Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening,
everybody, and welcome to today's episode of
the Never Peak Project Podcast. I'm your host,
Coach Ranger. In 2024, I walked across the United
States of America, all the way from South Carolina
to California. And during that journey, I learned
a ton of different lessons about life, business,
relationships, and so many other things. And
in this podcast, my goal is to share those lessons
with you so that you can apply it to every facet
of your life, so that you can build a life worth
remembering. Never peak. In today's episode,
I'm going to be talking a little bit about an
experience that I had both in South Carolina
and how that affected a challenge that I took
on over in Texas, halfway across the country.
And it was amazing how this connection point
from just a couple of bracelets given to me by
a first responder helped me do something crazy
of eating a 72 ounce steak. We'll get into that
in just a second. But as always, thank you so
much for your time and attention today. Thank
you so much. And let's just jump straight into
today's episode. As I mentioned, today's story
really does start over in South Carolina. I was
only about seven or 10 days into my walk across
the country, only a couple hundred miles in.
And as I was leaving a small town in South Carolina
called Saluda, I was approached and stopped by
a man in a pickup truck. He he jumped out. He
ran over to me and said, you know, I'm so glad
I saw you. I saw your interview on the news the
other day and I was really looking forward to
meeting you. I'm so glad that it worked out.
And I said, oh, well, thank you so much. I'm
honored and flattered that you would be willing
to go take some time out of your day, especially
so early in the morning to stop and hunt me down
and say hi. And I noticed that he had like a
little bit of a scarf over his face. And I was
like, oh, that's interesting. He said, oh, you
know, like I just got off of work. He was a first
responder for the county. And he was like, yeah,
I'm on my way home right now, but I'm glad I
saw you. He pulled down the scarf and I noticed
that his face like looked a little bit deformed,
like it was burnt a little. I was like, oh, like,
yeah, no, no, no problem at all. He started talking
and telling me, he's like, you're probably wondering,
like, what's going on over here. And I'm like,
well, you care to share the story. Yeah, of course.
But none of my business, really. He said, well,
you know, a few years ago, I was on the job and
I'm a firefighter, an EMT, first responder. And
I was in a burning building and part of the building
had collapsed. And it ended up burning my I got
all these burns all across my body, obviously
also my face. And I spent some time in the ICU
and we weren't really sure I was going to make
it. And I said, oh, wow, like what? What kept
you going during that time? Like, that's that's
insane. And he said that one of his buddies had
commissioned a few bracelets to be made based
off of some things that they always said to each
other. And one of those bracelets was to never
quit. And the other one is still breathing, still
fighting. And that is wrapped all the way around
the bracelet. You know, he reached down to his
arm. He had them on his wrist. He pulled them
off and he handed them to me. And he said, you
know, during this journey, you're going to be
faced with some challenges that are going to
make you question why you even began this in
the first place. And I hope that these will act
as a small reminder to just like to never quit.
And to remember that if you're still breathing,
you're still in the fight. You can still do the
thing. And he reminded me of a Jocko Willings
quote, which was in the idea of if you can still
say the word good, you're still alive. And if
you're still alive, you have some fight left
in you. And with that, he hopped in his truck,
he took off. And from that day forward, I wore
them on my left wrist throughout the entire journey,
throughout the rest of the walk. And it was just
a stark reminder. Like I I never really had a
true moment when I really felt like I wanted
to give up. And I think it's for that first few
weeks. It was just that like adrenaline rush
of starting the journey. But then really like
seeing these constantly on my wrist, you know,
as I was pushing the cart, they were always there.
I could always read them even on the bad weather
days or the painful days or, you know, the days
where I just felt negative. Like I was able to
pull myself out of it so quickly. because of
this constant reminder i didn't really feel an
urge to quit throughout the journey i do attribute
a lot to the bracelets and like my mindset going
into the into the walk but it really came to
a helm when i was in amarillo texas now there
is a you know like a 50 60 mile stretch before
amarillo comes on the east side where you start
seeing signs for a free 72 ounce steak It's over
at the Big Texan. They have this big steak challenge.
You know, you get four and a half, whatever,
five pounds of meat thrown in front of you and
some sides. They put you on the stage in the
center of the restaurant and they say, you know,
you have an hour to eat it. We're all watching.
Good luck, champ. And I had made the joke on
my social media, like, I'm going to do the challenge.
Ha ha. And people were like, yes, do it and live
stream it or record it. Like, we would love to
see that. I was like, OK, do I really want to
do this? So when I got to Amarillo, my fiance
to come and see me and we hung out for a few
days. And one of those days that she was there,
I decided to do the challenge. Now, there's a
few other lessons that I did prior to that, but
I'll get to those another time about preparation
and mindset setting. And something I noticed
from the people that were sitting next to me,
like as I got up there, they'd already started.
They were putting them next to me as we were
about to start at the same time or even people
that joined after me. where they were very quick
to put their negative beliefs about themselves
and their capabilities of completing the challenge
and try to like push that onto me. When I first
sat down, there's a few people going already
and they're saying, oh man, this is tough. Like
I'm not even halfway and I only have 10, 15 minutes
left. Like there's no way that I can do this.
