Preparation Breeds Courage, Part 1: The Connection Between Preparation and Courage

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Randy Black: Coach Clayton used to say, you don’t rise to the occasion.

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Randy Black: You fall to your level of preparation.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So courage isn’t some magic thing.

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Elizabeth Clayton: It’s what you build ahead of time.

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Randy Black: Exactly.

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Randy Black: And today we’re talking about how preparation actually creates courage and gives you peace when pressure hits.

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Randy Black: Today on Shooting It Straight,

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Randy Black: Preparation breeds courage.

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Coach Jim Clayton: You know, believe in yourself or nobody else will.

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Coach Jim Clayton: Set the bar high, achieve greatness

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Coach Jim Clayton: And stay motivated through the process so you know what that spells.

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Coach Jim Clayton: BAM, son!

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Randy Black: This is Shooting It Straight, the podcast where life lessons don’t come sugar-coated and excuses get checked at the door.

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Randy Black: I’m Randy Black, podcast guy, educator, and resident technique.

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Randy Black: And apparently, still the only one here who doesn’t yell bam son in public.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And I’m Elizabeth Clayton, stepping into some big shoes, ready to ask the tough questions, call it like it is, and maybe even challenge Randy a little along the way.

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Randy Black: We’re taking what life teaches us.

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Randy Black: The discipline, the drive, the lessons you can’t just read in a book, and translating it into real-world success.

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Elizabeth Clayton: That’s right.

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Elizabeth Clayton: This is about showing up when life gets messy, pushing through when the pressure’s on, and figuring out.

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Randy Black: And if you’re looking for fluff, this probably isn’t your show.

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Elizabeth Clayton: We’re here to help you believe bigger, achieve louder, and motivate stronger.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So buckle up and whatever you do, keep shooting it straight.

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Randy Black: Bam son!

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Randy Black: Welcome back to Shooting It Straight.

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Randy Black: We’ve been gone a little while, but that’s okay because we’re back and we’re ready to continue our series that we’re calling the Courage series here today on the show.

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Randy Black: And this episode specifically centers on a simple

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Randy Black: but very powerful idea that we introduced there before our theme song and music hit, and that’s that preparation breeds courage.

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Elizabeth Clayton: You know, we often think courage shows up in big, dramatic moments.

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Elizabeth Clayton: But most of the time, Randy, it’s already been built quietly long before the pressure hits.

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Randy Black: When you’ve done the work

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Randy Black: When you have prepared with intention, fear doesn’t disappear.

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Randy Black: It’s always there.

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Randy Black: But it loses its grip.

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Randy Black: And preparation replaces that panic that we have with confidence.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yep.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And it gives you peace.

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Elizabeth Clayton: That calm that comes from knowing.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I didn’t cut corners.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I just showed up.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I did what I could.

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Randy Black: In this episode, we are going to look at how preparation shapes courage in life, in leadership, in faith, in ways that we don’t even think about.

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Randy Black: And why the work that you do today matters more than you realize tomorrow.

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Randy Black: The whole goal of talking about this idea of preparation, you know, building courage, breeding courage, is that we’re trying to establish that there is a absolute foundation

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Randy Black: that exists, that courage is not spontaneous.

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Randy Black: We talked about it in the last episode.

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Randy Black: Courage is built through preparation.

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Randy Black: You have to prepare.

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Randy Black: You have to work at it.

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Randy Black: It’s just like resilience.

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Randy Black: It’s not an innate skill.

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Randy Black: It’s not something that we know.

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Randy Black: Or that it just comes to us naturally.

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Randy Black: We have to work and we have to build it.

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Randy Black: You know, we talk about courage, and we usually talk about it by focusing on specific moments that happen in life.

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Randy Black: Why?

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Randy Black: I don’t know.

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Randy Black: But it’s the way that we have always as humans tended to look at courage.

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Randy Black: But courage oftentimes.

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Randy Black: is decided long before we ever get to those moments, long before those things ever happen.

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Randy Black: Preparation

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Randy Black: for courage.

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Randy Black: Preparation in our lives when we face fear brings about change.

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Randy Black: It changes how fear, it changes how confidence, and it changes how ultimately peace in our life

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Randy Black: shows up.

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Randy Black: It makes us realize that preparation is the key.

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Randy Black: It is a source for confidence, a source for courage, and a source for peace in our daily lives.

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Randy Black: And that’s why we’re talking about it here today.

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Randy Black: The whole idea that you have to look at with this is that preparation replaces the fear we have in our lives with the confidence.

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Randy Black: We have to understand that we to be courageous is to be proactive, meaning we’ve prepared.

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Randy Black: We’re expecting things to happen.

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Randy Black: rather than being reactive, rather than letting them happen, and then we have to take action.

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Randy Black: It’s all about preparing ourselves to handle those situations.

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Randy Black: And I can tell you, in life

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Randy Black: For so long, so many years, I was reactive to situations.

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Randy Black: Situations that fear would hit me.

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Randy Black: I didn’t have the confidence to handle them

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Randy Black: But now I’ve started to reframe that in my life.

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Randy Black: And part of that reframing process has come about because of the work I’ve done.

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Randy Black: on this show and the work I did with Coach Clayton, with with Liz’s dad, and it’s helped me to see things differently.

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Randy Black: It’s helped me to become more proactive, to be prepared, to be ready in case something happens, rather than having to react to it.

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Randy Black: So that leads us to some some questions we have to think about.

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Randy Black: And I’m going to throw this one out there, Liz, kind of get an idea what you might think about it, and then I’ll I’ll share some thoughts as well.

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Randy Black: And it’s why does fear

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Randy Black: Feel louder when we know that we haven’t prepared, when we’re not ready.

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Randy Black: Why do you think that that feels that way?

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Elizabeth Clayton: Well, I you know, most of my life I I always refer back to school, you know, and um

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Elizabeth Clayton: When you’re not prepared for something that you know you should be prepared for, whatever that is, you know, that fear definitely creeps in louder

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Elizabeth Clayton: than anything.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, it was always before I would take a test.

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Randy Black: Oh, yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: The common one, oh my gosh.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And you know, um I always like with the ACT and the SAT back in you know, back in the day, um I mean they had like classes you could take to prepare yourself.

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Elizabeth Clayton: But now they go way more in depth with that stuff over the years than they did when I we were in school and I always felt like I was set up to fail for those things.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Regardless.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, I went from having a four point oh GPA all through high school and then I’d take the the ACT for instance.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I couldn’t get higher than a nineteen.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I took it three times, I think.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And you know, you feel like a failure.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Because you’re trying to get you know that promised scholarship they had.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Uh you had to get a 21 or higher.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I’m like, well, I’m a failure.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I can’t get that scholarship.

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Elizabeth Clayton: But yet I have a

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Elizabeth Clayton: Four point oh GPA that um you know proves I’m not a I’m not dumb.

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Randy Black: I actually have a blog post about that on my other on my actual website on RandleBlack.

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Randy Black: com.

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Randy Black: where I look at how that test scores aren’t correlating with what grades are and that grades really aren’t an indication of how prepared a student really is.

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Randy Black: And it’s it was a pretty, pretty like I f I found an article and I was like, man, this is really awesome.

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Randy Black: I want to talk about this

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Randy Black: And I wrote up this blog post about it.

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Randy Black: So I know exactly what you’re talking about with that one.

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Randy Black: You know, fear, fear of all these things that happens in our lives.

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Randy Black: You know, we look at it, fear kind of gets loud.

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Randy Black: When we know that we’ve cut corners.

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Randy Black: We haven’t prepared.

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Randy Black: We haven’t taken the right steps.

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Randy Black: Like we haven’t studied.

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Randy Black: If you got a test, you haven’t studied for it.

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Randy Black: Or, you know, say you’ve you’ve

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Randy Black: You’ve been asked to rake the leaves in the yard by your mom or your dad when you were a kid and you didn’t do it.

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Randy Black: And they come home and you immediately get that fear of, oh no, I’m in trouble because you didn’t prepare.

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Randy Black: You cut corners.

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Randy Black: You didn’t do what you were supposed to do.

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Randy Black: You know, there’s there’s there’s times in life so that happens, but there’s a difference between those healthy nerves of real fear

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Randy Black: and exposed vulnerability.

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Randy Black: The idea that, you know, we’ve we’ve allowed this to happen and we’re trying to react to it.

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Randy Black: That’s a very different scenario than I was prepared and I’m nervous, but I can handle it.

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Randy Black: You know, fear is sometimes very irrational.

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Randy Black: It doesn’t make sense.

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Randy Black: But a lot of times it’s actually informational.

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Randy Black: I mean, think about it.

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Randy Black: Think about the times in your life when you’ve had fear.

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Randy Black: I’m sure that for you, packing up, leaving your hometown, moving three and a half, three hours away to Louisville, you had to be scared.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Um actually it was interesting because the summer before I moved here, I uh went up to Connecticut with a guy I was dating and I lived up there during the summer.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And I was back and forth so much that year as well, my last year at Marshall.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So when I found out where he was gonna get his first big job

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Elizabeth Clayton: You know, I ended up it’s funny ’cause it took me longer to move there ’cause I had a summer school class I had to finish before I graduated.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And so um

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Elizabeth Clayton: I remember though I waited to the last minute to leave and I’m one of those people.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I I’m I’m that way every time I go home.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Like I I literally will stay as long as I possibly can

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Elizabeth Clayton: And um yeah, I mean it I really wasn’t I had a job lined up.

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Elizabeth Clayton: I started the next day.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Um, I mean it it all just I think back and I’m like, wow

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Elizabeth Clayton: I really did that, but um, you know, uh I I felt like I was uh you know, I was like 26, I guess, when I moved here.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And so, you know, I mean I was

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Elizabeth Clayton: I you know, I was uh mature enough to handle it, but um it wasn’t like six months later my grandmother got lung cancer and I kind of went through a whole series of emotions with that thinking, why did I move here?

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Elizabeth Clayton: You know, and I was I was back and forth like every week.

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Elizabeth Clayton: But, you know, at the end of the day, um I always wanted to move away.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And my dad always said it was so funny because I w I wanted to go away to college and

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Elizabeth Clayton: He talked me out of it because it was gonna be really expensive and he goes, I’ll pay for you to go to Marshall, blah blah blah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So

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Elizabeth Clayton: Anyway, he always, you know, said he goes, he I think he realized that I should have gone away to school.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So this was kind of like my chance to get away and start my own thing

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Elizabeth Clayton: And it took a lot of courage, um, you know, ’cause but looking back, I mean, I’m so glad that I did it because

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Elizabeth Clayton: I I mean, I pretty much had to figure everything out on my own.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Um, and um thankful that my dad never coddled me growing up.

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Elizabeth Clayton: He always taught me how to figure things out.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, if I didn’t know how to do something, a lot of times I’d call him up and be like, Dad, what do I do?

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Elizabeth Clayton: And and, you know, he’d help me, but it takes a lot of courage to just, you know.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Leave.

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Randy Black: Yeah.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Um, but uh if you’re prepared for it, that’s one thing.

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Elizabeth Clayton: You know, and I was definitely I’d prepared myself for it.

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Elizabeth Clayton: So I had the courage, you know

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Elizabeth Clayton: I I felt confident in what I was doing.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Um that’s it that’s kind of thing.

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Randy Black: Like we don’t when we don’t prepare, when we’re not ready for things, um, even when they’re unexpected, if we haven’t prepared that this could happen

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Randy Black: Our imaginations, and our imaginations are the most amazing things as humans that that we have, is that it typically takes us and fills in what could happen as the worst case scenario.

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Randy Black: Like this is gonna be the worst situation.

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Randy Black: Like, I have a very irrational fear right now.

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Randy Black: Um that when it comes time, like we recently had several inches of snow, quarter of an inch of ice, it was nasty.

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Randy Black: And

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Randy Black: Back in December, when we had some snow on a Sunday morning, I went out and cleaned off part of the driveway and to get my car so that I could run up to the church check the road and run up the church, check things, see if we could have church that morning.

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Randy Black: And

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Randy Black: While I was out on the driveway, I fell.

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Randy Black: And I landed flat on my stomach.

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Randy Black: And since then I have a really irrational fear of stepping on the driveway.

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Randy Black: When there’s snow and ice, I’m scared to death.

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Randy Black: And I I can’t explain it other than I’m just I’m afraid I’m gonna fall.

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Randy Black: It’s it and in my head, that’s what I’m thinking the whole time.

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Randy Black: So when we just had this, you know, uh this round of snow a couple weeks ago and the ice we had, you know, we went out on a sun on Sunday morning after all that just to get the driveway cleared so we can let stuff start to melt.

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Randy Black: And my wife’s out there and she’s working and she’s working hard.

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Randy Black: And I’m taking like baby steps because I’m scared to death.

