165 – The End of the Trail

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Hey welcome back it’s Dr. Dave! Great to have you. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. It’s The David Madow Lifestyle Show. And I appreciate YOU!

I’m in my outdoor studio again because I am doing my “Magic 4” today. By the way, in case you’re new to me, the “Magic 4” is walking 4 miles straight. And if you do it everyday, it’s a game changer. And I want to stress that when I do my “Magic 4” it’s not necessarily just walking. There are a lot of other things you can do during the “Magic 4”. And I’ll just give you a few examples. Oftentimes if I stop to take a break, I do some squats. You know what squats are. Basically, from a standing position you bend your knees and you go down as far as you can and then stand back up.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

So imagine during your walk, during your “Magic 4”, Imagine stopping and doing 10 free squats. And then continue on your walk. And then maybe a short time later doing 10 more. By the time you finish, during your breaks you can do a decent number of squats. And let me tell you something, you’ll feel a difference in your body when you start incorporating squats into your routine. You don’t need to be at a gym. You can do this during your “Magic 4” or when you’re brushing your teeth as my wife Yoko does. [Dave giggles] Or any room or outside. You don’t have to be doing this in a gym.

Where I walk is kind of rural as you probably know if you’ve been following me for quite some time. Especially my Periscope broadcasts. You see the streets that I walk on and the area that I’m in. And by the way, if you come to W.T.A. (Weekend to Awesome) on April 22nd & 23rd, you will walk the same streets we walk here. You will basically immerse yourself in our lifestyle. And at the end of the weekend my goal is to have you saying that it was the best weekend you ever spent in your life. So I hope you’re in. I’m only taking 10. I’m being really strict because I want 10 like minded people.

So there are all kinds of horse fences and trees around here. I will stop at a fence or a tree or anything and do some stretching. Some very simple stretching exercises during my “Magic 4”. And if I really feel motivated, I’ll get down on the ground and do some sets of push ups. You can do these all during a “Magic 4”. I’d like to know what you do. If you’ve come up with any good ideas. Let me know.

There are tons of things you can do. You can strike some Yoga poses and crunches. There are tons of things you can do during your “Magic 4”.

Then again you don’t to do anything. You can just do a straight 4 and that’s fine. That’s totally fine because it’s all about getting out there every day and covering 4 miles on your feet. NOT on a treadmill please! Keep your feet on the Earth. Be one with nature, it makes a tremendous difference.

Again, I’ve got a treadmill in my home. Do I used it a lot? No ! Do I use it for training sometimes? Yes! Do I use it when it’s -10 degrees out and icy and snowy? Yes! But I usually don’t use it. I’m usually outside walking, running, hiking, skiing, the list goes on and on. So, I love the outdoors and I think that’s one of my secrets to life.

“Be one with nature.”

A short time ago, again you probably know this if you’re a frequent listener, you know that a few weeks ago I spent some time in Zion National Park .

There was a trail called Hidden Canyon Trail. I’m not sure if I spoke about this trail in detail but I want to share something with you about the trail. It was not an easy trail. It was actually fairly difficult. The trail consisted of a lot of uphill switchbacks which go up the bottom of the canyon to the rim of the canyon. So it consisted of a lot of uphill. Basically all uphill which can be really intimidating to someone who’s not really used to a lot of uphill climbing  or who aren’t in very good physical condition it can be very difficult. There’s not a lot of resting. You can take time, move to the side, and get a little rest. Which I believe in but the whole first half of the hike is uphill.

