September 5, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to another episode of the Brothers Creed podcast, where Jared and Ethan Thomas inspire fathers to build a blueprint for the next generation. In this episode, they dive deep into the topic of determination, exploring how it encompasses various traits like respect, discipline, and endurance.
Through captivating stories of remarkable individuals like Hugh Glass and Dr. Glenn Cunningham, they highlight the power of sheer will and persistence. The brothers also discuss practical ways to foster determination in day-to-day life and share personal anecdotes and quotes that resonate with this powerful virtue.
Join the Thomas brothers as they explore the essence of determination, its significance in personal creeds, and how parents can model and instill this vital trait in their children. This episode promises to be a source of inspiration and practical wisdom for anyone looking to cultivate unyielding resolve in themselves and the next generation.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of our Brothers Creed podcast,
where we inspire fathers to build a blueprint for the next generation.
We are the Thomas Brothers, and I'm Jared.
And I'm Ethan. And today, we are going to be inspired by talking about the topic
of determination, something that's kind of deep.
(00:21):
A lot of times we've talked about a lot of principles, talked about respect
and discipline and endurance and a lot of different things, But I think determination
is an interesting one because I think it's kind of an accumulation of a lot of different traits.
So we're going to get through it. I've got a couple stories,
some stories of determination that I like that have inspired me.
(00:43):
Yeah, I've got one too. I'm going to kind of go through some quotes and figure
out how we can be more determined in our day-to-day life and our own personal
creed. So let's get into it. Excellent. Let's do it.
It do not go gentle into that good night old age should burn and brave the close of day.
Music.
(01:06):
You should be a monster an absolute monster and then you should learn how to
control it no retreat no surrender you can't conceive of what i'm capable of
there is no tomorrow There is no tomorrow.
Music.
What we do in life echoes in eternity.
(01:32):
So, determination. I was thinking about this, and this is such an action verb.
You know, I feel like a lot of the virtues that we talk about are kind of just
like, are not so action-oriented.
Like last time we talked about gentleness.
I mean, that's, you can be gentle in your everyday life, you know,
(01:55):
but determination, I mean, it's like, that's a very proactive, it's very active.
And so I like this in regards to adding it to your creed because it says a lot
about the type of person that you are and the type of person that you want to be,
having this as part of your mantra or your personal belief set or your creed. I think that...
(02:20):
Oftentimes as adults, specifically, we do not get opportunities or we do not
create opportunities, more like, to be determined on things.
Now, I think that, like the definition of determined, what would you have for
a definition of determined, Ethan?
Yeah, so I had the determination is a firm resolve to achieve a goal or overcoming
(02:48):
an obstacle. physical regardless of whatever difficulties or setbacks there might be.
Kind of a little bit deeper into that, that it's a persistent drive to strive
towards a specific desired outcome.
I guess this is kind of where it gets into fueled by inner strength,
(03:08):
focus, resolve, discipline, patience, resilience.
It's kind of all these things built together that really allows a person to
push through adversity and challenges to complete the objectives that they have.
Yeah, I had something similar, just like that firmness of purpose and resoluteness,
(03:33):
in achieving your goals.
Now, I think that in some ways, it's kind of a cautionary.
There needs to be some caution with determination, right?
If you're determined to, you
know, like, for example, Napoleon was determined to get to Moscow, right?
(03:53):
And so he- And he got there. He got there, but at what cost?
You know, it cost him everything.
And so- About 580,000 guys. Yeah, exactly.
Or however many it was. Hundreds of thousands of men, nearly almost all of us men.
And so there's this, like, there's a sunk cost fallacy.
(04:15):
We've talked about that before. You're 200 feet from the crest of Everest,
but you can tell a storm's coming in, and you're out of time to get off of that
mountain. And you're like, well, I'm almost there.
So I think the determination has with it several...
You know, asterisks and warnings that make sure what you're being determined
(04:40):
on and what your firmness of purpose and your resoluteness,
I think it's important to reaffirm every step along the way that that is what
you want to be doing and you are going in the right direction.
And if you're down the road, you know, even if you're 10 feet or just barely
(05:01):
almost there and And you're like, whoa, if I take one step further,
this will not be in my best interest.
Then it's still okay to bail out.
It's like something that I think our, even our mom said that kind of,
you know, if you feel like, even if on your wedding day, you feel like I don't
want to do this, then say no.
You know, don't feel like you have to do anything. Don't feel pressured into doing anything.
(05:23):
If you're one step away from, if you've gone on a journey of a thousand miles
and you're one step away and you have everything in you telling you that that's the wrong step,
then take a pause and gather yourself and maybe don't take that step.
So that's, I think, that is a part of determination that has to be part of it.
(05:44):
Because if you're set in the wrong direction, then you could end up in the wrong
place. So, that was one of the trigger warnings, I guess, for determination
or asterisks on the end of that.
Yeah. No, I think that's – I think you have to be kind of – be careful,
be mindful with your determination what the consequences of achieving that goal might be. Yeah.
(06:07):
You know, sometimes – probably a lot of times it's good, but sometimes getting
to the peak of Everest maybe is not the best timing.
Not if you die. Yeah, exactly. Not if you die, it's not going to be,
you know. Yeah, I like that.
So you said, I have a, I have a, actually, I want to share a, I have a longer story.
(06:29):
Okay. And I actually wanted to read it the way that it was written,
because it was written really beautifully.
But I know you had some stories first. So why don't you share a story first,
and then I'll read through my story about determination.
And then we can kind of talk some more about how to model that and determination
for kids and stuff. Okay.
Yeah. So I, as I was kind of thinking through over the past couple of days,
(06:50):
just some inspirational stories to me, or maybe not even inspirational,
but something that just stuck to my mind whenever I thought determination.
I've got kind of three just shorter stories that we've actually shared a lot
of these before on the podcast, and so I won't get into them crazy a lot.
But the first one was Hugh Glass, the story of Hugh Glass, a recent movie that came out.
(07:14):
Well, not recent, a couple of years, several years ago. It's called The Revenant.
Recent to me is anything after 2010. 10. Yeah, seriously.
Hugh Glass, for those of you who don't know, was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper.
And basically, he had this story of survival and determination.
It's almost like a legendary story. This was in 1823.
(07:39):
He was out on a fur trapping expedition in South Dakota.
And he was part of a group. He was kind of leading a group of men in this expedition.
And he was mauled by a
grizzly bear and he was just brutally
i mean broken bones and cuts
and every it was so bad that the men that he were with they thought that there's
(08:04):
no way that this guy can survive so they basically just left him for dead and
they just kind of buried buried him in like a very shallow grave and just because
they were afraid that they were kind of being chased by Indians and stuff.
And so they just left him. Oh, he's going to die anyway.
And so he had shattered leg, deep lacerations and no supplies when they left
(08:27):
him, but he just refused to give up. He just would not die.
And so he crawled. This is a true story, by the way.
