The Cycle of Growth: Orientation, Disorientation, Reorientation

Let's talk about something we all go through, but we don't always have the words for. It's the cycle of personal growth. It's a loop that keeps repeating itself in different areas of our lives. Orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. I don't know if you've heard those words before in this context, but each phrase brings its own challenges and gifts. And today we're going to unpack each one. I'll explain what each phrase feels like and what it teaches us and how to tell where we are in the cycle. Because when you understand the cycle, you won't get stuck. You move through it with a little more grace. I'm Joe and my unstuck pal over there moving through life like a well oiled machine. He's Kurt and we are dudes in progress. Well, hello, Kirk.

Good morning, Joe.

Good to talk to you this morning. Couldn't wait to get in here and talk to my pal about orientation, disorientation and reorientation.

I didn't recognize this pattern that you're talking about. Quite honestly, it's not anything I think I've ever. I'm not sure where you come across this cycle and interested in hearing what we're going to talk about today.

Well, I came across this cycle for the first time from my pastor at church, but this will not be an overtly religious podcast. I know we've had a couple of those focused on our faith in Christianity, but this is a universal cycle that we go through. Orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. It sounds pretty simple, but if we understand it and we understand where we are in the cycle and we can come at peace with our movement through the cycle, we're better people for it and it's easier to kind of go through these things. You're not familiar with the cycle, You've not heard of it, described this way before. As you look at these words, I'll bet you feel like you've lived it. Right?

Yes. All right. The first thing that came into my mind is that first time falling in love and you're going steady with someone and you got some stability and clarity. Everything seems to be going great and all of a sudden she breaks up with you. Yep.

We're like, oh, no, that's exactly right. This, this applies to so many places in our life. Right.

But it's true. Even in a marriage, you're going to go through this. Hopefully not to the horrible disruption and confusion that ends in divorce, but yeah. And if I carry that through to that disorientation piece, which would be quite traumatic when you're younger. And then that reorientation, when you get some more renewed clarity and it doesn't hurt so bad and you start moving on to somebody else. You know, I think like you said, you learn from that experience and it's not so hard the next time.

So let me briefly describe what each one is, and then we'll go deeper into each. Each part of this cycle. And at any given moment, part of our life is probably in one parts of this cycle. Sometimes our whole life feels like in this. It's in this cycle. When we go through it, you'll see what I'm talking about. Orientation. This is the phase of stability and clarity. When life feels predictable and your identity and beliefs, you're kind of feel secure, you're in a groove. Disorientation, this is when something happens to disrupt your orientation, it disrupts your life. Confusion, challenges come your way, things that make you question your assumptions, and it's pushing you into real discomfort. Reorientation is that moment after the storm. It's the phase when we've renewed our clarity, where we integrate what we've learned and we step into a deeper and wiser version of ourselves. So let's talk about those. Okay?

Yeah, absolutely. I love this.

Let's start with orientation. This is the phase where everything feels familiar, Kurt. Life has a real rhythm to it, a real routine. You know, who you are, what you believe, what's expected of you. It's kind of like you're standing on solid ground. You feel confident, capable, clear minded. Imagine starting a new job. After a few months, it kind of all clicks together. You know, your role. You're not worried about it. Every day you kind of. You kind of feel your space or you think about, like you mentioned, the early days of a relationship, a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and things are just flowing. You feel secure. You're. Like I said before, you're. You're in a groove. That's orientation. You feel grounded.

Did you see the video of the Coldplay concert?

Oh, boy. Kurt, to answer your question, yes, somebody is about to go into disorientation. Yeah, I don't know if that was contrived, if that was real, if the. Because I've heard reports that, hey, this is like a CEO of a company and that's. And that's their HR manager or something like that, right? Oh, boy.

Just saw it last night. I think my wife and I were watching tv. So Coldplay is doing a concert and they go into. They move the Camera into the crowd, and there's this guy hugging on this woman.

And very intimately.

Yes.

No doubt about it.

They immediately shy away from the camera and start hiding because they're not supposed to be together.

That's certainly what it appears to be. And the singer for Coldplay, I don't know who it is, but the singer for Coldplay calls him out right now and says some. Something like somebody's doing something they shouldn't be doing or.

Right.

Wow. I don't know if that was contrived. I don't know if it was real. You got to be careful in today's world, but maybe so, man. Somebody's in trouble, dude. And they're about to enter disorientation. That's a lesson for us all. You're going to get caught. Just don't do it.

I know it.

Whatever it is that's rattling around in your head, either stop it or don't start it. All right. That's funny, man. It's tragic in a way, because it's very likely that a relationship is lost and a family is disrupted and it could get ugly. But had he not done that, he would have been in orientation, Right?