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Randy Black: Because our drive and our driveway is steep.

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Randy Black: I’m not gonna, I mean, it is.

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Randy Black: It’s it’s it’s it’s pretty rough sometimes

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Randy Black: Um, so I have that fear.

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Randy Black: So when her when her cousin, her dad’s cousin, who lives up the road from us, uh offered to come over, because he was cleaning his driveway with his tractor, to come over and scrape the driveway off for us.

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Randy Black: I was like, hey Beth, I think this is a great idea.

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Randy Black: So he cleaned the driveway so we didn’t have as much to go out there and have to work on.

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Randy Black: Um so it made it a little easier, made it a little uh better for that.

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Randy Black: But it’s a it’s it’s in my head, it’s the worst case scenario.

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Randy Black: I’m gonna fall, I’m gonna get hurt.

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Randy Black: And it’s it prepar the preparation for things, you know, when we look at it, if we’ve really prepared, if we’re really ready, it quiets down that question we get in our head of

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Randy Black: What if I can’t?

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Randy Black: What if I can’t do it?

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Randy Black: What if I can’t, you know, walk down the driveway and not fall and get hurt?

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Randy Black: What if I can’t be successful on my own moving three hours away from home?

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Randy Black: Preparation quiets that down.

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Randy Black: It makes it easier for us to move forward and be prepared and use the courage that we’ve built up inside ourselves from that preparation.

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Randy Black: I mean, I can’t, you know, I I I use the scenario of when I talk to people about stuff that scared me in my life.

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Randy Black: The thing that scared me more than anything in my life was becoming a dad.

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Randy Black: I didn’t think I was ready.

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Randy Black: I didn’t feel I was prepared.

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Randy Black: And I know I wasn’t prepared.

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Randy Black: And the whole time I’m thinking, what if I’m not a good dad?

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Randy Black: What if I don’t do the right things for my child?

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Randy Black: And that beat me up for the longest time.

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Randy Black: And I was not prepared.

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Randy Black: And I had no confidence in what I was trying to do.

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Randy Black: I had no courage.

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Randy Black: to to step out and do things.

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Randy Black: I and I was like overprotective.

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Randy Black: You know, my f my first wife, she worked in daycares and in in pre-K and

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Randy Black: you know, had kids that she was so, you know, worked hands on with all the time that, you know, he would go and like Mikey, my son, would fall and she’d be like, ah, he’s okay and I’d be like, Oh, are you okay?

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Randy Black: Is everything fine?

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Randy Black: And I’m the one I’m the one who’s being the overprotective helicopter parent.

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Randy Black: Because I’m scared.

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Randy Black: And she wasn’t.

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Randy Black: She was prepared for it.

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Randy Black: She was ready for it.

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Randy Black: Um, and you know, to this day I can say I’m I’m grateful for that.

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Randy Black: Um, because it helped me over time be able to to move past those and become a become a uh what I think is a good parent.

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Randy Black: My son tells me I’ve been a good parent.

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Randy Black: So, you know, that that whole what if I can’t question kind of got knocked out for me there.

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Randy Black: But the the way we look at this though, we also have to think about how preparation

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Randy Black: changes the way that fear shows up for us in our lives.

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Randy Black: And that’s another question we have to ask.

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Randy Black: You know

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Randy Black: Preparation, just you know, we talked about in the previous episode.

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Randy Black: Courage is not there in the absence of fear.

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Randy Black: That’s one of the things we we made sure we talked about.

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Randy Black: Courage does not replace fear.

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Randy Black: Courage overcomes fear.

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Randy Black: It moves beyond it.

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Randy Black: Preparation doesn’t eliminate the fear.

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Randy Black: We’re still going to have fear.

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Randy Black: We’re still going to be afraid.

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Randy Black: But what it does, and what the powerful thing about it is, is that it reframes it.

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Randy Black: It changes our view of it

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Randy Black: Fear doesn’t have to be the energy driving us

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Randy Black: Let me rephrase that.

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Randy Black: Fear is the energy that drives us in that case.

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Randy Black: We’ve prepared for it.

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Randy Black: It becomes the energy pushing us forward instead of it causing panic

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Randy Black: Because think about it.

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Randy Black: Fear causes panic.

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Randy Black: Happens to everybody.

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Randy Black: I mean, I’m sure I oh last episode, what did I talk about?

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Randy Black: The thing that scared me so badly

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Randy Black: At Disney World.

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Randy Black: Okay.

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Randy Black: The Tower of Terror.

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Randy Black: The Rock and Roller Coaster.

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Randy Black: Oh gosh.

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Randy Black: We we went to Epcot.

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Randy Black: I didn’t tell you this one.

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Randy Black: We went to Epcot.

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Randy Black: And at Epcot they have Soren and it’s a it’s a thing you set in these chairs and it goes up and there’s a big like IMAX video screen kind of thing and it’s like you’re flying and the thing moves and everything.

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Randy Black: And I went to sit down in the seat for this ride.

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Randy Black: And I am not a small feller.

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Randy Black: I will say that.

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Randy Black: I’m I’m a larger guy.

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Randy Black: And I sat in that seat

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Randy Black: And when my hips hit the sides of the seat and were over a little bit, that I didn’t really fit all the way into the seat, I had a panic attack.

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Randy Black: I had to leave.

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Randy Black: I had to just I just had to walk out.

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Randy Black: I couldn’t do it.

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Randy Black: The fear overcame me in that situation

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Randy Black: Could I go back and do it again?

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Randy Black: Maybe.

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Randy Black: I might be able to do it this time.

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Randy Black: But I have to prepare myself for it.

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Randy Black: I have to build myself up for it.

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Randy Black: You know, the idea that being prepared for the fear to happen, it says that you’re ready to perform

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Randy Black: You’re ready to step out.

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Randy Black: And think about that.

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Randy Black: You played basketball.

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Randy Black: Every game, something inside you said, I’m ready to step out here.

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Randy Black: I’m ready to do that.

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Randy Black: You were overcoming the fear that may have been there to just get on the floor.

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Randy Black: Just to step out there.

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Randy Black: I mean, I think about

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Randy Black: you know, watching so many people over the years that I’ve seen come through and and try to be teachers.

292
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Randy Black: And the fear is just too much.

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Randy Black: They can’t overcome it.

294
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Randy Black: And I’m like, man, for me, this was easy.

295
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Randy Black: Stepping in the classroom, talking to the kids, teaching them, giving them the content.

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Randy Black: That stuff’s easy because I love to talk.

297
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Randy Black: I love to hear myself.

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Randy Black: That’s that’s why I do podcasts.

299
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Randy Black: But a lot of people can’t handle that.

300
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Randy Black: They step in, they’re unprepared for it.

301
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Randy Black: And the fear then says to them, I hope this doesn’t expose me.

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Randy Black: Hope this doesn’t show that I’m afraid.

303
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Randy Black: That’s that’s powerful.

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Randy Black: I mean I can imagine the times in in life when you know my my parents

305
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Randy Black: They they decided when my grandfather was retiring, they were gonna, you know, my dad was gonna partner with my with his brother and they were gonna buy a bus buy the business for my grandfather.

306
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Randy Black: And I knew it was tough.

307
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Randy Black: It’s been a rough time.

308
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Randy Black: And there were times that, you know, they were worried about being able to make sure the bills were paid, being able to to make sure that that everything in the business is taken care of.

309
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Randy Black: And, you know.

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Randy Black: They prepared for it though, because they knew these were possibilities.

311
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Randy Black: So there was always something set aside to help take care of it.

312
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Randy Black: Always a way to try to take that and make it better

313
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Randy Black: And, you know, I look at, you know, your dad put his put himself out there 30, almost 33 years ago to start Sports City U.

314
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Randy Black: Something that didn’t exist.

315
00:19:50,720 –> 00:19:53,280
Randy Black: There was no basketball academy out there.

316
00:19:53,280 –> 00:19:57,360
Randy Black: You couldn’t just go and get a lesson to learn how to play basketball and to do these things.

317
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Randy Black: He he was scared.

318
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Randy Black: He had fear.

319
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Randy Black: And when his partners walked out on him and left him alone, he was scared.

320
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Randy Black: And he told me about how scared he was.

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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

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Randy Black: But he was ready to perform.

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Randy Black: He was ready to do what he knew he could do.

324
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Randy Black: He knew that the fear he had was not going to expose that he was quote unquote a fraud, that he didn’t know what he was doing, that he was going to step up and do things.

325
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Randy Black: Preparation in our lives takes fear and switches it and turns it into focus

326
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Randy Black: And that’s powerful.

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Randy Black: That’s that’s one of the things that I think about as we as I’ve looked at this stuff and prepared for this episode and us talking about this, that

328
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Randy Black: You know, fear doesn’t have to be a demotivator.

329
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Randy Black: It’s a motivator.

330
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Randy Black: It’s gonna if you take it and you use it as as your key, as your focus, as a thing that’s gonna push you forward.

331
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Randy Black: That is so powerful.

332
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Randy Black: And I can’t, you know, I can’t imagine now looking at life and thinking about things differently than that, because that’s how I’m seeing things now.

333
00:20:59,980 –> 00:21:03,020
Randy Black: It’s how I’m trying to to do things now.

334
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Elizabeth Clayton: Well, um I think you’ve uh heard my dad probably say this and you’ve um heard it probably said somewhere along the way, but um

335
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Elizabeth Clayton: one of the things that I heard him say most of my entire life.

336
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Elizabeth Clayton: Um and actually it’s funny ’cause Mike says it too, but he says it in a different way.

337
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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

338
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Elizabeth Clayton: Um my dad did a video on this and I haven’t posted it yet, but when he was in high school

339
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Elizabeth Clayton: one of his teachers, um, literally put something on the board and made him repeat it.

340
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Elizabeth Clayton: And I think he made him repeat it every single time he was in his class, but

341
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Elizabeth Clayton: It said prior, proper planning prevents poor performance.

342
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Randy Black: That was his college it was his college coach.

343
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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah, so you know, my dad literally stuck with that I mean uh I’ve never I never really ever saw my dad not prepare for something.

344
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Elizabeth Clayton: And if and if he

345
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Elizabeth Clayton: wasn’t really you know, he’d always especially if it was a more of like a speaking thing, you know, he could just he could just do it.

346
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Elizabeth Clayton: You know, he just had that ability.

347
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Randy Black: I’ve got a story on that.

348
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Randy Black: We’re at Cabble Midland.

349
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Randy Black: This is when we were both teaching at Cabill Midland and we had a break where there was time because some stuff had finished early.

350
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Randy Black: Things were running ahead of schedule.

351
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Randy Black: And

352
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Randy Black: I can’t remember if it was Mr.

353
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Randy Black: Tackett or if it was Mrs.

354
00:22:20,000 –> 00:22:26,559
Randy Black: Daniels, walked over to your dad and they said, Jimmy, we need to fill some time.

355
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Randy Black: Can you

356
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Randy Black: Motivate everybody.

357
00:22:29,640 –> 00:22:33,400
Randy Black: And he went, clapped his hands, just, I got it.

358
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Randy Black: And he walked up on the stage in the auditorium and he just started.

359
00:22:37,919 –> 00:22:42,080
Randy Black: And you would have thought that he had spent hours preparing for this.

360
00:22:42,080 –> 00:22:42,640
Randy Black: But no.

361
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Randy Black: That’s just him.

362
00:22:43,120 –> 00:22:44,080
Randy Black: And he was able to step up.

363
00:22:44,240 –> 00:22:44,799
Randy Black: What is it about?

364
00:22:44,799 –> 00:22:45,440
Elizabeth Clayton: What the work is that?

365
00:22:45,679 –> 00:22:47,120
Randy Black: I can’t even remember the exact thing.

366
00:22:47,120 –> 00:22:49,440
Randy Black: He was just was he was up there talking because it was the beginning of the school year.

367
00:22:49,440 –> 00:22:52,559
Randy Black: So he’s trying to motivate trying to motivate people, get everybody going.

368
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Randy Black: Because I know like recently, you know, just last fall, he went and this past fall, he went and spoke at um a school down in Kentucky to prepare the you know, help prepare these teachers for the school year and get them ready and get them excited.

369
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Randy Black: Um because he was good at it.

370
00:23:05,220 –> 00:23:06,260
Randy Black: That’s what he did.

371
00:23:06,260 –> 00:23:09,780
Randy Black: He was able to motivate and prepare and get these people excited.

372
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Randy Black: And seeing him do that, like actually see them ask him, he immediately go, I got this, and go and do it.

373
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Randy Black: That was that was powerful.

374
00:23:19,620 –> 00:23:22,180
Randy Black: Because I can’t I I don’t know that I can do that.