Not only was it difficult that way but we got to a point where there were chains that you had to hold onto. So imagine your going along walking uphill, and all of a sudden there are chains that you have to hold on to. It’s not like you don’t have to grab onto the chains. If you don’t grab onto them and look off to your right, there’s a nice little cliff right there.  If you happen to let go of that chain and slip and fall off the cliff, well you will fall about 1000 feet down to your death. I don’t want to paint that difficult of a picture because people do this trail every day and I think it’s extremely rare that somebody will actually fall. But it can be very intimidating and very dangerous especially if you have a fear of heights. And then we get to a point after the chains where it’s more climbing up up up. And there’s a sign that says…

You’ve reached the end of the trail

But after that it look like there was more trail. So we kept going. Yeah we had to jump over some boulders. We had to get around trees and branches and obstacles for sure. But we finally made it to the part in the trail that I think truly was the end…I think. It was a natural arch that was just beautiful and nobody else was there. And we just sat down and enjoyed some snacks and lunch. We enjoyed the incredible beauty that this trail offered us at the top of Hidden Canyon.

I’ve got a few take home points I want to share with you about this hike and about this trail and about this life. We’re going to wrap everything together into life because it’s all about life. First of all, the trail…yes it was intimidating. And somebody who would’ve look at a map or seen a video or heard a description of this trail, many people would have said “no, there’s no way. I’m not doing that. I can’t do that. There’s a lot of uphill and a lot of obstacles. There’s chains you have to grab onto. There’s parts that if you fall off you’re going to die. It’s scary. I’m not doing that!” I think that would be a very common response to somebody that we would ask “do you want to do this trail with us?” But what I learned was if you look at the whole picture of something it could be very intimidating. But when you take a step back and think of it as one little piece of the puzzle at a time you can conquer it. Yeah sure there was a lot of uphill. But if you just take your time and don’t go too fast and take some breaks, you’ll be able to get past the uphill part. Coming back the second half was amazing. Coming downhill was like a present from somebody to us. You can get through it if you take it one step at a time. Going downhill is not that tough.

So you can get through it if you just take a little bit at a time. You get to the part there are chains and it’s very intimidating. You say I’m not doing that it’s crazy. Stop. Take a deep breath. Realize that hikers do this everyday. And yes it’s dangerous but nobody’s falling if you’re careful. Just put one foot in front of the other. You’re gonna get to the point where after probably less than 5 minutes you’re passed that really difficult part. And you can say WOW I did that! I got passed that! And then you get to an area that says this is the end of the maintained trail. And you can say look I don’t want to go any further. Yeah there are areas where you have to climb over some boulders but you do it a little bit at a time. Get over the next obstacle. And when you get to the next obstacle, conquer that one. It’s almost like checking that one off. And when you get to the next obstacle, it might be difficult but you get around that or over that whatever you have to do. And if you get to the end you will be truly rewarded by this beauty that very few people get to achieve, very few people get to accomplish getting to these arches. Because of the obstacles involved, because of a sign that says “end of trail”, and because of the fright of doing it. Again if you look at it as all one big obstacle course, then year people aren’t going to do it. But that’s why I like to break things down and take them one little piece at a time.

I remember when I was a practicing dentist. I had this patient come in and his name was Rick. He was a young guy. Back then he was probably 19,20, or 21. He was a heck of a guy. but every time he came in he had more trouble. I tell you this guy must of drank coke all day long. Because every time he came in there was more decay. His mouth was a mess. It was really a complex case. And I felt that I was up against a lot of obstacles and I didn’t even know what to do with this guy. And it was really frustrating. As nice as a guy as he was, his mouth was a total disaster. I just felt that this was so complex that it made me anxious. I didn’t know what to do.

So I still remember this like it was the other day. I was skiing with a friend of mine. His name is Stan. This was back in the 80’s. And I we were on the chair life and I was explaining to Stan. I said “Rick is a nice guy but I’m just really intimidated by his case. It’s so complex and I don’t know what to do. Every time he comes back in there’s more decay. It’s just a total total mess!” And Stan looked at me as we’re riding on this chair life and he said “Dave, why are you so intimidated about this?” And I said “There’s just so much going on here. I can’t comprehend it. It’s just too much for me.” And Stan looked at me and said “Dave just do one tooth at a time. Take care of one tooth at a time. It might take a long time but you’ll finally be there. You’ll do it!” And I’ll never forget that example because how many time do you get intimidated by something. You look at the big picture and it’s intimidating. It’s a mess. Whatever that may be.