Right.

Here's the thing about orientation. It feels good, right? It feels. Like I said, we're in a groove, but it's not meant to last forever. Life isn't static. Often the moment you feel comfortable, really comfortable, is often the moment things begin to shift.

Yeah. I think the. As you're going through this, I'm thinking the secret of life, like you mentioned earlier, is to understand this cycle. And I think the people that are resilient. I think resiliency is a word that's resonated with me really recently. Where. And, you know, I think I get this from. I think of my Little League days when you'd win a ball game, you win a couple, and then you get clobbered. And, boy, when you're 12 years old, that is devastating. It was to me. I hated to lose. But through that process, I think through my sports background as a kid, really learning to roll with it a little bit, not get too high when you're winning and not to get too low when you lose.

That'S critical, Kurt, because you have to allow yourself to go through this process. But this is much easier, and it's easier to handle, and it's easier to go through if you understand it. So if we're in a season right now where things are calm and clear, appreciate it. Soak it in. Let it happen. Take note of what's working in your life, what values are guiding you, how you're showing up for the people who love you and the people who you love, how you. How you're showing up for those things that are important to you. And what's. What's making your life oriented right now? What is causing this orientation? Because you're going to need that later as you learn lessons. Because this next phase is going to come. It always does. You know, it's what's going to happen. And it's easier to make this transition if you know what's happening. You'll. You'll know what you're transitioning from if you take a moment and appreciate this moment of orientation, wherever it is in your life. And it is all about stopping and understanding where you are right now and appreciating it, especially if you're in the orientation part of this cycle.

Well, I think I've heard that humans, we have a bunch of needs, and one of them is the stability and clarity. We really seek this. We look for it, and when we don't have it, it is an uncomfortable place to be.

Yep. Inevitably, Curt. And we know this because the life we've lived and things that have happened to us throughout our life and maybe even recently, inevitably disorientation comes its way. And this is the phase where everything that once made sense suddenly doesn't. Maybe something external happens. A breakup, a job loss, healthcare, a diagnosis from the doctor, whatever it might be. Maybe it's internal. Maybe it's a shift in your beliefs or your faith. It's a growing discomfort with the status quo. Either way, this orientation is. Is coming its way, and it's. Things start to shake up and they get very unbalanced and unfocused. This phase really feels uncomfortable, dude. You start to question things. You might feel lost, stuck, or kind of like you don't recognize yourself anymore. And that's actually a good sign. Right. Let's understand that we're in a phase because disorientation is not the end of the story. It's. It's the beginning of a transformation.

You know, there's a lot. I mean, this could just be a small part of your life that is happening. It can be a really dramatic thing that's going on. But you know what? As you're describing this, what I'm thinking about is why do we see things either black or white? You're strong. You know, you see this in politics, obviously. Like, this is the way. There's no other way, or there's just a Lot of things that. And that's just not the way the world is. It's not black or white. But as humans, we seem to gravitate to really strong on one side. And there's always that opposite opinion that might be just as true. I don't know. We just seem to see things one way and don't really open our eyes to other possibilities.

Right. And when we're in this disorientation phase, we feel like it's going to last forever. And this can be a real mental issue for people, especially people who may have some emotional or mental issues themselves. They can get stuck here and think that this is their life now. And they don't allow themselves to grow and learn through it. We've all been through some terrible things in our life, some people more than others. And there are times in your life where you feel like this is going to last forever. I don't even know who I am anymore. What's going on, where am I? Right where I am? What am I doing? It's just things don't fit anymore. And this could be a part of your life. It could be your whole life. It could be a situation you're going through. But we know this feeling, your life doesn't fit anymore. Something is wrong. And I know this feeling all too well. And I think you do too. And most people do. It's a terrible feeling to be in if we don't allow ourselves to understand it and move through it.

I'll go back to that high school relationship when went through a breakup and found out a few weeks later one of my best friends was going out, asked her out on a date. Boy, did I feel like distrust.

Absolutely.

Of like you got your friends and someone does something like that to you and you go down. This feeling of distrust of kind of everybody. Now only this one person is involved in this situation. But don't you distrust everybody you go from.

If you allow it?

Yeah.

If you allow that to happen, it certainly will.

I mean, you're going to go into the other parts of this process. But that first feeling is, I don't trust any of my friends. Who is my friend?

You don't trust your friends. You don't trust your own judgment. You don't trust anything that you felt before was solid.

Yeah.