He crawled on his hands and knees over 200 miles with just sheer willpower,
eating roots and berries and whatever he could find and trying to stay alive.
(08:50):
And eventually he reached a military base and was saved. But he was fueled.
His determination basically was fueled by his rage against these men that just
left him for dead, just abandoned him.
So, you know, not to spoil the story too much, there's a couple different endings to the story.
(09:10):
One ending is he goes and kills all these guys, and another ending is actually
he forgave, I think, a couple of them, and then there was one guy that was like
this main guy that he did.
He did chase down, track down. So his story, just being alone,
without resources, in this bitter, cold, freezing South Dakota winter,
(09:33):
when normal humans would have just given up.
There's people that don't want to go outside if it's 20 degrees.
And just that sheer determination and willpower was inspirational.
Kind of a powerful lesson to us all. that when you put your mind to something, you can do it.
(09:54):
I mean, even if that something is revenge, maybe that something is,
maybe that something is money,
or maybe that something is getting into shape, or maybe that something is,
you know, creating a good loving home for your children or, you know,
a good relationship with your wife or whatever that determination might
(10:14):
be, whatever the, I guess the, the,
the, the motivation behind the, the determination.
Definitely something that, that we can all do. Yeah. Yeah.
No, that's a great story. That's such a crazy... It's funny that a lot of these
determination things, it's oftentimes a determination to survive or to recover.
(10:42):
Yeah. And that's sometimes where you see the most crazy stories.
One kind of cautionary tale, but also a plug for a show, is that there's a show
on Netflix called Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War.
And it's like a documentary style show, a dramatized show.
(11:06):
And it tells the whole story about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the Earp
brothers and how they got in a shootout at the O.K.
Corral with Ike Clanton
and all the and all the cowboys so it's actually
interesting the story the shootout
is kind of like the first part of the story the story goes on and
(11:26):
on and on and on and on have you seen two have you seen tombstone before yeah
yeah yeah yeah so this is really good i mean it's kind of a similar thing it
gives historical background all these guys and what happened after there's a
so why for those is that you don't know Wyatt Earp and his two brothers,
Virgil, and then I forget the other one's name, the younger one.
(11:49):
And then Doc Holliday. Doc Holliday was just a drunk that one time saved Wyatt
Earp's life when he was about to get shot in the back. But he was a drunk and he had tuberculosis.
And so he was a dentist and his doctor told him that because he had tuberculosis,
he needed to move west. He lived in Georgia.
He needed to move west for some fresh air. and the doctor told him to drink
(12:11):
whiskey. And so he was just a drunk out West. And he lived in Arizona.
And the whole thing is that there was this feud that kind of started up between
these cowboys, which for the most part were kind of ex-Confederates for the most part.
And Wyatt Earp, who was kind of like a ranger for the town.
(12:32):
And it's interesting how this progresses because there's kind of this feud that starts.
And then this main guy in the Cowboys, he kind of, you know,
sets up this whole thing.
And he's like, you know, after a bunch of his buddies get shot at the OK Corral,
the shootout, he sets up this thing.
And he's like, oh, you know, my buddies were shot down in cold blood.
And my brother was killed by Wyatt Earp. And actually, Wyatt and his brothers
(12:56):
got put in jail for a short time.
And they went to this trial and stuff. And then eventually, this feud just got
out of, like, back and forth, back and forth.
And both of Wyatt's brothers got shot.
One of them got killed, and one of them was permanently injured for life.
And then Wyatt went on his, what they call his vendetta ride,
(13:17):
where he went around and just killed as many cowboys as he could.
They were part of this cowboy gang, which the way that it was kind of being
billed in the newspapers and stuff, these were Confederates who were trying
to live, and they're kind of these vigilantes.
And the Earths were from the North.
These Yankees were trying to stomp out the Confederates.
(13:38):
And so it kind of was continuing to divide the country a little bit.
And Wyatt, he was so determined to get this revenge that he actually became kind of a bad guy.
He went outside the law and he was out just killing people.
And so it kind of later in his life... Not to say these people didn't need killing,
(14:00):
but... Yeah, but he was outside of his jurisdiction. He was on a vendetta ride.
That's what the newspaper called it. And he was just killing all these guys.
And he wouldn't bring anybody in. He would just kill them.
And he eventually later in his life,
(14:21):
everybody called him. He moved to LA. He ended up moving to LA and he worked
as kind of an advisor for some old Hollywood movies.
And people didn't really like him that much because they called him a murderer.
You're a murderer because you would kill all these guys and you didn't bring them in and stuff.
And so I think in some ways his determination was a little bit to his detriment
(14:43):
because he just got so obsessed with vengeance that it really,
he kind of went a little bit off the deep end.
But you made me think of that. Also a great show and I recommend watching it. Nice.
So that one's good. So I do have a kind of a story here.
And it was written, I found it on a website called impactyourworldng.org.
(15:09):
And it was written by Bert Dubbin and it talks about determination.
And I was thinking about taking snippets. Usually what we do is when we find
cool stories and stuff, we'll take snippets and we'll just kind of paraphrase stuff or we'll...
Do other research and just add it in. But the way that this was written was really cool.
And it kind of painted a really cool picture of this guy's struggles and what
(15:34):
he went through and how determined he was.
So I'm just going to read it straight up like I'm reading to a bedtime story.
So here goes. The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned
pot-bellied cold stove.
An eight-year-old boy named Glenn Cunningham had the job of coming to school
(15:54):
early each day so that he could use kerosene to start the fire and warm the
room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning, someone mistakenly filled the kerosene container he used with gasoline and disaster struck.
It's not a good thing. Very different.
Unbustability. Yeah. The class and the teacher arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames.
(16:18):
Terrified on realizing that Glenn was inside, they rushed in and managed to
drag the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building, more dead than alive.
He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.
From his bed, the dreadfully burned semi-conscious little boy faintly heard
(16:39):
the doctor saying to his mother, the doctor told his mother that her son would surely die,
which was was for the best, really, for the fire, for the terrible fire had
devastated the lower half of his body. Oh man, brutal.
But the brave boy didn't want to die. Glenn made up his mind that he would survive.
(16:59):
And somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive.
Yet when the mortal danger was passed, he again heard the doctor and his mother speak quietly.
The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body,
it would almost be better if he had died since he was doomed to be a lifetime
(17:22):
cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.
His mother refused to let the doctors amputate.
So these doctors are top-notch.
Once more, this little, this brave little boy made up his mind he would not
be crippled. He would walk.
But unfortunately, from the waist down, Glenn had no motor ability.
(17:45):
His thin and scarred legs just dangled there, all but lifeless.
Ultimately, Glenn was released from the hospital every day after work.
Afterward, his mother and father would massage his little legs,
but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he
would walk was as strong as ever.
(18:07):
When he wasn't in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair.
On one sunny day, his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air.
This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair.
Glenn pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.
