71. Do You Feel Unfulfilled? The Thrill of Adventure vs. Richness of Experience

"Do other men want to hang out with you if all you do is work? I enjoy different experiences, but I’m not a big fan of crazy adventures.” The craziest things we've ever done come with stories, but at what cost? Why do men feel the need for risk-taking adventures, and why do some men never get to close too true thrill? 

Our dialogue meanders through the realms of adventure and experience, coloring the air with anecdotes from our pasts. Big A delves into the ways his father's protective nature inadvertently sculpted his own approach to parenting and living, possibly tipping the scales towards  "overcaution." 

Life is a dance as intricate as it is personal, where the steps of adventure and the rhythm of experience influence not only our growth but also that of the generations to follow. What can we do to stay fulfilled and have a little fun while we're at it?

Key Takeaways:

• Adventure vs. experiences
• What's the point of adventure? Escaping problems vs. true thrill
• What men (and their families) need to be fulfilled

To wrap up, we extend an invitation to you, our listeners, to join us for one of our local Roundtable discussions that provide a haven for sharing aspirations and stories with peers who understand your quest for a life well-lived.

Iron Sharpens Iron Live Event Free Ticket Giveaway: https://go.viewfromthetop.com/win

Connect with Big A and Wally:
View From The Top Website: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/
The Climb Newsletter: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/climb
Big A’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/
Wally’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwallenbeck/
View From The Top Book by Aaron Walker: https://a.co/d/gU9EDBa
What Do I Want Challenge: https://go.viewfromthetop.com/whatdoiwantchallenge

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to View from the Top podcast, where we help growth-minded men who desire momentum in their business, their family and their finances get through their valleys and up the mountain to their very own View from the Top. I'm glad you listened in. Today we have a pretty exciting episode we're gonna be talking about, maybe, the difference between adventure and experience. Right, so each of us has a little different personality bent on this. Some of us are all about the adventure, some of us are maybe more about the experience, and so you may be wondering, man, like I sense this. I have a sense of adventure all the time, but I miss out on some of the experience side, or I'm all about the experience and so therefore, maybe I miss out on some of the adventure. We're gonna dive into that today with Big A, so let's get him in the studio, big A welcome, wally.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Thanks, buddy, hope you're doing well. It's been a good day.

Speaker 1: 0:52

So far man yeah, so far Not gonna complain.

Speaker 2: 0:54

Here's well here's.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Well, it's a good year, it's shipping up nicely.

Speaker 2: 0:57

I know 2024,. I'm glad 2023 is in the rearview mirror and I'm pumped up about 2024,. Man, there are so many opportunities opening up, so many chances that we're getting to interview new guys having great conversations in the mastermind. I'm fired up. I've been having some great conversations with the guys in their group. We do something called surge and it is so fun to be able to go to these groups and really dive in, see what the guys need, what it is that I wanna share with them. Communication is key in ISI. We gotta have good communication. So I'm pretty amped up just coming off of surge.

Speaker 1: 1:33

It is good. That's good man. He did a great job. It was fun. Yeah, the guys appreciated that. Hey, this is a topic we're gonna talk about today. Before we get started, I have a question for you. Sure, what's the most dangerous thing you've?

Speaker 2: 1:45

ever done. Can I be incriminated for this, like if somebody gets this?

Speaker 1: 1:51

I don't know. Hopefully you didn't kill somebody.

Speaker 2: 1:53

I didn't kill anybody.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:56

I could have. Sometimes I wish to have, but no, not really, not really. You know what? What's the most dangerous thing that I've done?

Speaker 1: 2:06

Not. Maybe that's stupid too. Like is there a difference?

Speaker 2: 2:09

I think it goes hand in hand.

Speaker 1: 2:11

It might, it might, it might get.

Speaker 2: 2:13

I think there's two things that stand out in my mind. So I had a buddy of mine named Frank Frankenbach in these professional yeah, yeah, Frank.

Speaker 2: 2:21

Frankenbach. Yeah, yeah, frank was unusual guy. Some of you guys may know him If I haven't seen Frank in years. So if somebody hears his name and they know how I get in touch with him, I'd like to do that. Frank was a professional fisherman and he used to come in our business and he invited me to go fishing with him over Percy Priest Lake, one of the two lakes here in Nashville. There's Ohicka Lake and Percy Priest, and Percy Priest is not a lake I care for, but I agreed to go.