375
00:23:22,180 –> 00:23:26,100
Randy Black: I’ve been I’ve been put on the spot and said, hey, can you talk about this for a second?

376
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Randy Black: Okay, then I’ll I’ll do my best.

377
00:23:29,000 –> 00:23:36,440
Randy Black: But I just, you know, I didn’t have that I don’t have that same ener like and you’d think you would think listening to me here, you think I have that kind of energy and I don’t.

378
00:23:36,440 –> 00:23:36,840
Randy Black: Yeah.

379
00:23:36,840 –> 00:23:37,720
Randy Black: I don’t at all.

380
00:23:37,720 –> 00:23:40,360
Randy Black: Like if you know you you hear me here and

381
00:23:40,360 –> 00:23:48,279
Randy Black: I think we’ve gotten to be pretty good friends through everything that’s happened that I am I’m really not that extroverted at all

382
00:23:48,000 –> 00:23:50,400
Randy Black: I’m pretty introverted for the most part.

383
00:23:50,400 –> 00:23:58,080
Randy Black: But with people I know, I can step out there and I can talk and I can tell you things and I can teach things and I can show examples and do this stuff.

384
00:23:58,220 –> 00:24:02,300
Randy Black: But if I’m like in a group where I don’t know people, I’m scared to death.

385
00:24:02,300 –> 00:24:04,700
Randy Black: I don’t want to I don’t want to get up there and and and do it.

386
00:24:04,700 –> 00:24:06,940
Randy Black: So I you know it’s it’s an amazing thing.

387
00:24:06,940 –> 00:24:09,740
Randy Black: You know, like I said, fear is a motivator.

388
00:24:09,740 –> 00:24:10,860
Randy Black: It can either be

389
00:24:10,860 –> 00:24:14,380
Randy Black: either take you downward or it can move you upward because you focus on it.

390
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Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

391
00:24:15,500 –> 00:24:17,899
Elizabeth Clayton: Well, um it’s funny.

392
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Elizabeth Clayton: There’s a video I I’ve seen this video before, but I saved it on my phone.

393
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Elizabeth Clayton: Were you at Cabo Midland in twenty sixteen?

394
00:24:24,380 –> 00:24:25,659
Randy Black: No.

395
00:24:25,220 –> 00:24:38,740
Elizabeth Clayton: Okay, well that year, you know, when they have the senior assembly where they do the colors and everything, that year my dad did a speech to like end out like to to send the scene even though the school year wasn’t over, you know.

396
00:24:38,740 –> 00:24:39,060
Elizabeth Clayton: Um

397
00:24:39,519 –> 00:24:43,279
Elizabeth Clayton: He gave a speech during their senior ceremony.

398
00:24:43,919 –> 00:24:51,919
Elizabeth Clayton: And um it’s just so fun to watch because that I’ve never seen kids get so pumped up in my life, you know, in school.

399
00:24:51,919 –> 00:24:52,240
Elizabeth Clayton: And

400
00:24:52,820 –> 00:25:01,220
Elizabeth Clayton: All right, who just he had them going and at the end he did the BAM, you know, I don’t know if he said BAM son, but he he you know, believe, achieve, motivate.

401
00:25:01,300 –> 00:25:06,420
Elizabeth Clayton: And um I’ll watch that sometimes and of course he’s dressed up in his suit and all that.

402
00:25:06,420 –> 00:25:10,900
Elizabeth Clayton: And I mean you just see the the passion when he talks and um

403
00:25:11,440 –> 00:25:16,399
Elizabeth Clayton: It uh I thought, man, to be one of those kids and sit there and have someone speak like that.

404
00:25:16,399 –> 00:25:21,440
Elizabeth Clayton: I mean, that I’d want to go, you know, take on the world at that point.

405
00:25:22,120 –> 00:25:28,920
Elizabeth Clayton: Um but uh one of the things I loved when I was in high school, my dad would do the pep rallies for like the sporting events.

406
00:25:28,920 –> 00:25:35,880
Elizabeth Clayton: And I rem I have this one vision in my head sitting in the bleachers and watching him down there get everybody in that gym so pop I wish

407
00:25:35,560 –> 00:25:42,280
Elizabeth Clayton: We had a you know, the one thing I’ve realized recently, and it made me kind of sad, but at the same time I’m thankful.

408
00:25:42,280 –> 00:25:46,920
Elizabeth Clayton: Um I realized of uh what year did my dad open sports city?

409
00:25:46,920 –> 00:25:49,000
Elizabeth Clayton: 1992 and then um

410
00:25:49,740 –> 00:25:52,700
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, I quit playing basketball around like 2003.

411
00:25:52,700 –> 00:25:56,140
Elizabeth Clayton: I was still in the gym, you know, working for my dad after that for many years.

412
00:25:56,140 –> 00:25:59,420
Elizabeth Clayton: But um, you know, for all the years that I played in the gym

413
00:26:00,000 –> 00:26:05,840
Elizabeth Clayton: I don’t have that many pictures of me and my dad in sp like together.

414
00:26:05,840 –> 00:26:13,039
Elizabeth Clayton: And if you saw the the post that I did today um on Facebook, I I was just kind of having a um

415
00:26:13,360 –> 00:26:23,279
Elizabeth Clayton: reflective moment about um you know thinking about my dad and uh you know um actually the the I saw this thing it said

416
00:26:23,540 –> 00:26:27,380
Elizabeth Clayton: the your your person in heaven wants you to live the best life.

417
00:26:27,780 –> 00:26:31,620
Elizabeth Clayton: And it just I’ve kind of the last two weeks I’ve kind of had a tough time.

418
00:26:31,620 –> 00:26:36,100
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, I thought, wow, I needed to hear that today.

419
00:26:36,100 –> 00:26:36,900
Elizabeth Clayton: And um

420
00:26:38,100 –> 00:26:42,899
Elizabeth Clayton: He uh like I said I just totally lost my train of thought, Randy.

421
00:26:42,899 –> 00:26:44,179
Randy Black: No, it’s okay.

422
00:26:44,179 –> 00:26:47,620
Randy Black: He you know, he w he w you you look at it as

423
00:26:47,840 –> 00:26:52,000
Randy Black: He’s he’s still there motivating you, you know, from from from beyond.

424
00:26:52,000 –> 00:26:54,799
Randy Black: He’s he’s your inspiration for what you’re trying to do.

425
00:26:54,799 –> 00:26:55,520
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

426
00:26:55,520 –> 00:26:59,520
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, I’ve had some doubts and some fears.

427
00:26:59,520 –> 00:26:59,840
Elizabeth Clayton: Um

428
00:27:00,519 –> 00:27:08,440
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, along the way and uh s you know, social media is you see so much on there and I’m like, am I gonna keep doing this?

429
00:27:08,440 –> 00:27:09,960
Elizabeth Clayton: Am I gonna keep making these posts?

430
00:27:09,960 –> 00:27:15,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Am I gonna keep, you know, putting myself out there and what are people gonna think of me?

431
00:27:14,500 –> 00:27:15,540
Elizabeth Clayton: And it’s so funny.

432
00:27:15,540 –> 00:27:26,820
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m just like uh it’s Mike’s mom um messaged me last night and she lives down in La Misa, Texas, which is West Texas, and she’s um in her eighties and um

433
00:27:27,340 –> 00:27:30,940
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, lives by herself, but she has a lot of family around too.

434
00:27:30,940 –> 00:27:40,460
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, she had sent me a little Valentine’s text and uh she goes, Make sure Mike wines and dines you today and I’m like, ha ha it’s just cute.

435
00:27:40,460 –> 00:27:41,260
Elizabeth Clayton: But then she

436
00:27:41,360 –> 00:27:44,720
Elizabeth Clayton: uh, you know, messaged me back and she goes, Hey, I’m really enjoying your posts.

437
00:27:44,720 –> 00:27:55,760
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, it really helps me some days and I thought that’s why I’m gonna keep doing it, you know, however, uh, you know, the the motivation, the inspiration, however, you know, it just

438
00:27:56,200 –> 00:28:00,600
Elizabeth Clayton: I thought even if it helps one person, like you say almost every episode, that makes it worth it.

439
00:28:00,600 –> 00:28:02,600
Elizabeth Clayton: And I thought, thank you, Dad.

440
00:28:02,600 –> 00:28:04,279
Elizabeth Clayton: There was my sign right there.

441
00:28:05,080 –> 00:28:06,039
Randy Black: Definitely.

442
00:28:06,039 –> 00:28:06,600
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

443
00:28:06,600 –> 00:28:07,399
Randy Black: So um

444
00:28:08,320 –> 00:28:17,840
Randy Black: So the the idea that as we look at this, you know, as we’re moving moving forward in in discussion with this, is that, you know, is there a difference?

445
00:28:19,060 –> 00:28:25,700
Randy Black: Between the confidence that we get from preparation, that courage we build up, and optimism.

446
00:28:25,700 –> 00:28:28,420
Randy Black: Because there are people in this world that are absolutely

447
00:28:28,800 –> 00:28:31,040
Randy Black: The perfect example of an optimist.

448
00:28:31,040 –> 00:28:34,000
Randy Black: The glass is never half empty.

449
00:28:34,000 –> 00:28:35,760
Randy Black: It’s always half full.

450
00:28:35,760 –> 00:28:36,080
Randy Black: And

451
00:28:36,540 –> 00:28:41,900
Randy Black: You know, there are there are people in this world who fit that my wife is one of those people.

452
00:28:41,900 –> 00:28:44,860
Randy Black: Beth is always the most positive about everything.

453
00:28:45,000 –> 00:28:46,039
Randy Black: And I’m not.

454
00:28:46,039 –> 00:28:50,039
Randy Black: And it’s you know, she’ll say something and I’m like, she’s like, Don’t you get like that.

455
00:28:50,200 –> 00:28:51,000
Randy Black: Like, I’m sorry.

456
00:28:51,000 –> 00:28:51,640
Randy Black: I’m sorry.

457
00:28:51,640 –> 00:28:53,080
Randy Black: And I’ll back off from it.

458
00:28:53,080 –> 00:28:55,960
Randy Black: You know, optimism, you know, that the idea that

459
00:28:56,700 –> 00:28:59,740
Randy Black: You know, you’re always thinking, eh, it’ll work out.

460
00:28:59,740 –> 00:29:00,620
Randy Black: I think it’ll be okay.

461
00:29:00,620 –> 00:29:02,300
Randy Black: I think everything’s gonna be fine.

462
00:29:02,300 –> 00:29:03,900
Randy Black: But the preparation

463
00:29:04,519 –> 00:29:13,159
Randy Black: you put in to gain the confidence, to gain the courage, tells you, I’ve put in the work, so I know this is going to work out.

464
00:29:13,400 –> 00:29:16,840
Randy Black: It’s not I think, it’s I know.

465
00:29:16,840 –> 00:29:25,400
Randy Black: You know, it’s optimism, and I love people who are optimists because they’re the ones who can get you motivated, get you inspired, get you moving

466
00:29:25,620 –> 00:29:30,660
Randy Black: But optimism depends very heavily on hope.

467
00:29:31,300 –> 00:29:35,300
Randy Black: Hope is not the the easiest thing for everybody.

468
00:29:35,300 –> 00:29:38,420
Randy Black: Sometimes, you know, you you put your hope in things.

469
00:29:38,440 –> 00:29:43,960
Randy Black: And it just collapses around you and you can’t keep it going.

470
00:29:43,960 –> 00:29:45,399
Randy Black: But confidence

471
00:29:46,620 –> 00:29:52,700
Randy Black: Confidence because of the preparation depends on the investment that you’ve put in.

472
00:29:52,700 –> 00:29:56,620
Randy Black: It’s the time you’ve put in, the work you’ve done to prepare for it.

473
00:29:57,140 –> 00:30:00,660
Randy Black: Optimism can be blind.

474
00:30:00,660 –> 00:30:05,700
Randy Black: You may not be able to see anything beyond that little view of things going to be okay.

475
00:30:05,700 –> 00:30:06,660
Randy Black: Things are going to work out.

476
00:30:06,660 –> 00:30:08,340
Randy Black: I think they’re going to be fine

477
00:30:09,040 –> 00:30:15,680
Randy Black: But the confidence you get from preparation, that’s grounded in something.

478
00:30:15,760 –> 00:30:23,360
Randy Black: You you you’ve taken the time to to work on it and prepare it and you have that foundation built underneath you.

479
00:30:23,660 –> 00:30:27,500
Randy Black: to keep that up and to keep that going.

480
00:30:27,500 –> 00:30:34,940
Randy Black: Preparation doesn’t make the moments we face in life easy at all.

481
00:30:35,740 –> 00:30:40,380
Randy Black: But it makes you steady when you’re in those situations.