And here's the problem. It's real tempting to rush through this or to numb it, try to fix it, pretend everything's okay.

Okay.

It's really tempting to do that. This is where a lot of this is, where people who are may Maybe have a drug abuse problem or an alcohol problem where they will. Something has set them off and they're in a. They're in a disorientation phase, and they won't accept that they're in this phase and that it will. They'll go through it. They want to fix it, they want to numb it. They want to pretend that everything's okay. And this is where many people get stuck. But the truth is this disorientation, it's where the real work happens. It's where things start to shift and change. And if you let it, it's where growth begins. If you just let yourself stay with this discomfort, experience it, let yourself go through it. Don't try to numb it, don't try to pretend everything's okay. Don't try to necessarily fix it. Just let yourself go through it for just long enough. You'll start to see things the way you couldn't have before. So if we're in a moment of. Or a period or a season of disorientation, if you're there, if life feels unclear or upside down, try asking, what is this confusion? Trying to teach me, what does this make possible? Questions like that. Where could I go from here? How can I grow from here? Because often that mess that you're in holds the very message for the next steps in your life.

Yeah. I mean, this is starting to sound like that kind of grief cycle that I've heard before. Not that I know it intimately, but you just said something. Yeah. What does this horrible thing, what does it open up for me? That is a great question to ask. Where can we go from here that's in a positive direction. And yeah, I could forget that girlfriend and meet someone who ended up being my wife.

Yeah, because you didn't stay stuck. You let yourself feel it. Right. But you let yourself move through, move through this season of disorientation. I think it's really important to. In order for your life to change, in order for you to make progress, it's really important to let yourself feel this and experience this season of disorientation and let yourself go through it with a mindset that it's not going to last forever, because that could cause real issues. Right. I mean, if you're in a place where you think life will never get better, it can get real ugly and real dark and tragic.

If I'm reviewing this again, using my example, hey, maybe there are things that I did that caused this breakup. How about that question? That's a hard one to answer, but the truth Was I wasn't the best of boyfriends, and there were areas that I was not very good, but maybe I could do better next time. And you do grow. You learn from those mistakes that you made that got you into that situation.

Completely agree. But again, if you're in this season of disorientation, I think two things. Number one, understand it's not going to last forever. And number two, let yourself go through it. Let yourself feel it, let yourself learn from it. Ask yourself some good questions. What is this situation trying to teach me? What does it make possible? Where could I possibly go from here? Those are important questions to ask. But again, let yourself go through this season of disorientation. It's part of the process, because eventually our whole life is going to reorient.

You know, you said we weren't going to bring faith into this, but there are times when I wonder, did God bring this situation to my attention?

Well, it's hard not to bring faith into this situation. What I said, it's not going to be overtly faith based. But yes, if you're a person of faith, that's a completely appropriate question to ask and say, okay, what is God trying to show me here? What you got going on for me, God, where am I headed in this?

Sometimes the only way to get to your attention is in an abrupt way. And that emotional change. You didn't want it to go this way, but looking back on it, you're thinking, boy, I never would have changed if this weren't to have happened in the way that it happened.

All right. Eventually, if you stay with the process, you'll reach reorientation. That's where you begin to find out what's going on, the truth behind the struggle. You begin to find your footing again. You're not going back to where you were. That's. That's something you have to accept. You're not going back to where you were. You're moving forward with new insight and new understanding, a new you. At some level, reorientation isn't about returning to the old normal. We don't want that. I don't want that. It's about creating a new one. It's that aha moment. And we all love that aha moment, don't you? We all love that epiphany where we say, wow. After weeks or days or months or maybe even years of soul searching and going through that whole process of feeling disoriented, not understanding. It's when you realize what matters most in your life. That happened to me when I Realized that I don't care about stuff. I care about memories and spending time with the people who love me and the people who I love. Your values will probably shift during this time. You'll discover new boundaries, new dreams, new ways of being you. It's really a process when you reach this reorientation. As I think back to my own experience, when I've reached reorientation, it's like the sun is shining on me, and I have a whole new perspective in life. It's scary, but I feel focused.

Well, like I said before, we have this human need for clarity. And if you've gone through the cycle where you had it, you lost it. But that, like you said, that growth with renewed clarity, that's even better. You feel like you're in a better place. Like you could take. We've talked about this. If you've been through a lot, you seem to be able to handle and have resilience against. Hey, what do you got? Next life.