Speaker 2: 2:48

And so I show up over at Elm Hill Marina and I get out of the truck and I said, frank, do I need to bring any fishing gear or anything? And I'll, you don't need to bring anything. I got everything, like don't don't bring anything. I said okay, so I go over there it's probably three in the afternoon Get out of the truck, walk down to the boat ramp he's already got the boat launched and I looked and I knew the minute I got there I was in trouble. There was a motorcycle helmet in each seat of this boat and I went oh, this is not good. So I got in the boat and I looked down at Frank and I've got a pretty fast boat. My boat will run in the high fifties. You know I've had boats that have run in the low seventies and I'm used to that.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Well, frank was notorious for having a jacked up boat, you know. I mean, the boat was just ridiculous. There's a bridge going over Percy Priest Lake called the Hopson Pike Bridge and we went underneath that bridge at 109 miles an hour in an outboard. There was nothing in the water but the prop 109 miles an hour. And I don't know that I've ever been so scared of my life because the boat was porpoising back and forth, the nose was coming up a little, but if there'd been a little more chopper, a little bit more nose lift, we would have wrecked.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Frank was no virgin to wrecking. His upper and lower jaw was fake, where he had been blown out of the boat and hit the cowlin with his face, and they reconstructed his whole face and that's why he wore the helmet. I didn't know that until then. So, wally, I'm gonna have to say I wasn't even in charge of it, but that was probably the most dangerous thing I've ever done. Quick story I was 17, robin was 16. I bought a Yamaha 750 belt drive and I got Robin on it and during January of 1978, we went across the Cumberland River, going into Old Hickory, and I was doing about 115 miles an hour, maybe 120. With Robin on the back. With Robin on the back, yeah, and we went around this curve there's a real sharp curve at the base of the bridge and my knees my blue jeans, was touching the street went around that curve and this was during January, it was freezing outside, and those are probably the two of the most stupid, most dangerous things I've ever done. What about you?

Speaker 1: 5:17

Yeah, I'm not a huge. We're gonna talk about this in the podcast today but I'm not a huge adventurer. I like adventure, but I'm not a huge like you would think of adventure like mountain climber.

Speaker 1: 5:29

And I'm definitely more on the experience side. So most of my adventurous stuff has been really around stupidity, that's right. I mean like some years, right. So when I was younger, we lived in Watkins Glen, new York, and it's very beautiful, picturesque there. They have a number of gorges, so these are like areas where the water's carved out through the rock and they're tight. So, you know, they may be anywhere from, you know, depending on where you go to see them and experience them, and they're all over the place. Some of them are caught much deeper than others, and so they're, you know, 15 feet wide to 100 foot wide, but and they go really deep, like some of them just go, you know, 20, 30 feet deep. Some of them will go 100, 150, 200 feet deep down in the canyons. They're not canyons like, as you know, grain canyon, anything like that, anyway. So there's these basically rock features and there's water that runs down through them, and so I think we were like 11 or 12, might have been 13 somewhere in there, and I don't know where we got.

Speaker 1: 6:31

My brother and I got this cocky, meaning idea that it was down behind our house and it was about probably 120 foot like waterfall drop off, and then we were gonna climb up this thing and we started he bowed out. He's like I'm gonna do it, it's too crazy. So I kept going, man. I got to the very top and I went to take the step up on top of that final ledge and my back foot slipped a little and and there was that moment of weightlessness that I felt and my back foot caught and I leaned forward and I was okay, but in that moment that's the most dangerous thing that I did, like that would have been the end out of it done. That's a long way down. There's a long way down, man. I remember that feeling and I've not been fond of heights ever since.

Speaker 2: 7:27

Favorite thing. That is so funny. You know what really the reason that this topic is even today is one of our community members, zach. He really prompted this question just because we want all of you to know that we're trying to answer questions through some of these Podcast interviews. So if you've got a question that you really like, hey, I'd like to know what big a walley think about this. I'll be sure it's submitted at the end, while he'll give you the email address.

Speaker 2: 7:53

But he said I catch myself in every conversation just talking about my profession. This is what Zach said. He said do other men want to hang out with you if all you do is work? He said I really enjoy experiences, but I'm not a big fan of crazy adventure, and so we thought we would talk to each you know of you today kind of about that topic and let's see what it is that we can discern between adventure and Experiences. And I really can identify with that completely. I mean, when we talk about this, because I love, personally, different experiences. I'm not a huge Crazy adventure guy either. I mean that's just not what I do. I've got friends that do crazy stuff. I mean they do.