(18:29):
He worked his way to the white picket fence, bordering their lot.
With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence.
Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence forward.
Resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a
smooth path around the yard beside the fence.
(18:50):
There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.
Ultimately, through his daily massages, Glenn's iron persistence,
and his resolute determination,
he did develop the ability to first to stand up, then to walk haltingly with
help, then to walk by himself, and then miraculously to run.
(19:12):
Glenn began to run to school. He ran for the sheer joy of running and being
able to run. He ran everywhere that he could.
The people in the town would often see him run by on his way to who knows where and smile.
Later in college, Glenn made the track team where his tremendous determination paid off.
He eventually received the nickname named Kansas Flyer.
(19:36):
In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden,
this young man was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk,
who could never hope to run.
This determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the mile in four minutes
and eight seconds, the world's fastest indoor mile.
(19:58):
Later that same year, in a prestigious outdoor track meet, He shaved another
second off his record to run the world's fastest mile to that time.
And so it says at the end here, you can always achieve success if you only believe in yourself.
So obviously we know folks can run faster than a four-minute mile now,
but four minutes and seven seconds or eight seconds later and then later seven
(20:21):
seconds was the fastest at the time.
And so I thought it was such a cool story of someone really coming back and
having the determination to drive forward even when everyone tells you,
heck, you should be dead or you're going to be a cripple for the rest of your
life or all these things.
And what he was able to do was just incredible. So I thought that was a really cool story.
(20:43):
Yeah, I like that. That is a great story. And actually, it kind of goes into
one of the things that I was thinking about.
And I heard this, I think I heard this on like a Jocko Willink podcast or something like that.
But he's talking about motivation and discipline. discipline,
and kind of, let's say, willpower and motivation.
(21:03):
They're talking about, you know, how do you get somebody asked a question?
Like, how do you get motivated?
Or what's, you know, how do I be more motivated to go work out and stuff like that?
And basically, he said, motivation is for fools, right? Motivation is for weak-minded people.
So what you need is discipline.
And I think that kind of goes into determination, right?
(21:26):
And so it's better to be disciplined over motivated because discipline creates consistent action.
And motivation is often like a temporary or unreliable type thing.
Oh, I'm not motivated today, so I don't think I'm going to go to the gym.
But if you're disciplined and if you learn to become disciplined,
(21:47):
then it doesn't matter whether you're motivated or not.
You've created a habit and you do that thing.
And so, you know, motivation tends to be more emotion, circumstance-based versus discipline,
on the other hand, is more just kind of commitment and built on habits that
ensures that you'll kind of stay that course.
(22:09):
And so when I was thinking about determination and that story you told,
right, I'm sure he was, I'm sure he was motivated, right?
But he was probably very disciplined in getting outside and walking the fence
and doing everything else and just consistently getting better and better and better at running,
(22:29):
having that habit that he formed or that discipline around exercise and getting better.
I think that will help maybe make being determined a little bit easier if you
have kind of that discipline built around your determination.
And so I had looked up and I said, how do I personally become more determined in my own life?
(22:57):
How do I see a goal and just decide and make it apparent that,
hey, I'm going to do whatever it takes to reach that goal.
So first one was, you know, setting clear goals.
I think that's important, right? If you just say, oh, I want to be rich.
It's like, yeah, well, what does rich mean? Rich can mean a lot of different
(23:19):
things. So maybe setting a specific goal, something that's something that you
can actually aim at is important.
Breaking goals into manageable steps will make it easier to be determined through the process.
Determining your why or developing a strong why.
(23:40):
It's kind of important. Why am I doing this? What's the reasoning behind why
I want to achieve this goal?
Next one, we just talked about building good good habits, and discipline to
support the plan of achieving that goal.
Practicing resilience, and even when things get tough or if you didn't stay
(24:05):
in doing it just because you're disciplined.
Oh, you cut out a little bit. You were saying practicing resilience.
What did you say about that one? Yeah.
So just being resilient and, you know, even if you don't want to do something,
when you wake up in the morning and you're a little achy or maybe you're tired,
still doing it, just going out and doing it.
(24:27):
You know, surrounding yourself with support, people that support you in your
path, visualizing success, and then celebrating your progress.
Those are all things that kind of can help someone on the path of being determined
or to be more determined to achieve different things in your life.
It always reminds me of the quote that says that, you know, he that says he
(24:48):
can and he that says he can't or cannot are both right.
You know, it's just kind of, you know, it's a mental thing to be able to create something.
Plan that will allow you to stay consistent and determined through the process.
(25:09):
So that was just kind of a couple of things from determination that I thought
was really interesting.
Yeah, I think that those are some great things. And I think an overarching thing
there is that you got to pick something to be determined about.
I think that there's two things.
One is we always talk about modeling these things as fathers specifically for us or parents.
(25:30):
How are you modeling determination for your kids? What are you determined to do?
What are you setting your sights on? I know that, Ethan, you've done some things like,
you know, for example, you have done two triathlons, and you coach soccer for
your kids, and you've got other things on the horizon that you're working on.
(25:53):
And right now, I'm I'm kind of determined to, I'm training and getting ready
for a jiu-jitsu competition in October.
It's kind of another level of, it's like a higher level of competition where
it's much more serious than just a local thing.
And so I'm looking forward to doing that.
(26:16):
And I've been running every morning and trying to get ready for that.
And the kids see me come in, And I wake up at 5.30 and go for a two-mile run
around the neighborhood kind of as fast as I can because the whole thing is
I want to be conditioned cardio-wise to be able to just go, go, go during a match.
And come in all sweaty and the kids are like, what are you doing?
It's like, well, I'm training.
(26:38):
And even some of the other boys are like, I want to do a competition soon.
And I'm like, well, let's see when they can be. And so I think that that leads
into the second thing is that as you demonstrate your determination and what
it takes to whatever you're doing,
whether that's doing a competition or whether that's running a marathon or running
(26:59):
a 5K or running a triathlon or doing a chess competition or whatever,
whatever it is that you do, or building a business.
You know some people were built like a business and they're like i'm determined
to do this son and like but we got a big and share with it share those successes
and share that work with your kids hey son i got a big client today and this
is going to mean a lot for our family and.
(27:20):
They'll let them see that. And then for your kids, there's lots more opportunities
for kids to achieve and to be determined about things, whether that's a musical
instrument or whether that's a sport. Most kids are in at least one sport.
And there's other things like a chess competition or a Rubik's Cube competition
is something that my sons express interest in or the debate team or whatever.
(27:44):
There's a wide variety of things of interest where you can pursue excellence.
And so modeling that and then creating opportunities to where your kids can
do that and say, oh, hey, there's this thing coming up. And would you like to get ready?
I can help you get ready for this competition or this showcase that you're going
(28:07):
to do or whatever it may be. It's just that sometimes kids don't know how or
where to do those things.
So it's our responsibility as parents to help provide those opportunities so
that when they look back, they can say, yeah, I remember working really hard
and being able to do this and that because of the determination I had.