482
00:30:41,820 –> 00:30:44,059
Randy Black: That’s how I’ve started to try to re-

483
00:30:44,780 –> 00:30:49,580
Randy Black: reframe things in life and look at it because I worry a lot.

484
00:30:49,580 –> 00:30:50,540
Randy Black: That’s who I am.

485
00:30:50,540 –> 00:30:51,660
Randy Black: I’m a worrier.

486
00:30:51,660 –> 00:30:54,300
Randy Black: I’m also, like I said, I’m a I’m a bit of a pessimist.

487
00:30:54,300 –> 00:30:57,100
Randy Black: I see this, I see the negative side of things.

488
00:30:57,140 –> 00:30:59,940
Randy Black: But I’ve got to prepare myself to not be that way.

489
00:30:59,940 –> 00:31:04,660
Randy Black: I’ve got to work to build up the confidence that I’m going to be able to take care of this.

490
00:31:04,660 –> 00:31:06,180
Randy Black: I’m going to make sure this works.

491
00:31:06,180 –> 00:31:07,220
Randy Black: I’ve put the work in.

492
00:31:07,220 –> 00:31:08,580
Randy Black: I can know this is going to happen.

493
00:31:08,580 –> 00:31:10,180
Randy Black: I know this is going to be okay.

494
00:31:09,760 –> 00:31:15,520
Randy Black: And it’ll help me to be steady and standing on that foundation to be able to move forward and handle things.

495
00:31:15,520 –> 00:31:16,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

496
00:31:16,000 –> 00:31:17,520
Randy Black: And that’s hard.

497
00:31:18,080 –> 00:31:24,480
Randy Black: That is hard, but it’s something that can change the way you view everything.

498
00:31:24,260 –> 00:31:28,820
Randy Black: And that’s how uh that’s the hope I have that it it’s it’s doing that for me.

499
00:31:28,820 –> 00:31:30,580
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

500
00:31:30,580 –> 00:31:32,500
Elizabeth Clayton: Isn’t that the truth?

501
00:31:33,320 –> 00:31:33,800
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

502
00:31:33,800 –> 00:31:36,120
Elizabeth Clayton: Oh my gosh, life is not easy.

503
00:31:36,120 –> 00:31:36,600
Elizabeth Clayton: No.

504
00:31:36,600 –> 00:31:37,240
Elizabeth Clayton: Regardless.

505
00:31:37,720 –> 00:31:41,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Um I mean we all face um

506
00:31:42,360 –> 00:31:46,440
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, things daily and um, you know, it’s funny.

507
00:31:46,440 –> 00:31:49,560
Elizabeth Clayton: Sometimes we forget how far we’ve really come in life.

508
00:31:49,640 –> 00:31:53,800
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, and that’s where, you know, I’ve really taken some time to reflect.

509
00:31:53,800 –> 00:31:56,040
Elizabeth Clayton: We th I I have a I have a

510
00:31:56,600 –> 00:31:59,080
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m oh I’m very hard on myself.

511
00:31:59,080 –> 00:32:06,679
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, I I I’ve I find myself uh I make myself feel guilty ’cause like I didn’t get my house cleaned.

512
00:32:06,679 –> 00:32:10,840
Elizabeth Clayton: Or and that comes that comes from like years of of living with my dad because he was a

513
00:32:10,940 –> 00:32:14,460
Elizabeth Clayton: a clean freak and always had me doing something.

514
00:32:14,460 –> 00:32:20,380
Elizabeth Clayton: But um, you know, lately I’ve had to kind of just just step back a little bit and because since my dad died

515
00:32:20,820 –> 00:32:27,780
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, um I spent a month in West Virginia pretty much and then I’ve been back and forth so much I don’t have much time off.

516
00:32:27,780 –> 00:32:28,420
Elizabeth Clayton: I really

517
00:32:28,820 –> 00:32:33,380
Elizabeth Clayton: get like four Sundays off a month and then two Saturdays if that.

518
00:32:33,380 –> 00:32:38,980
Elizabeth Clayton: And so um, you know, the time that I need to just like sit down and focus and get things done.

519
00:32:38,980 –> 00:32:42,260
Elizabeth Clayton: It’s hard sometimes and things pile up and

520
00:32:42,100 –> 00:32:48,020
Elizabeth Clayton: You look around and you’re like, uh when in the world am I gonna be able to do that?

521
00:32:48,020 –> 00:32:54,660
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, uh lately I’m just like, don’t be so hard on yourself.

522
00:32:54,679 –> 00:33:05,240
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, but uh the thing that’s um really helped me when I read through these notes earlier, um, you know, the last two weeks, I’ve I’ve had a issue like

523
00:33:05,700 –> 00:33:10,980
Elizabeth Clayton: I come home I’ve been coming home and I just fall on my couch and I don’t want to get back up.

524
00:33:11,300 –> 00:33:14,100
Elizabeth Clayton: And I have to get up and let my dogs out regardless.

525
00:33:14,100 –> 00:33:18,660
Elizabeth Clayton: But um it it’s taken some courage to get up and and face

526
00:33:19,620 –> 00:33:25,060
Elizabeth Clayton: the world again on a day-to-day basis because I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m I’m upset.

527
00:33:25,060 –> 00:33:28,900
Elizabeth Clayton: Uh the person that I, you know, turn to to um

528
00:33:29,560 –> 00:33:33,320
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, help me through situations in my life, he’s not there.

529
00:33:33,560 –> 00:33:35,880
Elizabeth Clayton: And I know I can talk to him regardless.

530
00:33:35,880 –> 00:33:37,560
Elizabeth Clayton: And I have lots of great

531
00:33:37,440 –> 00:33:42,799
Elizabeth Clayton: resources around, but but the fear of just getting i it’s it’s a real thing.

532
00:33:43,279 –> 00:33:47,919
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, it’s really plagued me in the last two weeks and, you know, we haven’t recorded.

533
00:33:47,919 –> 00:33:49,840
Elizabeth Clayton: I know you haven’t been feeling good and

534
00:33:50,320 –> 00:33:54,480
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, I I got sick in Mexico and came back and had to recoup from all that.

535
00:33:54,480 –> 00:33:57,360
Randy Black: But you no.

536
00:33:57,360 –> 00:33:58,640
Elizabeth Clayton: I you know it’s funny.

537
00:33:58,640 –> 00:34:00,880
Randy Black: Um I literally I had to take it, it was there.

538
00:34:02,000 –> 00:34:13,600
Elizabeth Clayton: It’s funny, all the times I’ve been, I mean, we I’ve had no problems, but um the minute we got on we flew from here to Atlanta, and then the minute I got on the airplane in Atlanta

539
00:34:13,559 –> 00:34:18,919
Elizabeth Clayton: It was about a four-hour flight and um I remember my throat felt started feeling dry.

540
00:34:18,919 –> 00:34:20,919
Elizabeth Clayton: And I’m like, what in the world is this?

541
00:34:21,159 –> 00:34:23,799
Elizabeth Clayton: Like I felt something coming on me.

542
00:34:23,740 –> 00:34:26,940
Elizabeth Clayton: And so I ca I’m like, no, no, no.

543
00:34:26,940 –> 00:34:31,820
Elizabeth Clayton: So of course I, you know, we got through the flight, got to Los Cabos and

544
00:34:32,120 –> 00:34:34,760
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, um, got through the airport.

545
00:34:34,760 –> 00:34:37,400
Elizabeth Clayton: Uh it’s much easier than Cancun, that’s for sure.

546
00:34:37,400 –> 00:34:42,040
Elizabeth Clayton: And then got to the resort and, you know, you always feel worse in the evening.

547
00:34:42,320 –> 00:34:46,480
Elizabeth Clayton: And waking up in the morning and then once you push past that, you’re like, okay, I got this.

548
00:34:46,480 –> 00:34:50,720
Elizabeth Clayton: So of course it was like a cold, you know, I guess that’s what you could call it.

549
00:34:50,720 –> 00:34:56,000
Elizabeth Clayton: But I was like, I started to get snot, you know, my head was was was um full of uh

550
00:34:56,260 –> 00:35:06,020
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, snot and um I just uh I’d wake up and I’d I’d plug myself full of like vitamins and medicine and whatever I could and and keep going.

551
00:35:06,020 –> 00:35:07,460
Elizabeth Clayton: But then then

552
00:35:08,400 –> 00:35:14,080
Elizabeth Clayton: We uh we ended up having to extend our trip two extra days because of the the storm that came through.

553
00:35:14,080 –> 00:35:14,480
Elizabeth Clayton: Right.

554
00:35:14,480 –> 00:35:21,680
Elizabeth Clayton: Um and luckily I I was able to actually enjoy the last day, which was nice, but the we were supposed to leave that Sunday, the twenty-fifth, but

555
00:35:21,580 –> 00:35:24,620
Elizabeth Clayton: Um we ended up we ended up not leaving until that Tuesday.

556
00:35:24,620 –> 00:35:31,260
Elizabeth Clayton: So um Saturday night we ordered room service and um which I hadn’t ordered room service the whole time.

557
00:35:31,260 –> 00:35:33,020
Elizabeth Clayton: I always feel weird about that because it

558
00:35:33,040 –> 00:35:38,720
Elizabeth Clayton: takes longer to get regardless than like just going to a restaurant on the resort or the buffet.

559
00:35:38,720 –> 00:35:44,480
Elizabeth Clayton: So we ordered room service and later that night I started feeling nauseous and um it hit me

560
00:35:45,600 –> 00:35:47,920
Elizabeth Clayton: So I had I had a double whammy there.

561
00:35:47,920 –> 00:35:48,480
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

562
00:35:48,480 –> 00:35:52,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Um but uh anyway, um

563
00:35:52,500 –> 00:35:56,020
Elizabeth Clayton: So yeah, you know, just just uh getting back up again.

564
00:35:56,020 –> 00:35:58,420
Elizabeth Clayton: Sometimes it takes a lot of of courage to do that.

565
00:35:58,420 –> 00:36:01,540
Elizabeth Clayton: And it’s hit me in the last two weeks especially.

566
00:36:01,540 –> 00:36:05,620
Elizabeth Clayton: Um I’ve had some trouble with that and I’ve just had to smack myself

567
00:36:05,540 –> 00:36:10,180
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, and and the one thing that I thought of today, I said, I’ve had my two-week pity party, Dad.

568
00:36:10,180 –> 00:36:14,100
Elizabeth Clayton: I gotta, you know, I can’t be pitiful and powerful at the same time, I just gotta flick it off.

569
00:36:14,100 –> 00:36:15,860
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, he said 30-second pity party.

570
00:36:15,860 –> 00:36:17,620
Elizabeth Clayton: I said two-week pity party

571
00:36:17,559 –> 00:36:22,200
Elizabeth Clayton: So I said today, okay, I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m over this now.

572
00:36:22,200 –> 00:36:26,279
Elizabeth Clayton: It might hit me again, but I’m not going two weeks and feeling like this again.

573
00:36:26,279 –> 00:36:27,319
Randy Black: Also.

574
00:36:27,520 –> 00:36:41,760
Randy Black: You know, it’s a as we work talk through this, you know, this whole idea, you know, the thing we’ve got to to to to understand about courage is that it is a it is a byproduct of preparation.

575
00:36:41,460 –> 00:36:42,900
Randy Black: We prepare for these things.

576
00:36:42,900 –> 00:36:44,740
Randy Black: We move forward for these things.

577
00:36:44,740 –> 00:36:46,900
Randy Black: It’s not a forced decision.

578
00:36:46,900 –> 00:36:49,940
Randy Black: You can’t just decide, I’m going to be courageous today.

579
00:36:49,940 –> 00:36:51,460
Randy Black: That’s not how it works.

580
00:36:52,080 –> 00:36:55,440
Randy Black: It’s it’s it’s it’s based on that preparation and the way you’ve done it.

581
00:36:55,440 –> 00:37:05,040
Randy Black: And that the idea that courage feels more natural when you’ve done the work because you’re not stepping out of your comfort zone.

582
00:37:05,140 –> 00:37:05,859
Elizabeth Clayton: Amen.

583
00:37:05,859 –> 00:37:11,539
Randy Black: When when courage is supported, when you’ve done the work, it feels right.

584
00:37:11,539 –> 00:37:17,299
Randy Black: When you try to be courageous and you haven’t done the work, you haven’t tried to prepare.

585
00:37:17,820 –> 00:37:19,260
Randy Black: It feels reckless.

586
00:37:19,260 –> 00:37:21,740
Randy Black: And that’s that’s the best way I could describe it.

587
00:37:21,740 –> 00:37:25,020
Randy Black: You know, courage with preparation

588
00:37:26,600 –> 00:37:31,160
Randy Black: feels like the responsible thing to do.

589
00:37:31,160 –> 00:37:35,400
Randy Black: Because you’re not doing something that you weren’t prepared for.