Maybe you want to lose a lot of weight. Maybe you know you’ve got a lot of weight to lose. Maybe there’s something in life that you want to accomplish but it seems so crazy it’s too much for you. I’ve learned to just do a little but at a time. Get over one little obstacle and then move to the next one. And then over a period of time, you’ll be there. You have conquered the trail and passed the sign that says “end of the trail”. And there might be extreme beauty there.

Once you pass the “end of the trail” so many people look forward to retiring. And they don’t have any real plans after retirement. They work all their lives. Maybe they’re in their 60’s and say “ok, I want to retire”. And then they don’t really have anything going. They slowly fade away because there’s nothing going on passed that “end of trail” sign. Personally, I am never going to retire. I might stop working at what I am doing now. Meaning that me speaking all over North America to dental groups and all of that. It’s a lot of work. And I might now do that forever. I love it but I might want to move into something else. But I would never say that I am just going to get to the end of the trail, and see that sign, and just stop. What would I do? What would I do every single day? I love helping you! I could never see the day come when I want to just stop this show. I can’t see that happening. I love what I’m doing. Do I want to make some changes along the way? Absolutely! But when I see that “end of trail” sign? I am going to ignore that sign and keep going. When we reached the second sign that said “stop now”. We didn’t go further because it looked like that sign was there for a reason and it may have been dangerous. It looked like Zion National Park was telling us not to go anymore. Sometime you have to be smart. Sometimes you have to say “look we’ve done everything we can, we’re going to listen and not go any further.”

In life, I am always going to be on the trail. There are going to be obstacles. There are going to be chains. There are going to be cliff that sometimes you will get close to falling over, or get close to failing, or dying. There are going to be all kinds of challenges in life. I know I have talked to you about this several times.

About 6 months ago or so, I was in Yosemite National Park. And I talked about being on the right trail or being on the wrong trail (Episode #138). Sometimes not even understand what trail you should be on. But you can be at the bottom of a mountain and look up and almost visualize the trail that you should be on. You can see in advance almost what trail you should be on. Yeah, I am an outdoors guy. I love hiking, I love backpacking, I love being on trails. And I definitely use that as a metaphor for life.

This past trip that we did to Zion, it was not an easy trail but it wasn’t the most difficult thing in the world either. If you’re ever at Zion, I am going to recommend you go up Hidden Canyon Trail. You’ll be fine. You’ll do it!! I know you can. Be prepared for a lot of uphill at first. Be prepared to hang onto some chains that are firmly attached to the canyon. You have to trust that they are. You are pretty much putting faith in those chains that they will save your life. You’ll get past the chains. You’ll get past the first sign that says “end of trail”. You’ll get past that! You’ll get past the obstacles after that and your reward will be that beautiful natural arch. And when you have gotten there, I really want to say thanks Dr. Dave.

Not only on the trail but the trail of life. We’re doing this together guys! And I am not just talking about the male gender. I am talking about ALL of you. Every single one of you. You’re my friends. My goal in life is to help you live your best life EVER! I’ve been through some crazy times in my life. You know that. If you’ve been a long time listener or friend, you know what I went through. I could have thrown my hands in the air and said “that’s it, I’m done!” But I did not do that. I figured out ways to make it good. Make it better. And now I truly am blessed. I really am. I travel the world but mostly North America. I see the beauty and I am able to do my work from wherever I am. And I really love what I do. I hope it comes across in my words. But not only in my words but in my emotion that you can sense from listening to my words here. I truly love what I do. I love helping you! I am going to end this today just by thanking you.

Thanking you not only for being a listener or a follower, you’re a lot more than that to me. A lot more than that. You are a true friend. I’m Dr. Dave or whatever you call me. Dr. D the “V” or just Dave.

I will see you next week!