(28:30):
I see that a lot with scouting. When I look back at my life,
a lot of the hard things that I did and achieved in scouting was,
I felt like, a determination. You had to be determined to do it.
And so that was, when I was young, that was one thing that I really looked at.
Yeah, I liked what you said from a kid's perspective of like celebrating the wins.
(28:52):
And I think a lot of times too, the journey can be celebrated too, right?
Like maybe you go to this competition or, you know, previous competitions and
maybe you haven't won every single match that you've been in.
But still like the journey and the training and everything that has led up to that is like huge.
(29:12):
And I think that's really important for your kids to see or for our kids to
see us determined towards a specific goal.
Like, oh, dad sees something that he wants and he's pushing hard.
He's working hard to achieve that specific goal.
I think that's very, very important for us as parents to show to our kids. Yeah.
(29:38):
Well, I know you shared one of your quotes. Do you have a different quote?
Yeah. So the second one I had, actually, it's kind of a story and then ending with a quote.
So it is the story of Louis Zamperini. Do you remember that name?
Zamperini. That is the guy from Unbroken. Oh, yeah.
(29:59):
He's the guy that was in the Japanese POW camp.
Camp yeah yeah so he was he was
a an olympic runner and then after
that he was in world war two he was a bombardier and his plane was shot down
over the ocean as he was on a bombing run and this is in 1943 he was shot down
(30:23):
over the pacific ocean and him and two other crew members that survived the crash,
they drifted on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days.
They drifted on a raft. So they were in, in, in dirt, hunger,
dehydration. They were attacked several times by sharks.
(30:44):
Uh, eventually they were captured by the Japanese after being,
you know, drifting at sea for over a month and a half. What's worse.
Now they get, they get captured by the Japanese and get sent to,
you know, some of the worst POW camps in Japan at the time where he now served
in very very constant physical and psychological torturous situations.
(31:09):
For two years, he was in POW camps in Japan.
And so despite all of that suffering, his determination never wavered from what he was doing.
His brother, actually, his older brother was his trainer for his Olympic career. He was as a runner.
(31:29):
And in the movie, there's a movie Unbroken. And in the movie,
the quote that his brother always told him was, if you can take it, you can make it, right?
Basically, if you tough it out, if you hold on, right, you can get to the end.
And I kind of looked into that quote, and I don't know if they changed it for
(31:51):
the movie, but the quote that I had that I read that his brother said usually
more than that was, a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
And so that was just something I thought was kind of really interesting that
all of this craziness that this guy went through in his life,
(32:11):
his perseverance and determination in the face of such adversity.
Was kind of inspiring to me.
And I remember there's this one story of him specifically when he was in a POW
camp and he had to, I read the book as well that he wrote, which was really interesting,
but he part of the torture in one of these camps where they had to hold this
(32:36):
like big log above their head.
And if they dropped the log, then they would, the guards would beat them with these sticks.
And so part of his punishment was, you know, for doing something.
And I guess one of the main guards just kind of had it out for him to hold this
log, this really heavy log over his head.
And these guys are like, you know, like next to nothing, almost like,
(33:00):
you know, concentration camps, camp skinny and barely surviving and starving
and worked half to death.
You know, three quarters to death. And so, you know, the story was that the,
the, the guard said, if he drops that log, shoot him.
And so he held the log for like an impressive amount of time,
(33:22):
I guess, longer than, you know, anyone should have been able to hold it.
He kind of, just locked his arms out and just through sheer determination,
kind of just fought back against the situation that he was in.
So a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
(33:42):
So sometimes it's hard to continue to stay disciplined and determined and to
maintain that determination over a long period of time.
But from experience and different things that I have done, it's worth it.
It's worth it for sure to stick with things.
(34:03):
It's important to know when to maybe pivot, right? And maybe change.
But just because you pivot, that's not a failure.
That's just a redeployment of your determination resources into something different.
So... Yeah. No, that's a great story.
(34:24):
I think that sometimes when people get their backs against Against the wall,
they really can show their colors, and it's amazing.
There's a show that Shannon and I recently watched.
It's called Terror, and it's on Netflix.
And it's about the HMS Terror and HMS Ebris, which were two Arctic exploration
(34:51):
ships in the mid-1800s, which got,
which were trying to find the Northwest Passage or a northern passage like over
Canada or an Arctic passage to the other side to the Pacific.
So they're trying to do that and then they got stuck in the ice.
And it's called Franklin's Lost Expedition.
(35:12):
Sir John Franklin's Lost Expedition. And the show, it's kind of based on historic facts.
Is that the one where like a monster thing comes and starts attacking you guys?
Yeah, yeah. I've seen that. It's kind of like a Skinwalker type thing.
But it's made to be like a scary movie.
But it's really heartwarming. Obviously, they don't know what happened to those
(35:32):
guys except for that they all died.
But it's very interesting to kind of just see what that might have looked like.
And there's a little bit of a scary theme of it where there's like one of the
Eskimos that, you know, is like a kind of like a wise, how would you call it?
Like a magic elder man or whatever like that. And they accidentally shoot him
(35:53):
thinking he's a polar bear.
But he actually turns into like this like Wendigo, like polar bear human type
thing that like hunts him down.
And it's pretty cool, but, you know, just researching the lost expedition and
how those guys stayed out there for so long.
I mean, they're out there for years and they're just, you know, trying to survive.
(36:15):
And it's kind of a cool thing to see about what they might have gone through,
what that might have looked like, especially from starvation and politics and
the dynamics of a survival situation where everybody's just trying to survive,
and how quickly does the hierarchy of the Royal Navy crumble?
(36:40):
It was a good show, but it's based off of a true story.
But yeah, I think that determination is so cool. You said you had a quote with
that. Oh, was that the one that he shared?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
Yeah. So my quote was from our boy Zig Ziglar, classic.
And he said, I believe success is achieved by ordinary people with extraordinary determination.
(37:06):
And so it kind of reminds me of, didn't Gandalf say something very similar to that?
I think he said something similar to that. Talking about hobbits or something?
He said that like the most extraordinary thing If things done in this life aren't
by some brave heroes, but by ordinary people,
(37:27):
I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness
at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
That's not exactly a determination, but...
No, still pretty cool. Yeah, there's a lot more ordinary people in this life
than there are extraordinary people.
(37:47):
And yeah, I think the difference, what did they say? The difference between
try and triumph is just a little bit of oomph.
I love it. So cool. All right.
Well, hopefully this has been some inspirational, some motivational kind of
stories and, and talk about determination and how you can apply it,
(38:13):
how we can apply it to our own personal creeds to impact those around us,
you know, particularly,
you know, in our case, our kids and our wives,
our lives, you know, those around us.
And I think a lot of things that Jared and I do individually are kind of an
inspiration to each other.