590
00:37:35,400 –> 00:37:37,400
Randy Black: You’re not sticking your neck out there and

591
00:37:37,920 –> 00:37:40,560
Randy Black: you know, breaking it, so to speak.

592
00:37:40,560 –> 00:37:49,360
Randy Black: You’re not, you know, it’s it’s the idea that you’re not um you’re not trying to step up and be courageous in a situation that you have absolutely no frame of reference for

593
00:37:49,820 –> 00:38:04,300
Randy Black: You know, it is the responsible thing when it’s supported, when it’s prepared, when you’re ready for it, when you have done the work, stepping forward becomes the next logical step.

594
00:38:03,760 –> 00:38:05,200
Randy Black: That’s powerful.

595
00:38:05,200 –> 00:38:12,480
Randy Black: When you know that you’ve prepared and you step out there, you know this is the next thing that I need to do.

596
00:38:12,480 –> 00:38:15,520
Randy Black: This is the step that’s going to make the most sense for me

597
00:38:15,640 –> 00:38:18,520
Randy Black: You know, I look at what I’ve done in my career.

598
00:38:18,520 –> 00:38:22,920
Randy Black: I’ve been out of a classroom now since 2013.

599
00:38:22,920 –> 00:38:28,839
Randy Black: So 12, almost 13 years this summer since I’ve been in a classroom teaching actively.

600
00:38:28,839 –> 00:38:29,160
Randy Black: And

601
00:38:30,760 –> 00:38:33,000
Randy Black: I miss it.

602
00:38:33,000 –> 00:38:37,560
Randy Black: But I know that if I had to step back into it, I’m not prepared

603
00:38:38,280 –> 00:38:42,840
Randy Black: I don’t have that sense of courage and confidence in doing that.

604
00:38:42,840 –> 00:38:46,200
Randy Black: It’s gonna take me time if I have to go back and do that.

605
00:38:46,140 –> 00:38:47,180
Randy Black: and step in.

606
00:38:47,180 –> 00:38:54,700
Randy Black: And that was one of the things that hit me a couple of years ago because I left my my job in tech at Huntington High to go into a teaching job at Cabill Midland.

607
00:38:54,700 –> 00:38:59,339
Randy Black: That was what I re was originally going to do right after uh Beth and I got married.

608
00:38:59,339 –> 00:38:59,660
Randy Black: And

609
00:39:00,140 –> 00:39:03,420
Randy Black: I was ready, but I was scared.

610
00:39:03,420 –> 00:39:05,579
Randy Black: Because I didn’t know how I was going to do.

611
00:39:05,579 –> 00:39:07,980
Randy Black: Because it had been at that time several years.

612
00:39:07,980 –> 00:39:09,900
Randy Black: Now it’s more than a decade.

613
00:39:09,920 –> 00:39:18,320
Randy Black: And kids today are, they’re still kids, but they’re not the same as they were 10, 12 years ago when I left the classroom.

614
00:39:18,320 –> 00:39:20,080
Randy Black: Things are very different.

615
00:39:20,380 –> 00:39:21,500
Randy Black: And it scares me.

616
00:39:21,500 –> 00:39:24,059
Randy Black: And I don’t have the confidence in stepping in to do it.

617
00:39:24,059 –> 00:39:27,020
Randy Black: It’s gonna take time if I have to do that.

618
00:39:27,020 –> 00:39:29,500
Randy Black: I’m hesitant to do it.

619
00:39:30,859 –> 00:39:40,220
Randy Black: Preparation, if I can get to that point, if I can build that up, the preparation should help in reducing that hesitation.

620
00:39:40,619 –> 00:39:41,819
Randy Black: That’s the goal

621
00:39:42,420 –> 00:39:49,619
Randy Black: Hesitation often comes in our lives from uncertainty about ability

622
00:39:50,460 –> 00:39:56,140
Randy Black: I can’t walk into a into a gym and grab a basketball and shoot it and know I’m gonna make a shot.

623
00:39:56,140 –> 00:39:57,260
Randy Black: It’s not me.

624
00:39:57,339 –> 00:39:58,460
Elizabeth Clayton: I could teach you.

625
00:39:58,460 –> 00:39:59,980
Randy Black: I probably.

626
00:39:59,940 –> 00:40:01,859
Randy Black: But it’s not something I’ve ever done.

627
00:40:01,859 –> 00:40:05,940
Randy Black: I’ve never been good at, and I’ve never tried, and I’ve never had coaching to do it.

628
00:40:06,099 –> 00:40:09,619
Randy Black: Um, I was not athletic when I was in school when I was growing up.

629
00:40:09,619 –> 00:40:12,260
Randy Black: It just wasn’t what I was interested in.

630
00:40:12,360 –> 00:40:22,360
Randy Black: Um I can’t walk into an elementary classroom and teach those children and be changing subjects every all the time throughout the day and and having

631
00:40:22,559 –> 00:40:25,200
Randy Black: snotty noses and that kind of stuff to deal with.

632
00:40:25,200 –> 00:40:27,200
Randy Black: That’s that’s not what I’m prepared for.

633
00:40:27,200 –> 00:40:30,319
Randy Black: I have hesitation in having to step up and do that.

634
00:40:30,319 –> 00:40:33,760
Randy Black: I can’t sit down in a meeting and and and go through and

635
00:40:34,400 –> 00:40:42,800
Randy Black: you know, help write out an IEP and go over it with a with a family of a student to know these are the things we’re going to do to help your child be successful.

636
00:40:43,040 –> 00:40:44,880
Randy Black: That’s not my wheelhouse.

637
00:40:45,360 –> 00:40:48,000
Randy Black: I have hesitation in doing that.

638
00:40:48,260 –> 00:40:55,859
Randy Black: But if I can prepare for those things, it’s going to shorten that internal debate that takes place inside myself

639
00:40:56,480 –> 00:40:59,600
Randy Black: And says, hey, sure you want to do this?

640
00:40:59,600 –> 00:41:01,920
Randy Black: What’s going to help me to get past that?

641
00:41:02,560 –> 00:41:06,400
Randy Black: It comes down to the idea of whenever we have

642
00:41:07,080 –> 00:41:16,680
Randy Black: rehearsed things, when we have practiced things, when we have prepared decisions in our lives come faster.

643
00:41:16,680 –> 00:41:19,400
Randy Black: And the hesitation gets reduced.

644
00:41:20,120 –> 00:41:22,040
Elizabeth Clayton: Isn’t that the truth?

645
00:41:22,040 –> 00:41:27,400
Elizabeth Clayton: Um well it’s interesting you’ve made me think about a time in my life where what was it

646
00:41:27,760 –> 00:41:32,080
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m going back to like w back in like elementary, middle school and high school.

647
00:41:32,080 –> 00:41:37,840
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, as we get older we reflect back on the ’cause that’s who really what’s what really made us who we are.

648
00:41:37,840 –> 00:41:42,560
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, going through those time periods and um school was a huge part of that.

649
00:41:42,720 –> 00:41:50,160
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, but I remember in elementary school at a certain point, um, you know, I started having trouble with like math and

650
00:41:50,340 –> 00:41:53,700
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, what other whatever subjects, you know, other ones.

651
00:41:53,700 –> 00:41:54,820
Elizabeth Clayton: But math was always the one thing.

652
00:41:54,820 –> 00:41:58,740
Elizabeth Clayton: I remember in fourth grade I got a D in math and I thought, man, I’m a failure.

653
00:41:58,740 –> 00:42:02,500
Elizabeth Clayton: And I remember my m my parents put me at a desk in the house

654
00:42:02,260 –> 00:42:07,460
Elizabeth Clayton: We lived at and I remember I remember vividly sitting there going, What the hell am I doing?

655
00:42:07,860 –> 00:42:09,300
Elizabeth Clayton: I don’t know what I’m doing here.

656
00:42:09,300 –> 00:42:11,140
Elizabeth Clayton: And they couldn’t really help me.

657
00:42:11,320 –> 00:42:16,120
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, but anyway, um going through middle school, like I still struggle with certain things.

658
00:42:16,120 –> 00:42:19,800
Elizabeth Clayton: I did well in some and and um you know uh

659
00:42:20,460 –> 00:42:27,500
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, I still math was still I think I got a D in math in like seventh grade and you know you think, man, I’m such a failure.

660
00:42:27,500 –> 00:42:28,140
Elizabeth Clayton: But um

661
00:42:28,920 –> 00:42:31,240
Elizabeth Clayton: Coming into high school, it was so interesting.

662
00:42:31,240 –> 00:42:35,480
Elizabeth Clayton: Of course, my dad didn’t teach at my elementary school or my middle school.

663
00:42:35,480 –> 00:42:40,760
Elizabeth Clayton: And I always keep going back to my dad because there’s so many references to like the things we’re talking about with him.

664
00:42:40,760 –> 00:42:41,480
Elizabeth Clayton: And um

665
00:42:41,660 –> 00:42:47,020
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, when I got into high school, my freshman year, I had to he woke me up every morning.

666
00:42:47,020 –> 00:42:53,580
Elizabeth Clayton: I had to ride to school with him and I had to see him all day long throughout the day.

667
00:42:53,580 –> 00:42:56,140
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, he knew all the teachers.

668
00:42:55,660 –> 00:42:56,060
Randy Black: Yeah.

669
00:42:56,060 –> 00:43:03,500
Elizabeth Clayton: And they knew I was his daughter at one point or another, you know, when they would get to know my name, they would figure it out or ask me, are you really and so

670
00:43:03,559 –> 00:43:08,039
Elizabeth Clayton: we actually had block scheduling four classes a day, which really helped me then.

671
00:43:08,039 –> 00:43:15,240
Elizabeth Clayton: But I went from being this really unconfident, you know, student to like I started making straight A’s.

672
00:43:15,240 –> 00:43:17,559
Elizabeth Clayton: And I really relate that back to

673
00:43:18,220 –> 00:43:23,339
Elizabeth Clayton: I was on a schedule with my dad every day and I’m like, I can’t let him down.

674
00:43:23,339 –> 00:43:29,579
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, I can’t have teachers telling my dad that I’m not, you know, so I literally turned it around

675
00:43:29,820 –> 00:43:32,860
Elizabeth Clayton: and figured out how to be a better student.

676
00:43:32,860 –> 00:43:36,220
Elizabeth Clayton: And I really he gave me the confidence in a lot of ways.

677
00:43:36,220 –> 00:43:39,340
Elizabeth Clayton: And seeing him interact throughout the day in his job

678
00:43:39,559 –> 00:43:43,319
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, and everything that he did, um, it really boosted me.

679
00:43:43,319 –> 00:43:48,920
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, those were like the best years ever.

680
00:43:48,840 –> 00:43:53,800
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, and I never like I think you heard me say that uh back at his funeral.

681
00:43:53,800 –> 00:44:03,560
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, but you know, walking through those halls, knowing he was there with me, that was the only time in my life where I had my dad to myself like all the time.

682
00:44:03,080 –> 00:44:03,320
Randy Black: Yeah.

683
00:44:03,320 –> 00:44:11,640
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, he was always so busy and his time was here, there, wherever, and he didn’t have a lot of time to focus on me and what I was doing growing up.

684
00:44:11,640 –> 00:44:13,800
Elizabeth Clayton: But that was the time like he

685
00:44:14,240 –> 00:44:15,680
Elizabeth Clayton: He was there.

686
00:44:15,680 –> 00:44:17,600
Elizabeth Clayton: And we were there together.

687
00:44:17,600 –> 00:44:21,760
Elizabeth Clayton: And it was just, it gave me, I was always prepared too.

688
00:44:21,760 –> 00:44:25,120
Elizabeth Clayton: Like, you know, in everything I did when I go to school, I was always prepared.

689
00:44:25,120 –> 00:44:26,880
Elizabeth Clayton: And it gave me confidence

690
00:44:26,820 –> 00:44:31,860
Elizabeth Clayton: and courage as well to walk through those halls and and you know be better every day.

691
00:44:31,860 –> 00:44:40,420
Elizabeth Clayton: And um I blossomed during those years and um go into Marshall, you know, and I was I was so um

692
00:44:40,960 –> 00:44:42,960
Elizabeth Clayton: What’s the word I’m looking for?

693
00:44:42,960 –> 00:44:52,400
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, uh coming from high school and going to Marshall, like I was so prepared in that regard and I was so organized because he was always so organized.

694
00:44:52,400 –> 00:44:53,200
Elizabeth Clayton: But um

695
00:44:53,920 –> 00:44:58,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Looking back, that really shaped a lot of who I am today.

696
00:44:58,000 –> 00:45:01,280
Elizabeth Clayton: And I’m thankful that I got to do all of that with him.