Yep. What do you got for me? I'm up the bat again. Here we go. Right. It's time to confidence. More confidence, more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding. You can be of better service to the people around you. You're a better person because you've taken the time to heal. You've come out stronger from this other side with a. With a clearer sense of who you are. If you've lost your job, maybe you start a new business or maybe you found. Find a better job, a better relationship, a new relationship, somebody, something or somebody that's completely different from what you've done before. That's reorientation. The best way I can describe it is it's. It's not. You've not just healed from something, but you've become something else, Right?

Absolutely.

It's helpful. It's hopeful. You feel more aligned, more whole.

There's a country song, and the theme of it is, that's the only thing I like about country music. Their themes are really hit home sometimes. But the story of a man who's just lost his house in a hurricane or cyclone or something, and the reporter is asking him how he feels, and he says, well, I lost my arm in Korea. I lost my wife last year to cancer. Buddy, this ain't nothing.

Yep.

Boy, that one hits. That song hits me every time I listen to it.

Yep. Yep.

And that ain't nothing.

That's part of. That's part of reorientation. You may not even realize it until you look back and you think, wow, I really do experience life differently now. I See things differently now. And that's what reorientation is all about. You've gone through. You've been oriented, you've gone through disorientation, and now you're reorientated in a different direction. If you're here, it feels like clarity is returning. You can pause and reflect and understand what you've learned through this process, what new beliefs are guiding you now. If you do have new beliefs, or maybe you've solidified old beliefs because you've tested them and they've gone through the fire. You have a new foundation. This is really a nice place to be and to understand that your life is reorientated and you've gone through reorientation. Here's the deal. The loop continues, man. It's going to happen again. Life isn't a straight line, is it, Kurt?

No. Yeah. It happens in different areas of your life, too.

Yeah. It's a cycle. And let it happen. You'll go through orientation, disorientation, and then reorientation again and again. But each time you go through this whole cycle, this loop, you grow, you become more. More awake, more whole. I think this is just a good lesson for. I'll speak for myself. A good lesson for me to learn, a good concept for me to have in my arsenal of mindset to understand that I'm going to go through orientation, disorientation, reorientation. We all are. So the next time life gets really confusing or screwed up or messy or I've gone through, I'm going through something that it's. It just doesn't seem like it's. There's going. There's an end in sight to realize it's not a breakdown. Life isn't broken. It's the way it's supposed to be. And. And it's probably a breakthrough that's just going through its progress.

I mean, there's so many dramatic things we go through that are. You know, a job loss is a perfect example. And I remember the first time I knew I was going to be laid off. Talked about this many times on the show. That was a rough boy. That was really rough. That stability and clarity is going away in an area that's really important to me, where I'm providing for my family, talking about values. So very dramatic for me. But when you think about another word that is really important besides resiliency is resourcefulness. Can you. You don't realize. If you have the resources, you're really stuck in wondering, what am I going to do next? And to learn that you have skills that you didn't know you had because you got put into this situation. It just happened to you. You didn't do anything to deserve it. But that was a big revelation for me, a growth moment when I realized, you know, even though I'm really good at this particular technology, for instance, and could I take that skill and move it to another, different technology? Come to find out, I didn't think so before this situation happened to me. But here I am in a different, totally different technology. I'm learning it from scratch. But, you know, a lot of it's the same. There's so many similarities in my thought processes are the same. The way I solve problems is the same. And before you know it, I'm an expert in that area. And you go through. You went through that loop and you said, wow, I had some resourcefulness, and that was not the end of the world. I learned something about myself that I didn't believe before this happened.

Gosh, that's wise, Kurt. That is so wise that. That perspective. And the important thing to remember, just to kind of wrap this up, is you've got to let yourself go through the process because you won't learn those things about yourself. You won't learn how resilient you are. Or maybe you've learned resiliency for the first time because you've allowed yourself to go through this process. You've learned how to be resourceful. Those two words are genius words to use in this concept, Kurt. Thanks for. For bringing those up. Resourcefulness and resilience. You have to go through this process of. Of orientation, disorientation and reorientation in order to become a better person. If you allow yourself to get stuck, especially in disorientation, you'll be stuck forever and you'll never learn those lessons. So good stuff, man. Good stuff. That's all I have for it right there. Orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Look up the concept, read more about it. If you have any questions about it, feel free to reach out to us. We'd love to talk to you about it, but you gotta let yourself go through it. It's the natural part of life. It's this cycle that we all go through hundreds of times in our life.

You know, this is the reason why I love doing this podcast with Joe, because you come up with things I had never heard of. Now, this is very similar. I think I'm trying to think of the grief process, but I think the grief process is probably a lot different because there's nothing you can do about losing somebody. And I think that always stays with you. And luckily, I've not been through something that dramatic, but I think that it was what I was thinking of when you were going through this process. But this is totally different, right? You can absolutely, without question, get beyond and learn and grow. And so I really appreciate you bringing this. I'd never heard this before.