And, you know, find your determination. If you feel lacking in this specific
(38:36):
area, then do a little research on it, you know, Listen to this episode 10 or 15 or 20 times.
Have your kids see you in the journey, along the journey of achieving your goals
and having that determination and that mindset.
I think that'll be very important. So we encourage you to do that.
(38:59):
We're definitely going to do that.
And we would love to have you join us on our journey.
And let's build that creed together. Let's do it.
Music.
Hello and welcome to another episode of our Brothers Creed podcast,
where we inspire fathers to build a blueprint for the next generation.
We are the Thomas Brothers, and I'm Jared.
And I'm Ethan. And today, we are going to be inspired by talking about the topic
of determination, something that's kind of deep.
(00:21):
A lot of times we've talked about a lot of principles, talked about respect
and discipline and endurance and a lot of different things, But I think determination
is an interesting one because I think it's kind of an accumulation of a lot of different traits.
So we're going to get through it. I've got a couple stories,
some stories of determination that I like that have inspired me.
(00:43):
Yeah, I've got one too. I'm going to kind of go through some quotes and figure
out how we can be more determined in our day-to-day life and our own personal
creed. So let's get into it. Excellent. Let's do it.
It do not go gentle into that good night old age should burn and brave the close of day.
Music.
(01:06):
You should be a monster an absolute monster and then you should learn how to
control it no retreat no surrender you can't conceive of what i'm capable of
there is no tomorrow There is no tomorrow.
Music.
What we do in life echoes in eternity.
(01:32):
So, determination. I was thinking about this, and this is such an action verb.
You know, I feel like a lot of the virtues that we talk about are kind of just
like, are not so action-oriented.
Like last time we talked about gentleness.
I mean, that's, you can be gentle in your everyday life, you know,
(01:55):
but determination, I mean, it's like, that's a very proactive, it's very active.
And so I like this in regards to adding it to your creed because it says a lot
about the type of person that you are and the type of person that you want to be,
having this as part of your mantra or your personal belief set or your creed. I think that...
(02:20):
Oftentimes as adults, specifically, we do not get opportunities or we do not
create opportunities, more like, to be determined on things.
Now, I think that, like the definition of determined, what would you have for
a definition of determined, Ethan?
Yeah, so I had the determination is a firm resolve to achieve a goal or overcoming
(02:48):
an obstacle. physical regardless of whatever difficulties or setbacks there might be.
Kind of a little bit deeper into that, that it's a persistent drive to strive
towards a specific desired outcome.
I guess this is kind of where it gets into fueled by inner strength,
(03:08):
focus, resolve, discipline, patience, resilience.
It's kind of all these things built together that really allows a person to
push through adversity and challenges to complete the objectives that they have.
Yeah, I had something similar, just like that firmness of purpose and resoluteness,
(03:33):
in achieving your goals.
Now, I think that in some ways, it's kind of a cautionary.
There needs to be some caution with determination, right?
If you're determined to, you
know, like, for example, Napoleon was determined to get to Moscow, right?
(03:53):
And so he- And he got there. He got there, but at what cost?
You know, it cost him everything.
And so- About 580,000 guys. Yeah, exactly.
Or however many it was. Hundreds of thousands of men, nearly almost all of us men.
And so there's this, like, there's a sunk cost fallacy.
(04:15):
We've talked about that before. You're 200 feet from the crest of Everest,
but you can tell a storm's coming in, and you're out of time to get off of that
mountain. And you're like, well, I'm almost there.
So I think the determination has with it several...
You know, asterisks and warnings that make sure what you're being determined
(04:40):
on and what your firmness of purpose and your resoluteness,
I think it's important to reaffirm every step along the way that that is what
you want to be doing and you are going in the right direction.
And if you're down the road, you know, even if you're 10 feet or just barely
(05:01):
almost there and And you're like, whoa, if I take one step further,
this will not be in my best interest.
Then it's still okay to bail out.
It's like something that I think our, even our mom said that kind of,
you know, if you feel like, even if on your wedding day, you feel like I don't
want to do this, then say no.
You know, don't feel like you have to do anything. Don't feel pressured into doing anything.
(05:23):
If you're one step away from, if you've gone on a journey of a thousand miles
and you're one step away and you have everything in you telling you that that's the wrong step,
then take a pause and gather yourself and maybe don't take that step.
So that's, I think, that is a part of determination that has to be part of it.
(05:44):
Because if you're set in the wrong direction, then you could end up in the wrong
place. So, that was one of the trigger warnings, I guess, for determination
or asterisks on the end of that.
Yeah. No, I think that's – I think you have to be kind of – be careful,
be mindful with your determination what the consequences of achieving that goal might be. Yeah.
(06:07):
You know, sometimes – probably a lot of times it's good, but sometimes getting
to the peak of Everest maybe is not the best timing.
Not if you die. Yeah, exactly. Not if you die, it's not going to be,
you know. Yeah, I like that.
So you said, I have a, I have a, actually, I want to share a, I have a longer story.
(06:29):
Okay. And I actually wanted to read it the way that it was written,
because it was written really beautifully.
But I know you had some stories first. So why don't you share a story first,
and then I'll read through my story about determination.
And then we can kind of talk some more about how to model that and determination
for kids and stuff. Okay.
Yeah. So I, as I was kind of thinking through over the past couple of days,
(06:50):
just some inspirational stories to me, or maybe not even inspirational,
but something that just stuck to my mind whenever I thought determination.
I've got kind of three just shorter stories that we've actually shared a lot
of these before on the podcast, and so I won't get into them crazy a lot.
But the first one was Hugh Glass, the story of Hugh Glass, a recent movie that came out.
(07:14):
Well, not recent, a couple of years, several years ago. It's called The Revenant.
Recent to me is anything after 2010. 10. Yeah, seriously.
Hugh Glass, for those of you who don't know, was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper.
And basically, he had this story of survival and determination.
It's almost like a legendary story. This was in 1823.
(07:39):
He was out on a fur trapping expedition in South Dakota.
And he was part of a group. He was kind of leading a group of men in this expedition.
And he was mauled by a
grizzly bear and he was just brutally
i mean broken bones and cuts
and every it was so bad that the men that he were with they thought that there's
(08:04):
no way that this guy can survive so they basically just left him for dead and
they just kind of buried buried him in like a very shallow grave and just because
they were afraid that they were kind of being chased by Indians and stuff.
And so they just left him. Oh, he's going to die anyway.
And so he had shattered leg, deep lacerations and no supplies when they left
(08:27):
him, but he just refused to give up. He just would not die.
And so he crawled. This is a true story, by the way.
He crawled on his hands and knees over 200 miles with just sheer willpower,
eating roots and berries and whatever he could find and trying to stay alive.
(08:50):
And eventually he reached a military base and was saved. But he was fueled.
His determination basically was fueled by his rage against these men that just
left him for dead, just abandoned him.
So, you know, not to spoil the story too much, there's a couple different endings to the story.