697
00:45:01,280 –> 00:45:05,040
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, but uh, you know, um

698
00:45:06,080 –> 00:45:08,800
Elizabeth Clayton: It’s interesting the way we turn out in life.

699
00:45:10,080 –> 00:45:15,760
Randy Black: So th one of the big things to to to look at in this is that what

700
00:45:16,460 –> 00:45:27,420
Randy Black: When preparation, when we’ve done the work, when it’s consistent, the courage we’ve built from that does not need a countdown to take place.

701
00:45:27,440 –> 00:45:32,400
Randy Black: It just shows up because it’s become the skill you’ve developed.

702
00:45:32,400 –> 00:45:41,200
Randy Black: It’s become the way that you’ve prepared yourself to move forward and to handle these situations.

703
00:45:41,620 –> 00:45:53,060
Randy Black: And that’s a that’s an awesome thing to think about, that it’s so easy that to step out and be courageous and to have that confidence because I’ve done the work.

704
00:45:53,060 –> 00:45:55,700
Randy Black: I’ve prepared myself for this.

705
00:45:56,020 –> 00:46:03,460
Randy Black: And I I I look at that and I think, man, that’s a skill that that I really, really wish I I had all the time.

706
00:46:03,460 –> 00:46:07,060
Randy Black: Because preparation closes that gap that exists.

707
00:46:07,059 –> 00:46:09,380
Randy Black: between opportunity and readiness.

708
00:46:09,380 –> 00:46:17,460
Randy Black: And it’s something that you don’t really think about until you’ve done it, you’ve put in the work, and now it’s just the foundation of what you’re trying to do

709
00:46:18,460 –> 00:46:29,740
Randy Black: But the other thing to talk about here is this in this opening part of what we’re looking at is that with courage and the preparation we put in for that is that it can sometimes bring about

710
00:46:30,560 –> 00:46:34,240
Randy Black: a sense of peace within yourself.

711
00:46:34,240 –> 00:46:38,560
Randy Black: Because preparation doesn’t just fuel the courage

712
00:46:38,640 –> 00:46:40,559
Randy Black: It produces the peace.

713
00:46:40,559 –> 00:46:51,680
Randy Black: So when you think about it, why does preparation bring about peace inside of ourselves when the outcomes that we’re facing are so uncertain?

714
00:46:51,840 –> 00:46:53,760
Randy Black: That we don’t know what’s gonna happen.

715
00:46:53,760 –> 00:46:57,680
Randy Black: Because think about it in life, we can’t control the outcomes.

716
00:46:58,720 –> 00:47:00,960
Randy Black: But we can control our effort.

717
00:47:02,000 –> 00:47:07,680
Randy Black: Preparation shifts our focus and it takes us away from the outcome control

718
00:47:09,620 –> 00:47:10,980
Randy Black: To the effort control.

719
00:47:10,980 –> 00:47:13,060
Randy Black: Man, I sound like Jim Clayton saying that.

720
00:47:13,060 –> 00:47:21,860
Randy Black: Preparation takes us from the outcome trying to have the outcome control as our focus to having the effort control as our focus.

721
00:47:21,860 –> 00:47:23,780
Randy Black: When you’ve done your part.

722
00:47:23,940 –> 00:47:33,220
Randy Black: When you’ve stepped up and you’ve prepared, there’s a peace inside of you that’s releasing that result because you’ve done the right thing.

723
00:47:33,220 –> 00:47:34,579
Randy Black: You’ve stepped up

724
00:47:35,339 –> 00:47:37,579
Randy Black: Man, I love thinking about that.

725
00:47:38,540 –> 00:47:42,140
Randy Black: I’m sitting here, I got little goosebumps on my arm, I can see them talking about it.

726
00:47:42,140 –> 00:47:44,140
Randy Black: Because this is the kind of stuff that

727
00:47:44,780 –> 00:47:52,540
Randy Black: I know, I know that I would have had this conversation with him, and I know exactly where he would have gone with it

728
00:47:52,520 –> 00:47:53,400
Randy Black: This idea.

729
00:47:53,400 –> 00:47:57,240
Randy Black: And I sand, you know, I I put these notes together and I write these things down.

730
00:47:57,240 –> 00:48:04,760
Randy Black: And now I realize it’s because I’ve prepared that I can come up with these things and I can get these ideas and I can put these things forward.

731
00:48:04,640 –> 00:48:14,319
Randy Black: The courage I have, the confidence I have from working on this project with him has made it easier to keep going and keep doing it.

732
00:48:13,960 –> 00:48:16,040
Randy Black: It’s not about the outcome control.

733
00:48:16,040 –> 00:48:19,880
Randy Black: It’s about the effort we put into it and what we’re trying to do.

734
00:48:20,280 –> 00:48:26,120
Randy Black: You know, it’s the idea the question of how does knowing that you’ve given your best

735
00:48:26,640 –> 00:48:33,520
Randy Black: Knowing that you’ve put yourself out there, you’ve prepared, you’ve done everything, and you’ve done your best.

736
00:48:33,520 –> 00:48:38,400
Randy Black: How does that change the way that we then handle the results?

737
00:48:38,980 –> 00:48:40,100
Randy Black: Wow.

738
00:48:40,100 –> 00:48:40,660
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

739
00:48:40,660 –> 00:48:41,780
Randy Black: Deep question.

740
00:48:41,780 –> 00:48:47,700
Randy Black: Because if you look at things, you know, and I’m all of the things that we do.

741
00:48:48,360 –> 00:48:50,600
Randy Black: on this show and our stats.

742
00:48:50,600 –> 00:48:57,160
Randy Black: So if somebody wanted to see our download stats, they could find them pretty easily because it’s it’s all open source knowledge.

743
00:48:57,160 –> 00:48:58,840
Randy Black: Um easy to find.

744
00:48:58,920 –> 00:49:07,560
Randy Black: The amount of work and effort that goes into this, when you look at those numbers, a lot of people would walk away and quit.

745
00:49:07,560 –> 00:49:07,960
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

746
00:49:07,960 –> 00:49:10,280
Randy Black: And they’d be like, why are you doing it?

747
00:49:10,520 –> 00:49:15,960
Randy Black: Well, it’s for those 45 people that downloaded that episode because they got something out of it.

748
00:49:15,960 –> 00:49:16,520
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

749
00:49:16,520 –> 00:49:18,520
Randy Black: That’s how you have to look at it

750
00:49:18,820 –> 00:49:26,660
Randy Black: The preparation, knowing that we’ve done our best affects how we handle those results.

751
00:49:26,660 –> 00:49:30,900
Randy Black: Success when you’ve done that feels earned

752
00:49:31,940 –> 00:49:43,300
Randy Black: I feel like with this show that everything I did with your dad, and now everything I’m doing with you, that we’re working hard to earn what we get.

753
00:49:43,420 –> 00:49:45,100
Randy Black: back from our audience.

754
00:49:45,100 –> 00:49:46,540
Randy Black: It’s not accidental.

755
00:49:46,540 –> 00:49:48,700
Randy Black: It’s not just it falls in our lap.

756
00:49:48,700 –> 00:49:51,100
Randy Black: And I hate to I hate to break it to people, but.

757
00:49:51,520 –> 00:49:53,920
Randy Black: Podcasting is not a quick way to make money.

758
00:49:53,920 –> 00:49:55,200
Randy Black: It’s not gonna happen.

759
00:49:55,200 –> 00:49:58,880
Randy Black: It’s you ha if you’re famous, yeah, you can step out there and do it.

760
00:49:58,880 –> 00:50:05,839
Randy Black: But to to have something where you’re bringing in income that you could quit your job does not happen very often.

761
00:50:05,320 –> 00:50:07,800
Randy Black: in this in this medium.

762
00:50:07,800 –> 00:50:09,960
Randy Black: But it’s not what this is about.

763
00:50:09,960 –> 00:50:11,640
Randy Black: I’m not doing this to make money.

764
00:50:11,640 –> 00:50:15,640
Randy Black: I’ve never made money podcasting in in a decade at all.

765
00:50:16,280 –> 00:50:19,720
Randy Black: But I’ve reached out and been able to connect with people.

766
00:50:19,720 –> 00:50:22,280
Randy Black: I’ve been able to share things and help people.

767
00:50:22,280 –> 00:50:25,960
Randy Black: I’ve been able to use it to build relationships.

768
00:50:25,940 –> 00:50:33,460
Randy Black: Heck, I can I can email Adam Curry, the podfather, the guy that invented podcasting, and I’ll get an email back from him within a day.

769
00:50:33,700 –> 00:50:34,180
Randy Black: Mm-hmm.

770
00:50:34,180 –> 00:50:39,700
Randy Black: Because I’ve been able to build that relationship and and and do that through what I’ve done here.

771
00:50:39,700 –> 00:50:41,700
Randy Black: I’ve earned those things.

772
00:50:41,700 –> 00:50:43,619
Randy Black: They were not accidental.

773
00:50:44,520 –> 00:50:46,839
Randy Black: I always talk about failure.

774
00:50:46,839 –> 00:50:49,640
Randy Black: And I talk about the fortune cookie that I got.

775
00:50:49,640 –> 00:50:50,680
Randy Black: Failure is feedback.

776
00:50:50,680 –> 00:50:53,000
Randy Black: Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

777
00:50:53,539 –> 00:50:56,500
Randy Black: Failure is not shame.

778
00:50:56,500 –> 00:50:58,980
Randy Black: And you should not view it as shame.

779
00:50:58,980 –> 00:51:01,059
Randy Black: If you’ve given your best,

780
00:51:01,320 –> 00:51:03,800
Randy Black: And it didn’t go the way you expected.

781
00:51:03,800 –> 00:51:07,560
Randy Black: If you quote unquote failed, that’s an evaluation.

782
00:51:07,560 –> 00:51:09,560
Randy Black: It’s a learning experience

783
00:51:09,559 –> 00:51:12,039
Randy Black: It’s something that shapes you for the future.

784
00:51:12,039 –> 00:51:17,000
Randy Black: And how you handle those results depends on the preparation you’ve done to begin with.

785
00:51:17,000 –> 00:51:19,799
Randy Black: That preparation protects us.

786
00:51:20,120 –> 00:51:24,280
Randy Black: From regret for doing our best and it not working out.

787
00:51:24,280 –> 00:51:29,000
Randy Black: It protects us from giving up and becoming lazy

788
00:51:29,680 –> 00:51:32,560
Randy Black: Because we didn’t get the result we expected.

789
00:51:32,560 –> 00:51:33,359
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

790
00:51:33,359 –> 00:51:40,480
Randy Black: It allows us to assess our performance without questioning our worth.

791
00:51:40,480 –> 00:51:41,359
Randy Black: Wow.

792
00:51:41,359 –> 00:51:43,040
Randy Black: That’s a big thing.

793
00:51:43,420 –> 00:51:52,060
Randy Black: Because so many people tie the result to their worth, not the effort, not the preparation to their worth

794
00:51:52,420 –> 00:51:56,020
Randy Black: And that’s where we have a disconnect among people.

795
00:51:56,020 –> 00:52:01,380
Randy Black: Now, kid walked into Sports CDU and they would shoot 500 foul shots in an hour

796
00:52:01,720 –> 00:52:04,359
Randy Black: Or 500 shots from wherever on the court in an hour.

797
00:52:04,359 –> 00:52:04,760
Randy Black: Yeah.

798
00:52:04,760 –> 00:52:06,839
Randy Black: And the machine’s counting those shots.

799
00:52:06,839 –> 00:52:10,599
Randy Black: And it’s telling them how what their percentage is, how they’ve done.

800
00:52:11,140 –> 00:52:17,060
Randy Black: And I’ve seen kids that went in there and were just frustrated because they were shooting 60%.

801
00:52:17,540 –> 00:52:20,500
Randy Black: There’s NBA players that don’t shoot 60%.

802
00:52:20,599 –> 00:52:22,520
Randy Black: And are making millions of dollars.

803
00:52:22,839 –> 00:52:26,040
Randy Black: The effort you’re putting in is going to make this better for you.

804
00:52:26,040 –> 00:52:34,520
Randy Black: You know, I had students who would come into class and they would put in absolutely zero effort for actual work we’re doing in class.

805
00:52:34,260 –> 00:52:39,140
Randy Black: But they’d walk in on the day we have an exam, have a test, and they’d pass it with flying colors.

806
00:52:39,220 –> 00:52:41,220
Randy Black: 100%, 98%.

807
00:52:41,220 –> 00:52:43,140
Randy Black: Because they knew the material.

808
00:52:43,140 –> 00:52:45,860
Randy Black: They just didn’t put in the effort on the other work.

809
00:52:45,859 –> 00:52:55,460
Randy Black: And it took me a while with this one kid to realize that I can’t question his success because he knows the material.