I like it. That's go into our stuff. How about that?

Yeah, my stuff is just fun this week. All right. Is that okay, Joe?

Absolutely. I dig fun.

It's summertime. Let's have some fun. My win for the week. My daughter again. We've always talked how generous she is with me. I don't know why she likes to go with me to concerts and classic rock concerts. And we looked at one of our favorite venues. It's in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It's the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater. Got some good acts that come through there. Although this year I was kind of on the fence of what I would like to see. But she asked me and I said, you know, a band as a kid, I can remember my friends going to. They had the albums and I didn't. And I always wanted to see. And they're still out there touring all the time. That band is Sticks.

You saw Sticks?

I saw Sticks on Tuesday night.

Oh, my gosh.

You didn't know that?

No, I knew you were doing something. Oh, I don't pay attention to what you want. It's your life, dude.

You don't listen to me when I talk.

I don't listen to you. I don't listen to you at all. Sticks is awesome, man.

Not only Sticks, but it was a great three bands all together. Another band that I would have loved to seen as a kid. They were hot in the early 80s. REO Speedwagon, Kevin Cronin. They. I guess legally they broke up in some way because he's touring as Kevin Cronin, who wrote all the songs and lead singer of REO Speedwagon. They both did their big famous albums in their entirety. I think they're probably in that 50 year range where they did high infidelity with REO Speedwagon. And they kicked off the show just doing the whole album. And also Sticks, the Grand Illusion, which is a great opening song to do. But they sounded fantastic and I was really surprised. Don Felder opened up the show and I know who he is because he's one of the original Eagles. And I said to my daughter, I leaned over, I said, I wonder who's going to sing all the Songs if he's going to do Eagles shows. Because I look in the. I cheat and I go and see what have they been playing. Because a lot of these bands will play the same set list night after night after night. And he was doing all Eagles songs. I wonder who's going to be the vocalist. And it was him. I know lead guitarist from the Eagles. I never thought of him as a vocalist. And everyone was enjoying his, his set list because it was all Eagles songs.

Nice.

And it was like a four hour show.

Dude, I love Sticks, man. You talk about some of their stuff. The Mr. Roboto stuff got kind of weird, but man, Tommy Shaw just rocks out, dude. He kills it. Does he still have the energy and the.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh. Yeah.

You got a couple of.

Too Much Time on My Hands. Did they do Renegade?

Yeah, that was final encore.

Really?

Yeah.

That's awesome, man. That's my favorite song for Sticks. It's a lot of people's favorite songs, but Too Much Time on My Hands is good and all. I, I like some of the stuff from Mr. Roboto, but blue Collar man. And yeah, gosh, really, really good stuff. I'm a little envious. I'm just a little jealous.

Oh, they sounded great.

And getting disoriented now.

The second to last song was Mr. Roboto and I agree with you when that I thought they jumped the shark.

Yeah.

When they, when those albums started coming out. But you know what, the thing I said to my daughter on the way down because we had plans to see Steve Miller again and I said, you know, the thing Steve Miller doesn't do is have like nice video screens with all the song and they had fantastic video background scenes. Both the REO Speedwagon guy and Dennis.

DeYoung's not with sticks right anymore, but.

They have a lead guy who is fantastic. He's a Scottish singer. You know, he's of the age and he sound, he sounds great. They sound just like they did back in the day. Good stuff. It was fun.

Yeah. If I can catch him, I'll definitely catch them. I would love to see Tommy Shaw. Yeah, he's a he, He's a real rocker, man. He's a real rocker. I, I, I like Sticks a lot. So that's a good win. That's a good win. My win for the week is, is, is not as fun, but I'm very, very happy about it. And something tells me I've talked about this as a win for the week in the past, but I, I don't know. So if this is A repeat. I apologize. But we finalized hiring a very talented salesperson for my European territories and I just, I was on the phone with him this morning. We were talking about next week. I was supposed to actually travel to Europe and fly out Sunday, but that got changed because of some scheduling conflicts with him. And I was going to work with him and we were going to go on some customer visits in Hungary and Germany and a few other places. But. But he's a really talented guy. He's an internal hire to my company, so promoted him from his current role. Very talented gentleman. This is a good hire. I'm pretty excited about this.