(09:10):
One ending is he goes and kills all these guys, and another ending is actually
he forgave, I think, a couple of them, and then there was one guy that was like
this main guy that he did.
He did chase down, track down. So his story, just being alone,
without resources, in this bitter, cold, freezing South Dakota winter,
(09:33):
when normal humans would have just given up.
There's people that don't want to go outside if it's 20 degrees.
And just that sheer determination and willpower was inspirational.
Kind of a powerful lesson to us all. that when you put your mind to something, you can do it.
(09:54):
I mean, even if that something is revenge, maybe that something is,
maybe that something is money,
or maybe that something is getting into shape, or maybe that something is,
you know, creating a good loving home for your children or, you know,
a good relationship with your wife or whatever that determination might
(10:14):
be, whatever the, I guess the, the,
the, the motivation behind the, the determination.
Definitely something that, that we can all do. Yeah. Yeah.
No, that's a great story. That's such a crazy... It's funny that a lot of these
determination things, it's oftentimes a determination to survive or to recover.
(10:42):
Yeah. And that's sometimes where you see the most crazy stories.
One kind of cautionary tale, but also a plug for a show, is that there's a show
on Netflix called Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War.
And it's like a documentary style show, a dramatized show.
(11:06):
And it tells the whole story about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the Earp
brothers and how they got in a shootout at the O.K.
Corral with Ike Clanton
and all the and all the cowboys so it's actually
interesting the story the shootout
is kind of like the first part of the story the story goes on and
(11:26):
on and on and on and on have you seen two have you seen tombstone before yeah
yeah yeah yeah so this is really good i mean it's kind of a similar thing it
gives historical background all these guys and what happened after there's a
so why for those is that you don't know Wyatt Earp and his two brothers,
Virgil, and then I forget the other one's name, the younger one.
(11:49):
And then Doc Holliday. Doc Holliday was just a drunk that one time saved Wyatt
Earp's life when he was about to get shot in the back. But he was a drunk and he had tuberculosis.
And so he was a dentist and his doctor told him that because he had tuberculosis,
he needed to move west. He lived in Georgia.
He needed to move west for some fresh air. and the doctor told him to drink
(12:11):
whiskey. And so he was just a drunk out West. And he lived in Arizona.
And the whole thing is that there was this feud that kind of started up between
these cowboys, which for the most part were kind of ex-Confederates for the most part.
And Wyatt Earp, who was kind of like a ranger for the town.
(12:32):
And it's interesting how this progresses because there's kind of this feud that starts.
And then this main guy in the Cowboys, he kind of, you know,
sets up this whole thing.
And he's like, you know, after a bunch of his buddies get shot at the OK Corral,
the shootout, he sets up this thing.
And he's like, oh, you know, my buddies were shot down in cold blood.
And my brother was killed by Wyatt Earp. And actually, Wyatt and his brothers
(12:56):
got put in jail for a short time.
And they went to this trial and stuff. And then eventually, this feud just got
out of, like, back and forth, back and forth.
And both of Wyatt's brothers got shot.
One of them got killed, and one of them was permanently injured for life.
And then Wyatt went on his, what they call his vendetta ride,
(13:17):
where he went around and just killed as many cowboys as he could.
They were part of this cowboy gang, which the way that it was kind of being
billed in the newspapers and stuff, these were Confederates who were trying
to live, and they're kind of these vigilantes.
And the Earths were from the North.
These Yankees were trying to stomp out the Confederates.
(13:38):
And so it kind of was continuing to divide the country a little bit.
And Wyatt, he was so determined to get this revenge that he actually became kind of a bad guy.
He went outside the law and he was out just killing people.
And so it kind of later in his life... Not to say these people didn't need killing,
(14:00):
but... Yeah, but he was outside of his jurisdiction. He was on a vendetta ride.
That's what the newspaper called it. And he was just killing all these guys.
And he wouldn't bring anybody in. He would just kill them.
And he eventually later in his life,
(14:21):
everybody called him. He moved to LA. He ended up moving to LA and he worked
as kind of an advisor for some old Hollywood movies.
And people didn't really like him that much because they called him a murderer.
You're a murderer because you would kill all these guys and you didn't bring them in and stuff.
And so I think in some ways his determination was a little bit to his detriment
(14:43):
because he just got so obsessed with vengeance that it really,
he kind of went a little bit off the deep end.
But you made me think of that. Also a great show and I recommend watching it. Nice.
So that one's good. So I do have a kind of a story here.
And it was written, I found it on a website called impactyourworldng.org.
(15:09):
And it was written by Bert Dubbin and it talks about determination.
And I was thinking about taking snippets. Usually what we do is when we find
cool stories and stuff, we'll take snippets and we'll just kind of paraphrase stuff or we'll...
Do other research and just add it in. But the way that this was written was really cool.
And it kind of painted a really cool picture of this guy's struggles and what
(15:34):
he went through and how determined he was.
So I'm just going to read it straight up like I'm reading to a bedtime story.
So here goes. The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned
pot-bellied cold stove.
An eight-year-old boy named Glenn Cunningham had the job of coming to school
(15:54):
early each day so that he could use kerosene to start the fire and warm the
room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning, someone mistakenly filled the kerosene container he used with gasoline and disaster struck.
It's not a good thing. Very different.
Unbustability. Yeah. The class and the teacher arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames.
(16:18):
Terrified on realizing that Glenn was inside, they rushed in and managed to
drag the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building, more dead than alive.
He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.
From his bed, the dreadfully burned semi-conscious little boy faintly heard
(16:39):
the doctor saying to his mother, the doctor told his mother that her son would surely die,
which was was for the best, really, for the fire, for the terrible fire had
devastated the lower half of his body. Oh man, brutal.
But the brave boy didn't want to die. Glenn made up his mind that he would survive.
(16:59):
And somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive.
Yet when the mortal danger was passed, he again heard the doctor and his mother speak quietly.
The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body,
it would almost be better if he had died since he was doomed to be a lifetime
(17:22):
cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.
His mother refused to let the doctors amputate.
So these doctors are top-notch.
Once more, this little, this brave little boy made up his mind he would not
be crippled. He would walk.
But unfortunately, from the waist down, Glenn had no motor ability.
(17:45):
His thin and scarred legs just dangled there, all but lifeless.
Ultimately, Glenn was released from the hospital every day after work.
Afterward, his mother and father would massage his little legs,
but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he
would walk was as strong as ever.
(18:07):
When he wasn't in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair.
On one sunny day, his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air.
This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair.
Glenn pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.
(18:29):
He worked his way to the white picket fence, bordering their lot.
With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence.
Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence forward.
Resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a
smooth path around the yard beside the fence.
(18:50):
There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.
Ultimately, through his daily massages, Glenn's iron persistence,
and his resolute determination,
he did develop the ability to first to stand up, then to walk haltingly with
help, then to walk by himself, and then miraculously to run.