Speaker 1: 8:38

What's the difference? Let's just start off like what is the difference between well?

Speaker 2: 8:41

experiences. We're gonna talk about that a little bit more. We're gonna define really the you're getting ahead of me for a second right now.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Just tell what it is Well.

Speaker 2: 8:50

adventure, first of all, is typically refers to a real, unusual experience. Something involves some degree of risk or uncertainty, so he talked about your buddies, so they're their idea.

Speaker 2: 9:01

They do crazy stuff though. I mean they're jumping off of mountains, parasailing and hang gliding and you know, alan, my buddy, ran with the bulls. You know, in Italy he did that and he did Mount Kilimanjaro and he said Mike Rex at 60 miles an hour down streets. You know, I even revealed a picture of him. He had road rash on about 80% of his body. You know, it's like what we got all this responsibility and these businesses and families counting on you, and you're out doing this crap, skydiving and doing safaris. You know, with a blow dark gun or something, what are you doing? Like? That is crazy to me. Experiences, on the other hand, are kind of learning a new skill. You know You're trying out new foods or you're visiting new cities or you're enjoying some new conversation with somebody from a different culture. You know you're experiencing people who are seeking to grow and their knowledge of something. You know it's like, yeah, I'm all about that, right, and I'll tell you where some of this come from.

Speaker 2: 10:04

The reason that I think that I'm not real adventurous Is because my dad was scared to death that the kids were going to get hurt. Well, I don't know if I ever told you this or not, but we couldn't have a swing set. My dad wouldn't allow a swing set. We had to be. I forgot hello before we got a bicycle. You know, I did try to ride a tricycle up a sycamore tree one time and I had to go get stitches in the back of my head and my dad said that's it. No more tricycle. You know, but stairs, things like that. We couldn't have a coffee table and because we jumping on the couch, my dad goes like you don't fall off and hit your head on the coffee table and kill yourself, you know. And so just, he would pad the fireplace hearth. You know it was like, oh man, you come running through there, you're gonna. You know what.

Speaker 2: 10:45

I found that Well, I'm embarrassed to admit this. On here we are on our own podcast. We used to leave Brooke and Holly with a babysitter and I caught myself doing the same things pulling the coffee table away from the couch. We would put towels on the hearth. You know it was like, what am I doing? We put a gate up in front of the stairs and, you know, robin goes. My Lord, they're 14. You know what do you do? I'm like I don't want him to get hurt, you know. And so I guess for me explains a lot. Yeah, it does, it does.

Speaker 1: 11:16

It's like okay, you got to let them grow up, they're getting engaged.

Speaker 2: 11:20

I mean, well, what about you? I mean, are you, you know? Are you more in alignment with the experiences? You kind of shared that just a minute ago a little bit. But what is the most adventuresome thing that you're willing to go do? I know you did something stupid as a 13 year old but like today, as a 50 year old, responsible business man, like what is? I got a video. I wish we could post a video. I got a video of you. I love. You went over a jump on your mountain bike and I've never heard so much growling and groaning, clawing at the dirt.

Speaker 1: 11:55

It wasn't because of the jump, it was because of the crash.

Speaker 2: 11:57

It was the crash. What so? What about you?

Speaker 1: 12:02

As you were talking, we were kind of prepping for this episode and just as you were just talking just now, I kind of visualized in my head, kind of like a thermometer, and I think at the bottom is experience, I think at the top is adventure. And I'm probably wrong on this, but as I, I love experiences and I love a sense of adventure, so I'm willing to, like you know, whatever that, whatever that threshold is of, of heat, if you will, that be goes between Experience and adventure, like I like to bump up against that for sure.

Speaker 2: 12:36

I like that hurt, like physically. That's what I think about when I think about the risk of getting killed.

Speaker 1: 12:41

So it's like a danger meter right it's like how much danger is adventure or experience? Because you have a lot of experience inside adventure. You don't have a lot of adventure. You know, maybe you do mental gymnastics. You have a lot of adventure inside of experience but yeah both of them can be meaningful, depending on your personality right, yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:02

I don't know if one's better or worse than the other, but I know for myself. I like to hit that on experience. I like to bump up against that. You just mentioned the mountain biking stuff. You know I'm not gonna go. I watch some of these guys go downhill and do some of this stuff out west or even up in Canada and stuff. I'm like that's not me, I'm not gonna be doing that.