810
00:52:55,460 –> 00:52:57,060
Randy Black: He’s paying attention.

811
00:52:56,960 –> 00:52:57,760
Randy Black: He’s listening.

812
00:52:57,760 –> 00:53:08,800
Randy Black: He’s just not doing the work out of the questions out of the book or the the paperwork that he’s given to work on, or the little assignment to create something based on that content, but he can tell me everything about it.

813
00:53:09,440 –> 00:53:13,040
Randy Black: You know, his success was earned in the way he wanted to earn it.

814
00:53:13,040 –> 00:53:17,920
Randy Black: But I couldn’t give him the same grade as somebody else who did all their work and and worked hard.

815
00:53:18,120 –> 00:53:20,520
Randy Black: Because of the way the system’s established.

816
00:53:20,520 –> 00:53:23,320
Randy Black: But it was not a question of his worth.

817
00:53:23,320 –> 00:53:25,640
Randy Black: It was a question of his success.

818
00:53:25,640 –> 00:53:27,880
Randy Black: And he felt like he’s like, I passed the class.

819
00:53:27,880 –> 00:53:28,920
Randy Black: That’s all I care about.

820
00:53:29,140 –> 00:53:29,619
Randy Black: Yeah.

821
00:53:29,619 –> 00:53:29,859
Randy Black: Okay.

822
00:53:29,940 –> 00:53:32,020
Randy Black: If that’s the way you want to handle it, then good man.

823
00:53:32,020 –> 00:53:33,619
Randy Black: I’m I’m there with you.

824
00:53:34,180 –> 00:53:35,619
Randy Black: That that’s fine.

825
00:53:36,660 –> 00:53:39,539
Randy Black: You know, and that we all have those moments in life.

826
00:53:39,420 –> 00:53:42,780
Randy Black: Where something, you know, we feel like you just talked about it.

827
00:53:42,780 –> 00:53:47,580
Randy Black: You come home and you had those those grades that weren’t great and you felt like, man, I’m a failure.

828
00:53:47,260 –> 00:53:50,060
Randy Black: You know, I look at that situation the way you describe it.

829
00:53:50,060 –> 00:53:54,380
Randy Black: Personally, I wouldn’t have sat you down in a chair and made you sit there and keep doing math problems.

830
00:53:54,380 –> 00:53:57,580
Randy Black: Because that’s not gonna that’s not gonna change the situation.

831
00:53:57,580 –> 00:54:00,300
Randy Black: That’s not gonna help you with that at that point.

832
00:54:00,240 –> 00:54:04,240
Randy Black: You know, the failure you had was an evaluation of what your skill set was.

833
00:54:04,240 –> 00:54:06,480
Randy Black: You just weren’t prepared for whatever reason.

834
00:54:06,480 –> 00:54:14,960
Randy Black: Could it have been something you you know you didn’t get the help you needed on it in in class or you didn’t get, you know, maybe you needed that extra help with with whatever it was.

835
00:54:14,300 –> 00:54:20,140
Randy Black: And the teacher just had 25, 30 kids in the class and couldn’t take care, couldn’t step up and do that.

836
00:54:20,540 –> 00:54:22,940
Randy Black: You know, you have to look at those situations.

837
00:54:22,660 –> 00:54:29,620
Randy Black: And you have to understand that, you know, that success or that failure you had was not a reflection directly on you.

838
00:54:29,620 –> 00:54:31,940
Randy Black: It was a reflection of the whole situation.

839
00:54:31,940 –> 00:54:36,980
Randy Black: And you can’t use shame to try to correct the failure.

840
00:54:36,640 –> 00:54:39,039
Randy Black: And a lot of times we see that.

841
00:54:39,039 –> 00:54:40,480
Randy Black: And it doesn’t work.

842
00:54:40,480 –> 00:54:42,000
Randy Black: It just doesn’t work.

843
00:54:42,000 –> 00:54:44,160
Randy Black: A lot of times in our lives.

844
00:54:45,060 –> 00:54:55,140
Randy Black: When we start examining things and we get that peace inside because we’ve done all the things right, we’ve we’ve prepared and we’ve done things.

845
00:54:55,220 –> 00:55:02,660
Randy Black: We find that that peace that we have there becomes more valuable than the confidence we built up

846
00:55:03,580 –> 00:55:14,060
Randy Black: And you think about it, confidence, when you see somebody, you say that person’s confident, it’s because you’re seeing something that’s external.

847
00:55:14,060 –> 00:55:15,740
Randy Black: Something they’re doing

848
00:55:16,640 –> 00:55:24,880
Randy Black: But peace, that feeling inside, that feeling they get that comes from their effort, not from their results, that’s internal.

849
00:55:24,880 –> 00:55:26,800
Randy Black: And we don’t always see that.

850
00:55:28,060 –> 00:55:33,820
Randy Black: Confidence helps you to walk into the situation.

851
00:55:33,820 –> 00:55:34,780
Randy Black: But peace

852
00:55:35,620 –> 00:55:44,020
Randy Black: Peace helps you walk out with your head up sometimes, sometimes with your head down, but it helps you to walk away from the situation.

853
00:55:44,740 –> 00:55:46,100
Randy Black: Confidence.

854
00:55:46,100 –> 00:55:48,180
Randy Black: Confidence can fluctuate.

855
00:55:48,180 –> 00:55:52,500
Randy Black: There are times in our lives that we are confident in things and times that we are not

856
00:55:52,900 –> 00:55:59,700
Randy Black: You know, I know that walking into doing this podcast with me, you were not confident in any way.

857
00:55:59,700 –> 00:56:00,740
Randy Black: You were scared.

858
00:56:00,740 –> 00:56:01,780
Randy Black: And you told me you were.

859
00:56:01,780 –> 00:56:02,260
Randy Black: You weren’t ready.

860
00:56:02,260 –> 00:56:02,980
Randy Black: You’re like, I don’t know.

861
00:56:03,060 –> 00:56:03,540
Randy Black: I can do it.

862
00:56:03,540 –> 00:56:04,740
Randy Black: And I just said, we’re just gonna do it.

863
00:56:04,740 –> 00:56:06,340
Randy Black: We’re gonna see what happens.

864
00:56:06,460 –> 00:56:13,740
Randy Black: And what we see happen is over time as as we work together on this, as we work our way through this

865
00:56:14,040 –> 00:56:18,760
Randy Black: That confidence you have built and gets bigger and gets bigger and gets bigger.

866
00:56:18,760 –> 00:56:23,720
Randy Black: Now sometimes, like the last two weeks, we have it recorded because we’ve both had things going on.

867
00:56:23,720 –> 00:56:25,080
Randy Black: And our confidence

868
00:56:25,520 –> 00:56:28,800
Randy Black: in what we were doing for this kind of went down.

869
00:56:28,800 –> 00:56:29,520
Randy Black: Yeah.

870
00:56:29,520 –> 00:56:30,960
Randy Black: You know, and it happens.

871
00:56:30,960 –> 00:56:32,720
Randy Black: It can fluctuate.

872
00:56:32,720 –> 00:56:39,920
Randy Black: But peace, the peace we have inside knowing that our goal for this is to help somebody in some way.

873
00:56:39,620 –> 00:56:42,340
Randy Black: That comes from the integrity we have.

874
00:56:42,340 –> 00:56:46,260
Randy Black: That comes from what we’ve worked at in doing this.

875
00:56:46,260 –> 00:56:51,140
Randy Black: And preparation, everything we’ve talked about so far with preparation and building those things up.

876
00:56:51,059 –> 00:56:56,579
Randy Black: It produces both those things, the confidence and the peace.

877
00:56:56,579 –> 00:56:59,220
Randy Black: But which of those two is the bigger reward?

878
00:56:59,460 –> 00:57:01,299
Randy Black: Which of those means more?

879
00:57:03,420 –> 00:57:06,460
Randy Black: I’m gonna probably lean towards peace means a little bit more.

880
00:57:06,460 –> 00:57:16,300
Randy Black: That knowing that you’ve done the right thing, knowing that you’ve stepped out and you’ve you’ve done your best, whether the result shows it or not, that’s powerful.

881
00:57:16,640 –> 00:57:23,920
Elizabeth Clayton: Well I think as you get older, peace just I mean it means it’s different for everybody, but

882
00:57:24,120 –> 00:57:31,960
Elizabeth Clayton: Um our our generation, um, so funny reading, you know, going through social media and um

883
00:57:32,540 –> 00:57:39,740
Elizabeth Clayton: seeing people from the millennial generation, for instance, they’re all about peace, you know, and um

884
00:57:40,000 –> 00:57:44,960
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m like, man, I just want to come home and just just uh I don’t want to talk to anybody.

885
00:57:44,960 –> 00:57:50,400
Elizabeth Clayton: I just want to sit in peace and, you know, uh just just uh chill

886
00:57:50,720 –> 00:57:58,319
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, that word is uh I don’t get a lot of it, but we have to create our own peace.

887
00:57:58,319 –> 00:58:03,599
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, um confidence is super important too

888
00:58:03,559 –> 00:58:14,839
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, on top of it, but um it gives confidence, gives me the courage, you know, to to walk into situations and and and keep going with it like what we’re doing now.

889
00:58:14,920 –> 00:58:16,599
Elizabeth Clayton: I mean, if um

890
00:58:17,420 –> 00:58:25,020
Elizabeth Clayton: Uh one confidence, I’ve never lacked confidence, you know, majority of my life, but um, you know, uh

891
00:58:26,099 –> 00:58:34,099
Elizabeth Clayton: i finding peace that is not something that’s easy for a lot of people and um as we get older though

892
00:58:34,440 –> 00:58:42,280
Elizabeth Clayton: we find the ability to to find peace in situations and um move move forward through those.

893
00:58:42,280 –> 00:58:43,800
Elizabeth Clayton: It’s not easy.

894
00:58:43,800 –> 00:58:44,599
Elizabeth Clayton: And um

895
00:58:45,340 –> 00:58:48,860
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, uh like I said I’ve been going through that myself recently.

896
00:58:48,860 –> 00:58:49,340
Elizabeth Clayton: Yeah.

897
00:58:49,340 –> 00:58:54,060
Elizabeth Clayton: And um you know, today I finally got some peace.

898
00:58:54,120 –> 00:58:57,800
Elizabeth Clayton: a little bit and um looking forward to doing this podcast.

899
00:58:57,800 –> 00:59:01,560
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, sometimes we just need reminders from people along the way.

900
00:59:02,120 –> 00:59:02,440
Elizabeth Clayton: Um

901
00:59:03,140 –> 00:59:05,220
Elizabeth Clayton: that we’re doing good things here.

902
00:59:05,220 –> 00:59:16,420
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, that’s important because um sometimes you’re going through, like I said, the grief kind of takes over in the process and it really shuts you down

903
00:59:16,920 –> 00:59:27,080
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, f like I said earlier, finding the courage to rise up out of that and and keep moving forward and and find that peace in life and um

904
00:59:27,920 –> 00:59:29,440
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, we’re so busy.

905
00:59:29,440 –> 00:59:29,760
Randy Black: Yeah.

906
00:59:29,760 –> 00:59:32,080
Elizabeth Clayton: I mean it just busyness, busy, busy, busy.

907
00:59:32,080 –> 00:59:33,360
Elizabeth Clayton: That’s that is my life.

908
00:59:33,360 –> 00:59:36,000
Elizabeth Clayton: And so um I try to find things

909
00:59:36,299 –> 00:59:40,059
Elizabeth Clayton: to center myself and and bring that piece back.

910
00:59:40,059 –> 00:59:41,980
Elizabeth Clayton: And it’s very helpful.

911
00:59:42,299 –> 00:59:43,660
Elizabeth Clayton: It really is.

912
00:59:44,700 –> 00:59:49,420
Elizabeth Clayton: So this is quite an interesting topic to say the least.

913
00:59:49,940 –> 00:59:57,780
Randy Black: Okay, Liz, we we’ve made it like an hour in here talking about this, and we still have a lot of stuff on our notes to go.

914
00:59:57,780 –> 00:59:59,860
Randy Black: So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take

915
01:00:00,240 –> 01:00:02,880
Randy Black: This whole idea, this preparation breeds courage.

916
01:00:02,880 –> 01:00:09,120
Randy Black: And we’re gonna split into two more episodes from this, just based on the notes we have and the conversation, the way we have it going.

917
01:00:09,000 –> 01:00:15,720
Randy Black: So when when when listeners come back next week, we’ll pick up and we’re going to talk about what it’s like behind the scenes.

918
01:00:15,720 –> 01:00:17,240
Randy Black: What’s really going on?

919
01:00:17,240 –> 01:00:19,320
Randy Black: What’s the unseen part?

920
01:00:19,520 –> 01:00:24,160
Randy Black: of this that prepares people for courage, that invisible work that takes place.