(19:12):
Glenn began to run to school. He ran for the sheer joy of running and being
able to run. He ran everywhere that he could.
The people in the town would often see him run by on his way to who knows where and smile.
Later in college, Glenn made the track team where his tremendous determination paid off.
He eventually received the nickname named Kansas Flyer.
(19:36):
In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden,
this young man was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk,
who could never hope to run.
This determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the mile in four minutes
and eight seconds, the world's fastest indoor mile.
(19:58):
Later that same year, in a prestigious outdoor track meet, He shaved another
second off his record to run the world's fastest mile to that time.
And so it says at the end here, you can always achieve success if you only believe in yourself.
So obviously we know folks can run faster than a four-minute mile now,
but four minutes and seven seconds or eight seconds later and then later seven
(20:21):
seconds was the fastest at the time.
And so I thought it was such a cool story of someone really coming back and
having the determination to drive forward even when everyone tells you,
heck, you should be dead or you're going to be a cripple for the rest of your
life or all these things.
And what he was able to do was just incredible. So I thought that was a really cool story.
(20:43):
Yeah, I like that. That is a great story. And actually, it kind of goes into
one of the things that I was thinking about.
And I heard this, I think I heard this on like a Jocko Willink podcast or something like that.
But he's talking about motivation and discipline. discipline,
and kind of, let's say, willpower and motivation.
(21:03):
They're talking about, you know, how do you get somebody asked a question?
Like, how do you get motivated?
Or what's, you know, how do I be more motivated to go work out and stuff like that?
And basically, he said, motivation is for fools, right? Motivation is for weak-minded people.
So what you need is discipline.
And I think that kind of goes into determination, right?
(21:26):
And so it's better to be disciplined over motivated because discipline creates consistent action.
And motivation is often like a temporary or unreliable type thing.
Oh, I'm not motivated today, so I don't think I'm going to go to the gym.
But if you're disciplined and if you learn to become disciplined,
(21:47):
then it doesn't matter whether you're motivated or not.
You've created a habit and you do that thing.
And so, you know, motivation tends to be more emotion, circumstance-based versus discipline,
on the other hand, is more just kind of commitment and built on habits that
ensures that you'll kind of stay that course.
(22:09):
And so when I was thinking about determination and that story you told,
right, I'm sure he was, I'm sure he was motivated, right?
But he was probably very disciplined in getting outside and walking the fence
and doing everything else and just consistently getting better and better and better at running,
(22:29):
having that habit that he formed or that discipline around exercise and getting better.
I think that will help maybe make being determined a little bit easier if you
have kind of that discipline built around your determination.
And so I had looked up and I said, how do I personally become more determined in my own life?
(22:57):
How do I see a goal and just decide and make it apparent that,
hey, I'm going to do whatever it takes to reach that goal.
So first one was, you know, setting clear goals.
I think that's important, right? If you just say, oh, I want to be rich.
It's like, yeah, well, what does rich mean? Rich can mean a lot of different
(23:19):
things. So maybe setting a specific goal, something that's something that you
can actually aim at is important.
Breaking goals into manageable steps will make it easier to be determined through the process.
Determining your why or developing a strong why.
(23:40):
It's kind of important. Why am I doing this? What's the reasoning behind why
I want to achieve this goal?
Next one, we just talked about building good good habits, and discipline to
support the plan of achieving that goal.
Practicing resilience, and even when things get tough or if you didn't stay
(24:05):
in doing it just because you're disciplined.
Oh, you cut out a little bit. You were saying practicing resilience.
What did you say about that one? Yeah.
So just being resilient and, you know, even if you don't want to do something,
when you wake up in the morning and you're a little achy or maybe you're tired,
still doing it, just going out and doing it.
(24:27):
You know, surrounding yourself with support, people that support you in your
path, visualizing success, and then celebrating your progress.
Those are all things that kind of can help someone on the path of being determined
or to be more determined to achieve different things in your life.
It always reminds me of the quote that says that, you know, he that says he
(24:48):
can and he that says he can't or cannot are both right.
You know, it's just kind of, you know, it's a mental thing to be able to create something.
Plan that will allow you to stay consistent and determined through the process.
(25:09):
So that was just kind of a couple of things from determination that I thought
was really interesting.
Yeah, I think that those are some great things. And I think an overarching thing
there is that you got to pick something to be determined about.
I think that there's two things.
One is we always talk about modeling these things as fathers specifically for us or parents.
(25:30):
How are you modeling determination for your kids? What are you determined to do?
What are you setting your sights on? I know that, Ethan, you've done some things like,
you know, for example, you have done two triathlons, and you coach soccer for
your kids, and you've got other things on the horizon that you're working on.
(25:53):
And right now, I'm I'm kind of determined to, I'm training and getting ready
for a jiu-jitsu competition in October.
It's kind of another level of, it's like a higher level of competition where
it's much more serious than just a local thing.
And so I'm looking forward to doing that.
(26:16):
And I've been running every morning and trying to get ready for that.
And the kids see me come in, And I wake up at 5.30 and go for a two-mile run
around the neighborhood kind of as fast as I can because the whole thing is
I want to be conditioned cardio-wise to be able to just go, go, go during a match.
And come in all sweaty and the kids are like, what are you doing?
It's like, well, I'm training.
(26:38):
And even some of the other boys are like, I want to do a competition soon.
And I'm like, well, let's see when they can be. And so I think that that leads
into the second thing is that as you demonstrate your determination and what
it takes to whatever you're doing,
whether that's doing a competition or whether that's running a marathon or running
(26:59):
a 5K or running a triathlon or doing a chess competition or whatever,
whatever it is that you do, or building a business.
You know some people were built like a business and they're like i'm determined
to do this son and like but we got a big and share with it share those successes
and share that work with your kids hey son i got a big client today and this
is going to mean a lot for our family and.
(27:20):
They'll let them see that. And then for your kids, there's lots more opportunities
for kids to achieve and to be determined about things, whether that's a musical
instrument or whether that's a sport. Most kids are in at least one sport.
And there's other things like a chess competition or a Rubik's Cube competition
is something that my sons express interest in or the debate team or whatever.
(27:44):
There's a wide variety of things of interest where you can pursue excellence.
And so modeling that and then creating opportunities to where your kids can
do that and say, oh, hey, there's this thing coming up. And would you like to get ready?
I can help you get ready for this competition or this showcase that you're going
(28:07):
to do or whatever it may be. It's just that sometimes kids don't know how or
where to do those things.
So it's our responsibility as parents to help provide those opportunities so
that when they look back, they can say, yeah, I remember working really hard
and being able to do this and that because of the determination I had.
(28:30):
I see that a lot with scouting. When I look back at my life,
a lot of the hard things that I did and achieved in scouting was,
I felt like, a determination. You had to be determined to do it.
And so that was, when I was young, that was one thing that I really looked at.
Yeah, I liked what you said from a kid's perspective of like celebrating the wins.