Speaker 2: 13:21

But I love riding my mountain bike and I would too, out here on my driveway here.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Well, no, I'm not that, I'm not going down that adventure adverse.

Speaker 2: 13:30

We were at Blue Sky Montana and they're riding those bikes down the black. That's insane when they and I'm like what?

Speaker 1: 13:37

are they doing? Yeah, those front forks are jack-to-jack to way out there and that's just crazy yeah they hit one little rock and it's, you know, the fat lady's song.

Speaker 2: 13:46

It's over. Yeah, that's not me.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I'm not about that level of danger in my adventure but I'll bump up against it. I like a little bit of that, little bit of that excitement. You know like, for example, like I'm maybe a roller coaster kind of person, right when experience, you get a little bit of that wooziness, a little bit of that Take your breath away, a little bit of that adventure. But I'm on tracks Right, like I don't see being tethered to a rope hanging off a mountain as the same level of safety or lack of danger as that. But that's me. I'll bump up against it but I'm not going to. Like you know, I see some of these guys do all kinds of crazy stuff out there and I respect them for it. That's just problem, that's just.

Speaker 2: 14:36

I don't know, for respect is the right word.

Speaker 1: 14:38

I respect them. I'm like hey, I respect you?

Speaker 2: 14:42

I don't know. I'm not there yet. So what are some of the things that you think draw adventurous people out in their preference over like these experiences? Do you think it's personality types? I do think a lot of it has to do with the way you were raised. I look back at some people yeah, I look back at. I've got one of my son in laws not the one that you were talking about, those that don't know. Wally's brother is married to my daughter. He's the one that chickened out on the going up the gorge. He's smart.

Speaker 1: 15:14

He was the smart one.

Speaker 2: 15:15

My other son in law. My other son in law. His dad raised him on four wheelers and motorcycles and crazy stuff and he'll go out there, which scares me to death because he's taking care of three of my grandkids and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's a constant worry for me. But different personality styles, maybe.

Speaker 2: 15:36

I think that for some people, though, that it's a desire for escape and change. When you really start thinking about what is it that you're doing? Like a couple of my buddies, for example very successful businessmen, own companies. They do really well, but they're looking to kind of escape the normalities of their day. They're like man, you know what? I'm behind a desk all the time. I'm ready to go out here and do something adventurous. So they go out and do all these kind of things. Some people are just drawn to that because it's out of their normal routine. They're like life is too predictable for me every single day and I want to do something to kind of mix it up. I do respect that, I do understand that. I think that we should do some things to kind of mix it up a little bit. Sometimes, you know, it's funny I was playing golf with a bunch of guys in.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Florida Golf is not adventurous. Now, what I was going to say is let me finish my story.

Speaker 2: 16:32

I was getting that out there. So we were playing golf and there was a guy named Brad, a young guy. He was probably 18, 19 years old. He was with us and he looked off in the bottom below the tee and he's the tee box and he said look at all those golf balls out there. There was like hundreds and hundreds of golf balls in this marshy area. And he goes man, I give anything to get those golf balls. And I said come on, brad, I'll go with you. And so he goes. What I said, let's go get them One of the biggest mistakes I've ever made.

Speaker 2: 17:03

So we get down there, we take our golf shoes off, I roll up my pants leg and we start going out. And it was okay, it was a little bit muddy on our feet, you know. We get out there to where the most of the golf balls were at, and I sunk like up to my you know just my thighs and I'm like, oh my gosh. And then I looked around at Brad and he sunk up further. It was like to his crotch, I mean. He was up in mud and I was like he's thinking, like he's leaving me, and I reach up and grab him and we're both stuck and I finally get out. And it was like I was a mess. Well man, I kept pulling, pulling, pulling finally got him out. He said, big A, if you had to be with me I'd have disappeared Like I don't went down in that crap. That's the reason all the golf balls were there, nobody was willing to go out and get them.

Speaker 2: 17:44

But I'm like you know what, though? We still laugh about that. We don't talk about the golf, we talk about that experience. Right it was. There was also crocodiles and alligators and snakes and all kind of crap.

Speaker 1: 17:56

I'm like I'm just down there.