Now you mentioned that you've hired a couple of people even for the Americas, but it's early, they're getting orientated and so to hear you hearing things are going well, that's fantastic. We talked with our, our pal Clay, who's been in business for himself for forever and he talked to us about how important that hiring process is, especially in his industry when you're doing home contracting and there's a lot of turnover. He said that's like the biggest thing in his space, the people you hire and if you lose somebody, you got to have someone just as good coming up. But that's. I didn't realize I was an internal hire. So that's fantastic.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. Pretty excited about it. At some point in the next, probably in the next few weeks I'll be going over there to bring him along and do some planning. It was going to be over the next couple weeks but we had to change that. So. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty happy about it.

I love working on a good team.

Yeah.

Speaking of clarity, when you got things working like a well oiled machine and everyone's rowing in the same direction and playing their role and doing their part, nothing is better than that kind of clarity.

Feels pretty good. Feels pretty good. How about your resource again?

Another fun one. But this is something I don't think you and I have talked to. So I'm interested in hear your tips take on this. So last year I went to the Deep Purple concert and I walked away. They were playing some of their new songs. I bought their new record. I have dug deep into the catalog of Deep Purple and have loved it. A lot of their the recent albums I'm shocked to. I just enjoy them and which is letting in my record store owner. He's fun to talk with and he's a huge Deep Purple. I think it's like his favorite band and so he's helped Me. And he said, well, now you gotta start going into the related bands. Because Richie Blackmore started this band called Rainbow, which I knew. You know, it's funny, I said to my daughter, isn't it weird? When we were going down to the Styx concert, I said, I want to play this song for you as we go down, because I like her review of anything theatrical or musical. She has a really good sense, and I love her reviews. And I said to her, I can't believe I'm 60 years old and I'm digging into the catalogs of bands from the 70s still that I. How did I miss it? And I said it to my record store guy yesterday, because I went down there yesterday. But he told me, check out this. Well, what happened? There's this band called Rainbow that Richie.

Blackmore started, and he was part of.

Deep Purple and this album called rising. It was $50, a remastered version. So I was starting to listen to it on Spotify and was starting to like it. And I get a message from my record store guy. He goes, hey, I just found a used, excellent copy, original pressing of Rainbow Rising. Do you want it? 25 bucks. I was like, hell, yeah, I want it.

Yeah. Heck, yeah.

I'll be down tomorrow night. And, yeah, so I started playing it. And you may recognize the lead singer. You know who the lead singer was on that record?

I do, yeah. Second best. Second best voice in all of. In all of rockdom, as far as I'm concerned. Especially if you lean towards heavier, heavier rock music.

Who's number one?

Bruce Dickinson. Iron Maiden.

Yeah, the Iron Maiden guy. See, I haven't gotten into Iron Maiden too deep yet, but I probably will. But we're talking about Ronnie James Dio.

Holy smoke. What a voice. My gosh.

Yeah. And I was a little shocked. I didn't really appreciate him as I am right now. And the second, the B side of this album, there's a song called Stargazer.

Mm.

And have you heard this song?

No, I, I, I think I might have, but I've heard the album many times, so I've. I bet you I've heard the song. It's just not. All right, go.

Go listen to that song. Because I, I went down to the record store after listening. I've been listening over and over again, and I said to him, I said, what do you think Ronnie James Dio's best vocal performances are? Because he's amazing on this song. Yeah, I mean, he's amazing anyway, but you know what I'm saying, it's like there's Something about this particular song that brings out, I think, his talent.

What's the name of the song again?

Stargazer.

So Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath.

Well, that's. I started. I've been there too. So I bought Mob Rules and Heaven.

Oh, gosh. Heaven and Hell, yeah. Oh, my gosh. What a. What, what? Two great albums. He also has a great solo career. Ronnie James Dio, you got to pick up Holy Diver.

I already did.

Oh, gosh.

I told you I've been getting.

My gosh. The song. The album Holy Diver is great. The song Holy Diver is phenomenal. Phenomenal. I love it, man. Ronnie James Dio has an awesome. Just an awesome hard rock voice. That voice is amazing.

My. My. Again, my record store owner, he's. He met Ronnie James Dito. He said he was the nicest guy to meet in person. Just so appreciative of fans. You and I have talked about this. When someone that big is just really appreciative and meets after the show and that kind of thing, he's had that. Yeah. You know what I said to my daughter, the reason I had her? I had her listen to this song on the way down. I said, what's your opinion of that voice? Because I think these English heavy metal singers, very. Theatrical is the word, right?

Absolutely.

A rock theatrical. You know that with Iron Maiden, it's a different performance.

Definitely.

And I'm getting into it, dude.

Oh, boy. You and I are about to become closer friends than we already are. Because I love this stuff. I love this. I never. James D was amazing.