921
01:00:24,160 –> 01:00:28,320
Randy Black: And that’s where we’ll pick up the conversation when we come back on our next episode.

922
01:00:28,320 –> 01:00:29,040
Randy Black: But first.

923
01:00:29,100 –> 01:00:32,220
Randy Black: Before we close out, we’ve got one more thing to do.

924
01:00:35,580 –> 01:00:36,860
Elizabeth Clayton: Each week

925
01:00:36,800 –> 01:00:40,880
Elizabeth Clayton: We like to pause for what we call our wisdom of the week.

926
01:00:40,880 –> 01:00:47,840
Elizabeth Clayton: And today, I want to share something from the person that helped shape this show from the very beginning.

927
01:00:47,840 –> 01:00:51,040
Elizabeth Clayton: My dad, Coach Jim Clayton.

928
01:00:50,740 –> 01:00:55,460
Elizabeth Clayton: My dad had a way of reminding you that courage doesn’t wait for perfect conditions.

929
01:00:55,460 –> 01:00:58,580
Elizabeth Clayton: It shows up when you decide to move forward

930
01:00:58,460 –> 01:01:03,180
Elizabeth Clayton: Even when things are messy or uncertain, this clip captures that heart.

931
01:01:03,180 –> 01:01:09,660
Coach Jim Clayton: Sometimes there’s a lot of bumps in the rows and there’s a lot of frustrations because you don’t know who to deal with, but you just gotta find a way to do it.

932
01:01:09,100 –> 01:01:10,620
Coach Jim Clayton: There’s no perfect time to start.

933
01:01:10,620 –> 01:01:11,740
Coach Jim Clayton: The time to start is right now.

934
01:01:11,900 –> 01:01:12,940
Coach Jim Clayton: You mess up, you mess up.

935
01:01:13,180 –> 01:01:17,820
Coach Jim Clayton: I’d rather have somebody try something and fail than do nothing and succeed.

936
01:01:17,640 –> 01:01:20,359
Coach Jim Clayton: There’s a lot of people out there doing nothing and succeeding.

937
01:01:20,359 –> 01:01:21,240
Coach Jim Clayton: You gotta try.

938
01:01:21,240 –> 01:01:23,160
Coach Jim Clayton: You gotta make something happen.

939
01:01:23,319 –> 01:01:25,079
Randy Black: You gotta make something happen.

940
01:01:25,079 –> 01:01:26,680
Randy Black: That’s Jim Clayton.

941
01:01:26,680 –> 01:01:28,119
Randy Black: It’s straightforward.

942
01:01:28,119 –> 01:01:29,559
Randy Black: It’s honest.

943
01:01:29,740 –> 01:01:32,540
Randy Black: I’m gonna say the cliche is cliche thing here.

944
01:01:32,540 –> 01:01:34,300
Randy Black: He was shooting it straight.

945
01:01:34,300 –> 01:01:38,460
Randy Black: And it’s still incredibly relevant with everything that’s going on.

946
01:01:38,460 –> 01:01:41,340
Randy Black: What stands out to me in this is the idea that

947
01:01:41,640 –> 01:01:46,359
Randy Black: That waiting for the right time is often just another way of avoiding the work.

948
01:01:46,359 –> 01:01:50,039
Randy Black: You’re being hesitant, and we talked about hesitation here today.

949
01:01:50,039 –> 01:01:53,160
Randy Black: Preparation doesn’t mean everything’s lined up.

950
01:01:53,160 –> 01:01:56,279
Randy Black: It means you’re willing to start anyway.

951
01:01:56,260 –> 01:02:02,020
Randy Black: Courage grows when you decide to try, knowing that you might mess up.

952
01:02:02,020 –> 01:02:03,940
Randy Black: You might make a mistake.

953
01:02:04,020 –> 01:02:11,700
Randy Black: And preparation is what gives you the confidence to take the first step instead of standing still.

954
01:02:11,700 –> 01:02:17,380
Randy Black: Liz, I’d love to hear from you what stands out from that clip from your dad.

955
01:02:18,060 –> 01:02:22,540
Elizabeth Clayton: Well, those are um words that I need to keep hearing, that’s for sure.

956
01:02:22,540 –> 01:02:25,340
Elizabeth Clayton: Um and uh always enjoy hearing

957
01:02:25,440 –> 01:02:31,280
Elizabeth Clayton: um him say those words because I feel like he’s standing right in front of me going, Hello.

958
01:02:31,280 –> 01:02:35,440
Elizabeth Clayton: Um, you know, uh, especially since he passed away.

959
01:02:35,440 –> 01:02:35,760
Elizabeth Clayton: Um

960
01:02:36,160 –> 01:02:42,640
Elizabeth Clayton: you know, the fear that used to to plague me, um, it’s uh it’s kind of gone away.

961
01:02:42,640 –> 01:02:44,560
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m I’ve I’ve really uh

962
01:02:44,940 –> 01:02:47,260
Elizabeth Clayton: Taking the b was it taking the bull by the horn?

963
01:02:47,260 –> 01:02:48,780
Elizabeth Clayton: Is that is that what yeah.

964
01:02:48,780 –> 01:02:54,380
Elizabeth Clayton: Um and just I’m trying new things and um you know uh

965
01:02:55,220 –> 01:03:01,940
Elizabeth Clayton: Even when we we feel like, hey, we’re not doing something right or whatever the case is, you know, you gotta keep going.

966
01:03:01,940 –> 01:03:05,619
Elizabeth Clayton: You gotta keep trying because that’s how you learn, that’s how you grow.

967
01:03:05,359 –> 01:03:08,240
Elizabeth Clayton: And I watched my dad do that my entire life.

968
01:03:08,240 –> 01:03:11,200
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, um, he was never afraid to try something new.

969
01:03:11,200 –> 01:03:13,839
Elizabeth Clayton: And I’m so glad that I have um

970
01:03:14,920 –> 01:03:17,640
Elizabeth Clayton: In a sense, we were a lot alike in that way.

971
01:03:17,640 –> 01:03:23,960
Elizabeth Clayton: So we’re always we were always constantly trying to to better ourselves and and try new things and

972
01:03:24,260 –> 01:03:39,060
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, whatever that looked like, whether it was reading a new book or um, you know, um trying something new in our on our health and wellness journey or um trying something new in our job or whatever the case is.

973
01:03:38,420 –> 01:03:45,780
Elizabeth Clayton: Um I’m just I’m thankful at 40 years old that you know I’m not scared to to try new things.

974
01:03:45,780 –> 01:03:51,140
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, whether I whether, you know, like this podcast, for instance, you know, like it was

975
01:03:51,000 –> 01:03:57,160
Elizabeth Clayton: I my dad was so natural at it and he could, you know, sit down and talk to anybody and I don’t care what the case was, you know.

976
01:03:57,160 –> 01:04:01,320
Elizabeth Clayton: And I’ve had to realize I have that same ability in myself.

977
01:04:01,320 –> 01:04:03,480
Elizabeth Clayton: I just have to work a little different at it

978
01:04:03,700 –> 01:04:11,140
Elizabeth Clayton: And um talking to you and working with you has really given me confidence and the notes that we put, you know, that are put together every week.

979
01:04:11,140 –> 01:04:15,940
Elizabeth Clayton: Um it’s been it’s been really um eye-opening and um

980
01:04:16,640 –> 01:04:19,520
Elizabeth Clayton: You know, it’s it’s taught me a lot and I’m thankful for that.

981
01:04:19,520 –> 01:04:25,200
Elizabeth Clayton: I’m thankful for the opportunity to do this and um you know I wish that uh

982
01:04:25,840 –> 01:04:33,680
Elizabeth Clayton: I would have um honed in with my dad a little more and maybe tried to coordinate and do some different things with him before he passed.

983
01:04:33,680 –> 01:04:34,000
Elizabeth Clayton: Um

984
01:04:34,300 –> 01:04:42,940
Elizabeth Clayton: Whether that was doing some things on social media or coming on the podcast or whatever the case is, you know, but coulda, shulda, woulda, you know, here we are.

985
01:04:42,940 –> 01:04:45,260
Elizabeth Clayton: And um, you know, I have

986
01:04:45,760 –> 01:04:57,920
Elizabeth Clayton: Uh he taught me a lot and um you know I know I’m gonna keep moving forward with all of that and we’re gonna keep you know building this and um you know I think it’s gonna help a lot of people

987
01:04:59,140 –> 01:05:08,020
Randy Black: You know, the the one thing that I hope, you know, with with what we’ve talked about so far on this topic that people take away from it is that again

988
01:05:08,420 –> 01:05:11,140
Randy Black: Courage is not spontaneous.

989
01:05:11,140 –> 01:05:18,020
Randy Black: Courage is not something that we are able to grasp because it’s naturally there.

990
01:05:18,020 –> 01:05:20,820
Randy Black: It is built through the preparation.

991
01:05:20,760 –> 01:05:29,080
Randy Black: It is built through us taking the time to develop those skills and taking the time to develop the mindset and the things we need.

992
01:05:28,740 –> 01:05:29,620
Randy Black: to move forward.

993
01:05:29,620 –> 01:05:36,580
Randy Black: I hope that’s what everybody is is taking away from this episode today as we prepare to close it out here.

994
01:05:37,640 –> 01:05:46,680
Elizabeth Clayton: If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who might need the reminder to start now, not when it’s perfect.

995
01:05:46,660 –> 01:05:56,580
Randy Black: And if for whatever reason you’re in a season where that road feels bumpy, things are uncertain, remember those words we heard from Coach Clayton.

996
01:05:56,540 –> 01:05:59,260
Randy Black: That there’s no perfect time to begin.

997
01:05:59,260 –> 01:06:03,660
Randy Black: The time to start is right now.

998
01:06:03,660 –> 01:06:05,420
Randy Black: We’d love to hear from you.

999
01:06:05,359 –> 01:06:06,560
Randy Black: Head over to our website.

1000
01:06:06,560 –> 01:06:12,320
Randy Black: Leave us a voicemail or a message on the contact page on the website over at shooting it straightpodcast.

1001
01:06:12,320 –> 01:06:13,599
Randy Black: com slash contact

1002
01:06:13,400 –> 01:06:16,760
Randy Black: Or even go to the post for this episode at shooting itstraightpodcast.

1003
01:06:16,760 –> 01:06:18,599
Randy Black: com slash zero two zero.

1004
01:06:18,599 –> 01:06:21,880
Randy Black: Leave us a post there, a comment, something you want to share with us.

1005
01:06:21,940 –> 01:06:30,260
Randy Black: Make sure you’re also subscribed in the podcast app of your choice so that every episode hits there when it’s released out on the feed.

1006
01:06:29,900 –> 01:06:36,779
Randy Black: And you can find links to follow the show on various platforms by heading to the website at shootingitstraightpodcast.

1007
01:06:36,779 –> 01:06:38,619
Randy Black: com slash follow.

1008
01:06:38,900 –> 01:06:43,300
Randy Black: We would also love to have your support with what we’re doing here on the show.

1009
01:06:43,300 –> 01:06:46,420
Randy Black: Because it does it does cost money for us to produce this show

1010
01:06:46,100 –> 01:06:48,020
Randy Black: And we would love to have support coming in from you.

1011
01:06:48,020 –> 01:06:49,540
Randy Black: We have one supporter currently.

1012
01:06:49,540 –> 01:06:51,060
Randy Black: Shout out Julie Tawney.

1013
01:06:51,060 –> 01:06:52,580
Randy Black: Thank you for continuing to support the show.

1014
01:06:52,580 –> 01:06:53,620
Randy Black: We appreciate it.

1015
01:06:53,620 –> 01:06:54,980
Randy Black: Uh, but you can head out

1016
01:06:55,080 –> 01:06:57,000
Randy Black: to shooting it straight podcast.

1017
01:06:57,000 –> 01:07:02,920
Randy Black: com slash support and check out the various ways there that you can support the show.

1018
01:07:02,920 –> 01:07:06,280
Randy Black: Each of we have different levels there, they each have their own rewards.

1019
01:07:06,280 –> 01:07:09,960
Randy Black: And through the end of this month, February tw uh through February 28th, 2026,

1020
01:07:10,320 –> 01:07:17,760
Randy Black: You can sign up there and support us and get a 50% discount for the entirety of your first year in supporting the show.

1021
01:07:17,760 –> 01:07:19,360
Randy Black: So thank you for listening.

1022
01:07:19,360 –> 01:07:24,640
Randy Black: We hope that you’re inspired to start to do the work now, to be prepared, to be courageous, and most importantly.

1023
01:07:25,220 –> 01:07:27,619
Randy Black: Keep shooting it straight.

1024
01:07:27,619 –> 01:07:28,740
Randy Black: Bam, son