Speaker 2: 17:58

Yeah, yeah, we're down there and I'm like I look back now and think, oh my gosh, what in the world? But we still laugh about that, right? And so it's adventure really breaks you away from the norm of your every day. You know you need to do something radically different. Sometimes Maybe it doesn't have to be dangerous, but I think that you need to really think about that and bump up against it. I like your verb between you said I like to bump up against it. It's enough exhilaration that keeps you interested, right, and but it's not something that's so crazy that you're like you could die, like you got to.

Speaker 2: 18:31

I tell my buddies I say y'all got a lot of responsibility. I mean, you got these families and grandkids and you know in your business. And it's like, do you never think about that? And they're like, yeah, that'll be all right, and they just go right on. But when you start thinking about experiences, there's also other personality traits that maybe could have some risk averse features. You know they're like. I told my mom the other day we were talking about a situation I said when I was younger like I was all in, I'd push all the chips in, I'd roll the dice and as I get older, I'm more risk averse. I'm like that's my personality, it's more protection. Right, I'd be 63 now, and so it's a time for me to play a little closer to the best.

Speaker 1: 19:15

So I think that's natural. I think that's naturally appropriate, though.

Speaker 2: 19:18

Yeah Right, yeah it is You're like hey, I got need to be a little more cautious, but I do still like varied experiences. I still like things that you know involve a little more physical activity. As I get older, you know I need to do some things that are more physical.

Speaker 1: 19:33

We're going to get a. We're going to get a rash, of which we welcome them, by the way a rash of you welcome them, they, they comment, they mean negatively about things.

Speaker 2: 19:42

You hammer, we're going to get.

Speaker 1: 19:43

We're going to get a rash of comments about how to make a golf adventurous, because I'm sure there's guys out there because I made the statement of golf is an adventurous and you turned it into, like you know, getting in my crocodiles almost kind of a thing, so I guess it can be, which is interesting because I think I talked about bumping up against something and about bumping up against adventure.

Speaker 2: 20:00

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:01

And then when I heard you talk, I was like you know what that's really true, that idea that we can take it too far in either direction. There's. There's a healthy, you know, if you're focused on experiences, there's a healthy measure of experience where you actually should right Lean into some adventure during your experiences. And then if you don't and you just always risk adverse completely about everything and you want just so.

Speaker 1: 20:28

That's not healthy either. I don't think we're designed that way. And on the adventure side, you can go crazy and not be responsible at all and just do crazy stuff. Or maybe it's even your to your point of you're in an unhealthy place trying to escape something. Right, business is an easy one where you could be trying to escape some challenges you're having in your business and then they're not going to go away. Right, you're going to have to address them and and trying to get that going crazy out there with some crazy adventure in a dangerous way, thinking that somehow that's not going to solve for that, I think at our marriages you know the reality is that you've been married, you know, 40 plus years, I'm more, I'm 30 plus and and we both know, if we're honest, they're seasons.

Speaker 1: 21:17

I would say that, you know, I think we've worked harder at times than others to be intentional about not making them a notness. But there are seasons where our relationship is kind of just status quo. You know, in our marriages and if we're not thinking about that in an intentional, correct way, that laziness of our mindset when we think about our wives, whatever that situation is, there could be some temptations that come up that we start to seek some adventure, right in an unhealthy and lost for a right in the wrong places, that, just because of our situation, that we're in for what seems like forever when you're in it, but it's really a short period of time.

Speaker 1: 22:01

And so, man, there's, I think, healthy and unhealthy ways to approach either one of these things For sure, both adventure and experience.

Speaker 2: 24:20

You know, wally, something I found out over the course of those 45 years of marriage. This just happened. Back in December, robin and I took a cruise and we were going to get off one of the islands and do an adventure to go up and to see the countryside. And Robin goes I'm not going on that. And I said, yeah, we are too, I'm buying the tickets, we're going, she goes, I'm not going on there. And I said, yeah, we are, I bought the tickets and she's pleading dollars, don't go this, I don't want to go. I said, yeah, we're going to go.

Speaker 2: 24:44

So we go out and I'm thinking we're going to get on a big Greyhound bus, air conditioned, and you know and that's what I envisioned in my mind Well, we get an open air bus. That was like bench seats, that was like and she looks at me like she could kill me at any moment and I said, come on, rob. I started laughing. So we get in the back of this thing. We're going down the road and we hit a pothole and I think she lost a kidney. I mean, it was terrible. It was that we get up into the country and we get stuck in mud. They had to take us off. They had to back up because it started raining. I've been laughing, I am laughing, she's not laughing then. But now we've gotten back. We got a few months behind us and it's one of the stories that she's telling. But she didn't tell about the G and dollar bus we I mean G and dollar boat we were on and the fancy meals she's telling everybody. She almost lost a kidney hitting a pothole.