I mean, I knew the hits.

Right?

Right. From these bands, but I never dug into the albums. I never had the albums as a kid. So I'm enjoying that cool, cool, fun thing.

You have Holy Diver and Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell. That's awesome, man.

I do have the number of the Beast up here above my head.

When did you buy that?

Long time ago.

Oh. Oh, geez. Oh, Pete, there's so many good songs on. On that album, you know. Gosh. Okay.

All right. See, I told you.

Might have a good old fashioned listening party sometime, Kurt. Well, my resource is a little more practical. Not as much fun now that. Now that we're talking about this. So about three or four years ago. Nah, let's call it three years ago. I completely destroyed my blender. I cracked the container. It just destroyed everything. Don't know how I did it, but it was over time until it just finally quit on me. Haven't had a blender Since. And I'm a blender kind of a guy. I like to blend stuff together, you know.

Yeah.

I like making. And I like putting scrambled eggs in a blender and making them real fluffy and all of that good stuff. So during the Amazon prime days, they had a nutribullet Smart Sense blender on sale. I think this is normally a couple hundred bucks. It was on sale for $99. 1400 watts of blending glory. And I use it every. I've been using it every night to make a smoothie that I have in the evening. A protein shake. A smoothie. And it just kills it, man. It pulverizes and everything in that and fluffs it up and it's just awesome. As a blender itself, I've not had a better one. And I've had the Ninja blenders and I've had a couple other blenders. Nothing better than this sucker right here. The NutriBullet Smart Sense Blender combo, 1400 watts. I put the Amazon link in our notes here. We'll drop that in. I'm curious what it is right now. Hopefully it's still in that 99 range and we can.

No, no. 125.99.

It's still worth it. Still worth it. At one time it was up to $200, but still worth it. Dude. Very, very good. That's awesome. Good.

Yeah. Real heavy duty one.

It gets it, man. It gets it. Yeah. The NutriBullet Smart Sense Blender. If you need to blend something like I need to blend something, that's the one you want right there.

You know, I've not gotten into smoothies and it's been in the peripheral of my thinking, so I need to bring that forward. I think I'd like that for my weight loss journey.

Well, I've started a new. I've started a new routine that has helped me a lot. New routines usually do help me a lot until I get bored with them and stop. But I've been having a smoothie as soon as I get home from work. And it's. It's a sweeter smoothie, but not a lot of sugar. I may. I use some protein powder called Premier Protein. Couple scoops of that. I put an avocado in there and I put a teaspoon full of psyllium husk, which is fiber. Another powdered seed that I can't remember the name of it. Yeah, it's a brown seed. But anyway, I put that in there and I put the rest. Fill the rest up with ice and water, stick it in this Smart Sense blender, it kills, it fluffs it up. It's about. There's a 32 ounce cup that comes with it and it's awesome. And that smoothie, because of the psyllium husk and this other fiber powder that I put in it really fills me up and I don't even need dinner after it.

Well, that's the thing. I've, I've experienced this go around trying to lose some weight. Hunger pains.

Yeah.

That are bothering me. I gotta conquer those in a, in a healthy way. And this is a good way to do it.

Well, There you go. NutriBullet. Smart Sense Blender. We'll put the, we'll put a, the link in the show notes, but here we are. How about a quote?

How about a quote from our old pal Henry? Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. Henry Ford. I like that because I always had this looking at people who are getting older that just. They. He kind of just don't do nothing. Drives me nuts.

It is, it is. I'm with you, man. And this whole idea of staying young. We're not bearing our heads in the sand. We know how old we are. We know that we've got probably no more than X amount of time left in this world, but daggone, we don't have to act like these old curmudgeons. We can learn new stuff and have fun and, and grow. I agree with this man. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 28 or whether at 20 or 80. And I've met people in their 20s who are like, they just don't want to move from where they are. Right, right. And I've met people like, quite honestly, like you, Kurt, like our buddy Clay. Who? Clay. I'm not going to read his mail out loud, but he's, he's mature all right. He's older than us and he's older than us. And he talks consistently. Every year he renews his 25 year plan. Like, okay, there you are.

Exactly. That's a great. Yeah, great comparison. And Joe, this is something that annoyed me and noticed it really heavily on my trip to Bridgeport for the Styx concert. And this has happened before. So we sit in the second section on the floor. I'm in the second row, first seat. And about four songs before the show ends, there's this crowd of people leaving before the encore and they're just trudging out down the road. They're walking.

Right.

Well, I recognize them because they're right in my way, as I'm trying to enjoy the end of the show. And they're leaving the show now. What kind of people pay that kind of money to go to a concert and leave before the encore? Can you tell me?