(28:52):
And I think a lot of times too, the journey can be celebrated too, right?
Like maybe you go to this competition or, you know, previous competitions and
maybe you haven't won every single match that you've been in.
But still like the journey and the training and everything that has led up to that is like huge.
(29:12):
And I think that's really important for your kids to see or for our kids to
see us determined towards a specific goal.
Like, oh, dad sees something that he wants and he's pushing hard.
He's working hard to achieve that specific goal.
I think that's very, very important for us as parents to show to our kids. Yeah.
(29:38):
Well, I know you shared one of your quotes. Do you have a different quote?
Yeah. So the second one I had, actually, it's kind of a story and then ending with a quote.
So it is the story of Louis Zamperini. Do you remember that name?
Zamperini. That is the guy from Unbroken. Oh, yeah.
(29:59):
He's the guy that was in the Japanese POW camp.
Camp yeah yeah so he was he was
a an olympic runner and then after
that he was in world war two he was a bombardier and his plane was shot down
over the ocean as he was on a bombing run and this is in 1943 he was shot down
(30:23):
over the pacific ocean and him and two other crew members that survived the crash,
they drifted on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days.
They drifted on a raft. So they were in, in, in dirt, hunger,
dehydration. They were attacked several times by sharks.
(30:44):
Uh, eventually they were captured by the Japanese after being,
you know, drifting at sea for over a month and a half. What's worse.
Now they get, they get captured by the Japanese and get sent to,
you know, some of the worst POW camps in Japan at the time where he now served
in very very constant physical and psychological torturous situations.
(31:09):
For two years, he was in POW camps in Japan.
And so despite all of that suffering, his determination never wavered from what he was doing.
His brother, actually, his older brother was his trainer for his Olympic career. He was as a runner.
(31:29):
And in the movie, there's a movie Unbroken. And in the movie,
the quote that his brother always told him was, if you can take it, you can make it, right?
Basically, if you tough it out, if you hold on, right, you can get to the end.
And I kind of looked into that quote, and I don't know if they changed it for
(31:51):
the movie, but the quote that I had that I read that his brother said usually
more than that was, a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
And so that was just something I thought was kind of really interesting that
all of this craziness that this guy went through in his life,
(32:11):
his perseverance and determination in the face of such adversity.
Was kind of inspiring to me.
And I remember there's this one story of him specifically when he was in a POW
camp and he had to, I read the book as well that he wrote, which was really interesting,
but he part of the torture in one of these camps where they had to hold this
(32:36):
like big log above their head.
And if they dropped the log, then they would, the guards would beat them with these sticks.
And so part of his punishment was, you know, for doing something.
And I guess one of the main guards just kind of had it out for him to hold this
log, this really heavy log over his head.
And these guys are like, you know, like next to nothing, almost like,
(33:00):
you know, concentration camps, camp skinny and barely surviving and starving
and worked half to death.
You know, three quarters to death. And so, you know, the story was that the,
the, the guard said, if he drops that log, shoot him.
And so he held the log for like an impressive amount of time,
(33:22):
I guess, longer than, you know, anyone should have been able to hold it.
He kind of, just locked his arms out and just through sheer determination,
kind of just fought back against the situation that he was in.
So a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
(33:42):
So sometimes it's hard to continue to stay disciplined and determined and to
maintain that determination over a long period of time.
But from experience and different things that I have done, it's worth it.
It's worth it for sure to stick with things.
(34:03):
It's important to know when to maybe pivot, right? And maybe change.
But just because you pivot, that's not a failure.
That's just a redeployment of your determination resources into something different.
So... Yeah. No, that's a great story.
(34:24):
I think that sometimes when people get their backs against Against the wall,
they really can show their colors, and it's amazing.
There's a show that Shannon and I recently watched.
It's called Terror, and it's on Netflix.
And it's about the HMS Terror and HMS Ebris, which were two Arctic exploration
(34:51):
ships in the mid-1800s, which got,
which were trying to find the Northwest Passage or a northern passage like over
Canada or an Arctic passage to the other side to the Pacific.
So they're trying to do that and then they got stuck in the ice.
And it's called Franklin's Lost Expedition.
(35:12):
Sir John Franklin's Lost Expedition. And the show, it's kind of based on historic facts.
Is that the one where like a monster thing comes and starts attacking you guys?
Yeah, yeah. I've seen that. It's kind of like a Skinwalker type thing.
But it's made to be like a scary movie.
But it's really heartwarming. Obviously, they don't know what happened to those
(35:32):
guys except for that they all died.
But it's very interesting to kind of just see what that might have looked like.
And there's a little bit of a scary theme of it where there's like one of the
Eskimos that, you know, is like a kind of like a wise, how would you call it?
Like a magic elder man or whatever like that. And they accidentally shoot him
(35:53):
thinking he's a polar bear.
But he actually turns into like this like Wendigo, like polar bear human type
thing that like hunts him down.
And it's pretty cool, but, you know, just researching the lost expedition and
how those guys stayed out there for so long.
I mean, they're out there for years and they're just, you know, trying to survive.
(36:15):
And it's kind of a cool thing to see about what they might have gone through,
what that might have looked like, especially from starvation and politics and
the dynamics of a survival situation where everybody's just trying to survive,
and how quickly does the hierarchy of the Royal Navy crumble?
(36:40):
It was a good show, but it's based off of a true story.
But yeah, I think that determination is so cool. You said you had a quote with
that. Oh, was that the one that he shared?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.
Yeah. So my quote was from our boy Zig Ziglar, classic.
And he said, I believe success is achieved by ordinary people with extraordinary determination.
(37:06):
And so it kind of reminds me of, didn't Gandalf say something very similar to that?
I think he said something similar to that. Talking about hobbits or something?
He said that like the most extraordinary thing If things done in this life aren't
by some brave heroes, but by ordinary people,
(37:27):
I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness
at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.
That's not exactly a determination, but...
No, still pretty cool. Yeah, there's a lot more ordinary people in this life
than there are extraordinary people.
(37:47):
And yeah, I think the difference, what did they say? The difference between
try and triumph is just a little bit of oomph.
I love it. So cool. All right.
Well, hopefully this has been some inspirational, some motivational kind of
stories and, and talk about determination and how you can apply it,
(38:13):
how we can apply it to our own personal creeds to impact those around us,
you know, particularly,
you know, in our case, our kids and our wives,
our lives, you know, those around us.
And I think a lot of things that Jared and I do individually are kind of an
inspiration to each other.
And, you know, find your determination. If you feel lacking in this specific
(38:36):
area, then do a little research on it, you know, Listen to this episode 10 or 15 or 20 times.
Have your kids see you in the journey, along the journey of achieving your goals
and having that determination and that mindset.
I think that'll be very important. So we encourage you to do that.
(38:59):
We're definitely going to do that.
And we would love to have you join us on our journey.
And let's build that creed together. Let's do it.
Music.
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