Like this is so hard. I'm in so much pain. And
the people that were sitting with me at the same
time that I was starting. They're like, man,
I'm scared. I don't think I can do this. Like
before the before the plates even put in front
of them. And same thing with people that started
after me. Like, you know, I'm 30, 40 minutes
in pretty much done and they're sitting next
to me. They haven't even gotten their food and
they're already putting those beliefs and that
negativity out there. Now, the reason I bring
this up is because they didn't have that never
quit, that never that never settle that that
if you're still breathing, still fighting mentality.
And I saw this, like, it made me think of when
I was back in high school on the football team
when, you know, we'd be down by two or three
touchdowns at halftime and people, you could
just kind of start seeing the fight in their
eyes give out. Like, they'd already given up
and we still had plenty of time. That is something
I kept trying to tell people, like, as they were
sitting next to me and they're saying, oh, there's
no way I can do this. I don't know. And I kept
being like, no, dude, like, look at your time.
Like, you have time. Don't quit now. Like, let
the timer tell you when you're done. Why are
you deciding right now that you are done when
you still have 45, 50 minutes left? Like, you
gave out before, like, you even had a chance
to try. And I feel like that's something that
so many of us do once we kind of have that stake
thrown in front of us. Like, there's the Dunning
-Kruger effect, how, like, when we first start
seeing something, we kind of have that, like,
high confidence but very low wisdom. And it's
like that peak of like where you know nothing,
like you don't even know what you don't know,
but you're just excited to do it. I feel like
a lot of people do that when they see that steak
challenge. They're like, oh, I can eat a lot.
Like my friends tell me I have a bottomless pit.
But then they kind of hit that that valley of
despair once the steak is thrown from them, once
they really see what that challenge is going
to be like and what it's going to take to. Get
from zero to one from where you are to where
you want to go. And then as you kind of start
realizing what you need to do in order to make
a possibility and happen, you kind of say that
like, you know, that slope of enlightenment until
you kind of hit that plateau where it's more
sustainable and can actually do the work. But
what people do is they sign up for things, they
say they're going to do something. And then as
soon as they see how hard it is, they get stuck
in that valley of despair. And that's just what
was. happening to all of these people that were
sitting down when the stake was put in front
of them. And I guess what I'm really trying to
get out here is when it comes to the big things
that we want to do in our life, if you are excited
about doing it and you're ready to sign up or
put yourself out there, put yourself in the ring,
you have to be prepared for that valley of despair.
I was able to kind of prepare myself beforehand.
By having that mentality of it's going to take
what it's going to take. I'm not giving up until
that time is done. Whether you're in a time event
like a sporting event or the goal of whatever
you're doing is to just keep going and not quit.
Like that's really all it is, is making the decision,
that commitment to yourself that regardless of
what happens until this external factor, in this
case, the time limit of an hour until that timer
goes off. And I still have food on my plate or
I finish it before then. Like, I'm not stopping
until I'm done. And that's something that I've
noticed with some of the coaching and consulting
clients that I have is they start something new.
They're really excited about it, especially especially
in the business consulting side. They're excited
about it. But then they kind of hit this low
point where they're like, oh, I didn't realize
it was going to be this hard. And that's really
where the value of a coach or a mentor or consultant
comes in is they kind of go, yeah, it's hard.
But we're still in the game. We are still here
to fight and to win and to play the game. When
it comes to the low points of your life or it
comes to these pieces, this time frame, the snapshot
of. that valley of despair there's there's two
main pieces that you need in order to get out
of it the first one is confidence and the second
is wisdom the knowledge and experience that you
have and when you're confident in something that's
not really based on a whole lot of actual um
occurrences or action but wisdom knowledge and
experience is when you lack confidence, I would
suggest the thing that you need the most is action.
In the case of the steak, when I first sat down
for it, my confidence was at a high. Then they
put it in front of me and it did waver a little
bit. But I knew that if I wanted to get past
that wavering of confidence, all I needed to
do was to keep eating, keep cutting, keep putting
a bite in my mouth, just like with the wok. And
the moments that I was wavering in confidence
and it didn't feel great. I knew that as long
as I put one foot in front of the other and I
kept making strides towards getting to the other
side, that's all I needed to do. So when my coaching
consulting clients are feeling like they're in
that valley of despair, it's just a reminder
of what inputs will you do today? What actions
can you take that will plant the seeds now that
you'll harvest later? What steps and bites need
to just. be done and that's the question that
i want to pose to everybody listening is if you're
feeling unconfident if you're if your confidence
in yourself is wavering what do you need to do
to just keep going and not settle not quits.
If you need some help figuring that out, if you're
kind of feeling like you're at that valley of
despair, I would love to talk to you and love
to support you. Feel free to book a free 15 -minute
consultation. The calendar link is in the description.
It should be one of the very first links. Go
and hit that, schedule a time, we'll hop on a
call, and we'll just do a laser session to help
you figure out your next steps and what you need
to do. As always, thank you so much for listening.
Your support and attention mean the most to me.
As always, The best is yet to come as long as
you are willing to make the decision to never
settle, never quit, and never peak. Thank you
so much. I'll see you in the next one.