, okay, fine. I'm just, okay, fine. I'll respond to the text. Yes, I'll give you money.

Fill in the blank. If you let that slide, it just muddies the water even more. I can't think of anything healthier than drawing that line in the sand. That's, again, like I said, the easy part, the hard part is holding that line the sand and I can't even imagine how hard that would be if it's your father because and I don't have no I have no idea how old you are oh I says he's 18 holy shit okay so that's up top it's kids young that's hard

here's the thing though buddy um you're going to find out in your 20s and 30s and 40s you're going to look back on your dad and realize that the age that's on your driver's license has nothing to do with how much of a hold you actually have on being an adult or on life or that you're going to have everything figured out because you're older. I can have some empathy with your dad. I mean, I try to have empathy with everybody. I don't care how old you are. It doesn't mean you're an expert.

And as you get older in life, that'll become hopefully a little bit easy for you in the long term, I would think, to see your father in a different light. You're young right now. You're going to go through your own struggles. I hope God that don't make you an alcoholic or you follow the path that he did. but I think it might give you a little bit more empathy for your dad. And having said all of that, you still have to draw those boundaries. Otherwise, he will drag you down with him.

Well, and upside, you're 18, right? So you're an adult. So if this is, if it feels dangerous, if you feel like... You have options. You're in a shit scenario. You're an adult. You can push away, accept the fact that you're pushing away because you are your own person. and you are in charge of your own life.

So make that choice for your well-being, for your well-being. And if you can't help him, there are people that might be able to. See if you can seek some help from some outside counselors, some crisis counselors, AA has counselors, there are people that deal with this kind of thing

if you think it's at that point. Research, Alon. Al-Anon. I have no direct experience with it. but I've heard great things specifically when it comes to alcoholism and addictions. And I'll close on this topic by saying you can't help other people until you are healthy and in a place that is comfortable for yourself first. Fuck yeah.

And if you're tied to this person who I'm going to sounds like a little bit like the Titanic, that's going to be very difficult. So create that space, like you said, Trevor, you have the ability to move if you need to. Make sure you're in a good spot and do not allow somebody else to drag you down just because they have some fucking genetic tie to you. Yep. closing thoughts on 2021 so what you call it oh yeah

2020 we'll do 2021 we've skipped 2021 yeah closing thoughts on the year we're already at a half an hour we said we were going to do 20 minutes whatever closing thoughts are uh i hope that people took how this year has gone with shutdowns panic not panic financial issues

to pick a portion of their life, focus on it, and make it better. And if you haven't, don't fucking worry about it, start right now. Not pick something. January 1st, 2020. No, no, no, no. Right.

Fucking now. Well, and if you're listening to this, it's January 1st or second or third or whenever the hell you listen to it. It's Friday. Literally start today. Start as I'm talking. Think of something.

I don't give a shit if it's like, man, I have some crap. I need new shoes, go get new shoes, right? Pick a thing, start bettering your life because all of it's habit-driven. You start creating these habits, you will stick to them. Humans are really good at sticking to habits. I mean, especially coming off that last question, that's a chemical dependency and a disease, but it starts with habits. You start habituating things.

Think about that. Habits can be something that will help you tremendously. or they can destroy you. I like it. What closing thoughts do I have for 2020? I almost said 2021. Again, it's because it's so close. It's calling to me.

Closing thoughts. Get a calendar. No shit. How do you need a calendar? Do you have an iPhone? That's a calendar app on it. Closing thoughts. How can I...

I mean, you already said better yourself. You know, the one thing that sticks with me, looking back at 2020, and this doesn't apply to everybody, but it's a trend that, I saw that concerns me was a slight lack of critical thinking and acceptance of information that people were presented with absent working through it on your own or at least pursuing the information or diving into it as deep as you can critically thinking your way through

it. I would like to see that changed a little bit because I just worry that when you blindly receive information and it molds your life, you just are incredibly. malleable person. Oh, yeah. And I don't, I don't want people to be malleable. I want them to be intelligent, both IQ and EQ, so emotional intelligence and just plain intelligence. And I don't want them to be malleable.

I said something about that this week. I said, hey, in a world and a time that's inundated by information with an accessibility of information, do not trust anything 100% and question everything. I'm not saying to wear a fucking tinfoil hat. It's not all conspiracies. Actually, most of it probably isn't ever. But have a little bit of critical thinking. If somebody says, X, Y, Z, and your life doesn't depend on it, that very moment, take a step back.

Yeah. You're always in control of your reaction. And that's, you know what, that's my 2021 hope for people. Realize you're always in control of your personal reaction, regardless of what happens. around you and never surrender that to emotion. Yeah. Stay in control. Full Auto Friday. It's now a self-help podcast. If you're looking to me for self-help, you, that's a mistake because I am a

fucking dumpster fire. So am I. So, whew. All right, you ready to go get dinner? Damn right. Done.