Speaker 2: 25:35

There's a sense of adventure. We did that in Yellowstone. We had to stay in this $30 a night cabin with you know a can to use the bathroom in and of in pieces of log to go in the stove, and I'm like Rob, he goes what do we do? We stayed in the finest room you can get and we talk about we slept more clothes because we got so far away from our bare air B and B we could say. But my point is is there's a level of adventure that really is exciting?

Speaker 1: 26:01

Those are the things that create memories.

Speaker 2: 26:03

They do, and we still laugh about them.

Speaker 1: 26:06

It's not just knowledge, we don't tell Experien he mentioned before the difference between like adventure and, uh, an experience. Right, I think it's not quite adventure a bit, but uh, experience, you know, learning a new skill, trying new foods, visiting new cities, things like that. And I think those are experiences I enjoy too, but by themselves, like the memories are pretty flat line right, Unless you had some adventure.

Speaker 2: 26:33

It's like some fun.

Speaker 1: 26:35

The spontaneity, the uh, interact or be the company that, uh, that I used to, uh, I founded and used to own. For years I struggled with how do we have, like, a mission for a business that creates websites and does marketing for RV dealerships? Like, like, why in the world would I want to get out of bed every morning? Like, how is that? How do I galvanize that amongst our team members? Like, how do I do that? How do you do that? So for years I struggled with this and finally I think it was an act of God he gave it to me. Uh, and he gave it to me because I started doing the thing. I started RVing, we bought an RV and started traveling with our kids, our daughters, and so here we are, we became the end customer and when we did that even though we weren't selling directly to them, we were kind of in the middle what I discovered was man. At the end of the day, what we were doing is help Cause.

Speaker 1: 27:35

Here's the thing when you go camping at all RVing or camping you ask anybody that's been RVing or camping Very rarely. There's a very small percentage. Most people, vast majority of people have a really terrible story about camping or a really awesome story about camping. There's hardly anybody that never has that's been. That's like, oh yeah, it was, it was okay. Normally it's because they just went and like slept overnight and nothing happened and they came home and that's not most people's experience with camping. What I discovered was what we were actually doing was we were creating memories that were to be told around the Thanksgiving dinner table for generations.

Speaker 2: 28:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:19

And that wouldn't have happened if we only had experiences.

Speaker 2: 28:23

Right, right, there needs to be a level of adventure. Robin said that she'll go camping soon as I buy that Mercedes Sprinter van. As soon as you buy that, we'll go. Why does it even matter? Anyway, I was thinking about that. I was like, why does it even matter? If you really think about it, it helps you identify what makes you feel most alive. There's a sense of fulfillment that we need. We need to be engaged in life and we've got to think about these things. Like am I this adventure? Am I God? That likes experience? Can I mix the two? Like cause it matters.

Speaker 2: 28:55

Like if we just went on that cruise and we came back and nothing exciting out of the ordinary happened, like it'd be a pretty bland story. It would be much to talk about. It's like, yeah, it was a beautiful ship and we saw beautiful water and had great meals and it was fun. But no man, we got up in the country and we got stuck in mud and she had her new tennis shoes. Oh, she could have killed me. I think it cost me $200 for some new tennis shoes, but anyway, we had to get off them. Mud and it was like, man, that is so much fun to the spontaneity, right To do things outside of your normal daily activities to give a little spice, keep the adventure, and I'll tell you I know this is not a marriage podcast about today, but the truth is is we need that adventure in our marriages, 45 years or one year. We need to do things to create these memories and these conversations, these experiences. We need to keep it spiced up. You know, what's funny is when we're dating we do all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 29:49

We're like oh yeah let's go.

Speaker 2: 29:50

And then we get married. We're like now, let's sit at home and watch TV. Tonight. It's like, no man, let's just play some cards. The other night I said, probably not, I don't want to watch TV. And she goes, let's play cards. And I'm like, okay. So we had fun. We were bedding each other. It was like, oh, I'm gonna beat you. She killed me too, but anyway it was just fun.