I don't care if the concert was free, if they, if, if. If they were given tickets and paid for parking. This always drove me crazy, man. We could go off on that, and I think I will for a minute.

I'm. I'm going to do this on an episode. I already. We should research in this.

We should.

People leave the concert with four songs.

Left to the show because they don't want to get stuck in traffic. That's. That's what you hear. Ah, you know, we got traffic. I don't want to sit there in traffic the whole time. And I can listen to that. Those final songs on. On. On my. On my radio. It's like, no, dude, you're there for the experience. I am like this, Kurt. If I go to a baseball game, I stay till the end. If I go to a concert, I stay to the end. People. There's been people that have left me because they want to leave to beat traffic, and I say, go. No hard feelings. I understand that. You are. You go. I'll figure out a way home. I'm staying for inning eight and nine. I don't care if the Reds are up by 25 points or down by 25 points. I'm staying. Dude, I used to go to these. I used to go to these Christian men conferences called Promise Keepers, and we'd go with a group of guys, and inevitably there were those two or three guys that, when the last couple speakers were. Were coming up, they'd say, well, let's go ahead and. Let's go ahead and get out of here and beat the traffic. It's like, no, no. First of all, sitting in traffic is part of the thing, right? That's. If you've gone with a group of friends to a concert, man, that was a great concert. You get to spend that hour in traffic, moving 50ft, talking about the concert, how good it was. You're playing their songs on the radio or you're playing the songs on whatever.

Right.

Amazon Music. And that's part of the experience. Man, you have picked a scab with me, dude. I cannot wait for you to do this episode.

I love your enthusiasm. Yeah, you made me. Well, the good thing, if you want to look at it a positive way, I said to her, at least they'll all be gone when I. When we get Out. Because we're gonna go to the bathroom after the show and we're gonna just let the crowd.

Heck, yeah. Go down and look at the. Maybe go down on the floor and look at the. If they'll let you stay. Look at the tear down. And I like that quote. Thank you, Henry. Anyone who stops learning is old. I agree. If it stopped right there, we're done. We're done.

Exactly. That caught my attention. What's your quote for this week?

Mine comes from none other than the author of Think and Grow Rich, which is a classic personal development mindset book, Napoleon Hill. And he says every adversity, every failure, every heartache comes with it. The seed of an equal or greater benefit. What a mindset shift.

Yeah. That's what it is.

It's a balance. Right. We know there's going to be a reckoning, a balancing, a reorientation. Right. Where every adversity we go through is likely going to be met if we let it. And we recognize when it happens with an equal or greater benefit.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

I'll bring a little faith into this. Again. I had someone that I was counseling, and you've had people say, why did God let this happen? Isn't that a common thing that you hear? And I thought about it for a while. I said, well, maybe this was your answer to prayer. Think about it. Are you going to be better after this situation, like what you talked about through this cycle? Maybe this was, like, we said this already. Maybe this was his way to get your attention.

You ever have those guys standing on the corner, usually on a busy intersection, holding the sign that disabled veteran needs help or out of work or whatever it might be? Anything would help. And they're usually written on a cardboard sign. And have you ever seen those guys?

Absolutely.

Okay, well, I'm very cynical with those people, and rightfully so. I do know that they have a circuit that they. At least in the area that I've seen, and they have a circuit that they go through and they pull their money together and. And everybody has kind of their shifts that they work these corners, and some of them do very, very well. And they're protective of their territory or they're protective of their corner. It's funny, but I saw written on a sign from one of these guys that he had next to him. It wasn't the sign he was holding. It was a sign that was next to him. He said, and this makes you think homelessness is God's test for me? Am I your test from God? Oh.

Oh, brilliant.

I loved it. I loved it so much that it was one of the few times that I actually gave that guy money, you know? Isn't that brilliant? That was brilliant. I love it, man.

That was a good one. It is. I think I would. I would do the same. Yeah.

No doubt. No doubt.

Good episode, dude.

Let's wrap up right there. Our website is dudesinprogress.com dudesinprogress.com if you want to reach out to us, you can reach out to [email protected] Remember, wherever you are in this cycle, if you're in orientation, if you're in disorientation or you're reorientating life, make progress through that cycle. Stay with it. It's not going to be perfect because progress is better than perfection. Just keep moving through it.

Yeah. What a great episode. I. You said I was a well oiled machine when you started, but I don't know, I must be putting on a good front because I go through this cycle myself.

You're well oiled machine because you let.

Yourself go through the cycle. Thanks, pal.

Talk to you soon.