Speaker 1: 30:07

Yeah, you just said that, like we're taking adventure down to card playing, you must be old, yeah well, I didn't tell you the whole story. I can't repeat the whole card game. It was fun. It turned me into something else. That's great.

Speaker 2: 30:17

It can go into adventure. That's awesome. But listen, some of the other reasons. I think too, it's the well-being and the mental health aspect. We can't live just a mundane life. We've got to go out there, we've got to seek a little bit of adventure. Some of it may be too much, and you've already identified and I have too what we're willing to do. But just think through what it is you're willing to do. What is it that can help you add a little spice, that you can have fun, you can enjoy your life. Right, it doesn't have to be just that as well.

Speaker 1: 30:47

You mentioned about our marriages. I also think there's a and you mentioned about the way that you know you grew up in things, man, I think it's important. I can look back and think I could have done that better with my daughters growing up. Is you know? There definitely could have been more times where I could have created not just I was all about the experience, I was all about teaching and learning, right, and I think you were too, and I definitely look back and go man. I could have created some more opportunities and layered in some adventure. We did, but I look back and go man, like I don't get a second shot at that, right, we don't. We get one shot at raising our kids. And so I would encourage you all with your relationships whether that's your kids, your wife, your team relationships, your employees, people at work, like man, those are the things that are gonna remember. Experiences are great and important because they create knowledge, right, but adventure creates memories.

Speaker 2: 31:44

You know, what else is cool is some of these things that are hobbies that you do for fun can turn into a neat career path. I know I've got some friends Nate and Kara. You know they've done just an incredible job with their business. They've taken it on the road and they've been to, I think, 87 countries around the world. Now they have millions of bloggers and followers and people that are, you know, constantly interacting with them. They have a big sponsorship now as a result of it. So something that was fun, that was adventuresome for them, they've made a career out of it.

Speaker 2: 32:15

So I think Nick Kennett's an ISI, nick Kennett in ISI he had his wife, took a year off and traveled, and took, he had a marketing job. Look what he's doing now Corporate marketing job and he's killing it yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:24

He's he took that and he's leveraged his experience into their, into their adventures, and it's exciting to watch.

Speaker 2: 32:32

You know, what's cool with him, too, is that he's teaching some other guys within ISI how to do the same thing. That's pretty cool, which is really cool. So he took something that was an adventure, turned it into a business, and now he's mentoring, teaching other people. Listen, thank you today for checking us out. Related to this thrill of adventure versus the richness of experiences, I want you to think through for you why it even matters.

Speaker 2: 32:56

Understanding whether you lean towards adventure or experiences is crucial, as it affects your overall wellbeing. There's some personal development that can go with this. There's some life satisfaction that you can have as a direct result of it. So that's the reason that we wanted you to think of it. It helps you to really make informed lifestyle choices, really makes you think about managing risk appropriately. Don't get out into a boat if there's a motorcycle helmet sitting in the seat. Just a word of caution as you go forward. And this self knowledge really empowers you to pursue what you truly mean to do, what really fulfills you. And then, always, we want you to pay attention, because we want you to have that view from the top.

Speaker 1: 33:40

Thanks so much for listening in today to Big A&I as we kind of talk through the difference between adventure and experience, and I truly hope that you're able to take something away and maybe, if you're on the experience side and not experiencing much adventure, maybe you bump up against that in the side of that temperature, up against some adventure and get that. Maybe, if you're over exaggerating on the one side, you come back down While you're on that adventure or that experience. I want to invite you to check out Iron Sharpen's Iron Mastermind. We have some really cool things going on in 2024 that you're not gonna wanna miss, and what I mean by that especially is that we have some new events that we have put together for 2024. We tested them out at the end of 2023.

Speaker 1: 34:26

We have two events that are typically in Nashville, one in the spring and one in the fall, and we'd love to have you attend one of those. We've also added what we call some local round tables that may actually be in your hometown. So I would encourage you to go out to viewfromatopcom slash events and check that out and see if that's something that you might be interested in to attend and maybe you could get some around guys that maybe you're on the experience side, maybe you're more on the adventure side and, as we talked about in last week's episode, you can get involved in a group of guys that you can align with, that you can belong to and they can help you either get more adventure in your life or maybe tone it down a bit and get some more experience. So we hope to see you there. Viewfromatopcom slash events. We'll see you next week, okay.