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Weight of Manhood is hosted by Adam Smith and Ethan Ross. Two guys that met at church and realized they had a lot in common. They're both men who work hard for their families, they each served in the military, and most of all they love Jesus with all they have. This podcast is designed to be raw, up front about today's issues, funny, but most of all, unapologetically about Jesus - the true example of Biblical Manhood.
Ethan Ross [00:00:00]:
If I don't do it the night before for some, like picking out clothes, I have to, you can't skip that. But if it's something that I can skip, like not having my protein shake, I just won't do it. And I'm sure that's a character flaw and a failure of mine. Adam, if you'd care to point that out to our friends here, write that down on your notes that we're not supposed to have. Hi, I'm Adam and you're Ethan. Oh, I'm. I'm Ethan. I'm Ethan.
Ethan Ross [00:00:42]:
Welcome to Way to Manhood.
Adam Smith [00:00:44]:
Yeah. So first of all, I want to start off by saying that today is my youngest grandson's birthday.
Ethan Ross [00:00:55]:
Oh, well, if he was here, I'd tell him happy birthday. There's no point in saying it to you because you're not him.
Adam Smith [00:01:00]:
Yeah, he turns two today.
Ethan Ross [00:01:02]:
Yeah, that's a fun age. You know, that's how old my son.
Adam Smith [00:01:05]:
Is and he's the one that's in the spike of cast.
Ethan Ross [00:01:09]:
So.
Adam Smith [00:01:09]:
Yeah, 16 days and the cast comes off.
Ethan Ross [00:01:12]:
Really?
Adam Smith [00:01:12]:
Yeah, 16 days.
Ethan Ross [00:01:14]:
I thought it was like six weeks.
Adam Smith [00:01:16]:
Yeah, six to eight weeks. Yeah, 16 days will be.
Ethan Ross [00:01:20]:
And it's been that long. What time flies. I don't know what time is like on the release schedule of this podcast, but that feels like a long time right this second.
Adam Smith [00:01:28]:
Yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:01:29]:
No, I can't imagine that. That's, that's, that's insane because like I said, My son's 2 and you know, he just runs full speed like non stop.
Adam Smith [00:01:39]:
Yeah, yeah. So. And I gotta give a shout out if that's okay with you, but I'm.
Ethan Ross [00:01:47]:
Not asking, but this was not pre cleared. But.
Adam Smith [00:01:51]:
So I gotta give a shout out to my buddies, Rick and Billy. I spent some time with some friends of mine yesterday that it was well needed, you know, cutting up, you know, guy time. What, what's, what's the look, you don't.
Ethan Ross [00:02:09]:
Ever hang out with me.
Adam Smith [00:02:11]:
The. These guys are friends of mine. So. But you know, there are. You heard it here first. I'm. I'm blessed to have a lot of guys that I can call anytime, you know, and. What?
Ethan Ross [00:02:31]:
Nothing.
Adam Smith [00:02:34]:
That no matter what time of day or night it is, you know, they'll drop what they're doing and now Billy was army, so he's going to talk crap the whole time.
Ethan Ross [00:02:45]:
Yeah. But anyway, but he is the most intelligent one and he'll be there for you. Better.
Adam Smith [00:02:49]:
So anyway, but, so yeah, shout out to Rick and Billy.
Ethan Ross [00:02:55]:
Well, let me see who did I hang out with yesterday. Shout out to all my clients. Yeah, y' all my real homies. They are. Because they pay my bills.
Adam Smith [00:03:04]:
Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I know we have said we're not gonna going to do the we're not doing rundown and the rundown.
Ethan Ross [00:03:15]:
Don't tell the producer.
Adam Smith [00:03:17]:
And also, I may be fired today because I have notes. I have to have notes.
Ethan Ross [00:03:22]:
But Braxton, he's got notes.
Adam Smith [00:03:25]:
Yeah, yeah, don't. Don't show them where everybody can see and so they'll know ahead of time what's coming.
Ethan Ross [00:03:34]:
You think people care enough about this podcast to pause and zoom in?
Adam Smith [00:03:38]:
Negative.
Ethan Ross [00:03:39]:
So only if it's on. Tick tock.
Adam Smith [00:03:41]:
Yeah, I had. Well, one of my many oddities.
Ethan Ross [00:03:52]:
I hadn't noticed.
Adam Smith [00:03:55]:
I had Covid last week. I have Covid twice a year, same time. So February 20th. I'm gonna have Covid every year since the first time I had it.
Ethan Ross [00:04:13]:
Can. Is the COVID in the room with us right now?
Adam Smith [00:04:21]:
No, that was last week.
Ethan Ross [00:04:23]:
Every. Okay.
Adam Smith [00:04:25]:
Yeah, every February and every November.
Ethan Ross [00:04:27]:
I think we need to do like a Facebook Live, check in on those dates and make you take a COVID test, and we'll see if he's lying. Boys.
Adam Smith [00:04:33]:
Hey, I can show you the world the test.
Ethan Ross [00:04:40]:
Oh, can we sing songs on this podcast? Look, it's copyrighted. Sorry.
Adam Smith [00:04:46]:
That's the one from last week.
Ethan Ross [00:04:47]:
I don't know when that's from. That could have been an old test. Anyway, I'm gonna need a copy of that day's paper sitting next to it. Do people have newspapers anymore?
Adam Smith [00:04:58]:
I don't know. I assume so.
Ethan Ross [00:05:02]:
Well, you know what they say about.
Adam Smith [00:05:05]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:05:08]:
Speaking of newspapers.
Adam Smith [00:05:09]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:05:10]:
When I was in Korea, I had a Kindle because I couldn't get all the newspapers there were in Korean, and I didn't read Korean, and I got the Wall Street Journal, and that was one of just the simplest pleasures, which is to have an American newspaper delivered to my little Kindle every day. Little touch of home.
Adam Smith [00:05:32]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:05:33]:
You know what? One of the things I miss most when I was over there, this is just derailing. But that's okay. That I hate now, and I hated before that was television ads, because you don't ever see an American television ad. And it's just something. It's just such a. An American thing to have those American style ads that when you don't see them for two years, you kind of miss it in a weird way. And now I kind of find myself. I saw it like a Korean Ad the other day I was like, oh, I kind of miss those.
Ethan Ross [00:06:04]:
And I'm not, I don't like advertising, you know. But it's just weird. Anyway.
Adam Smith [00:06:10]:
Yeah, so you're one of those people you always want which can't have.
Ethan Ross [00:06:17]:
So like a good co host.
Adam Smith [00:06:24]:
Are you a morning person? Well, obviously you are. It's. Well, we're running late today for some, for some reason.
Ethan Ross [00:06:32]:
5 and I woke up. Well, first of all I didn't sleep well. I didn't sleep well. Adam, don't you care? Thank you. Well, because my son has a cough and he was. Had a fever the night before last. So he slept till noon yesterday which meant last night he got up, I was, I was in the, in my little nook working and he got back up and it's time to get up. But it's like 10 o'.
Adam Smith [00:07:02]:
Clock.
Ethan Ross [00:07:03]:
It's not. It's time to go back or 9 o'.
Adam Smith [00:07:05]:
Clock.
Ethan Ross [00:07:06]:
It was time to go back to bed and no. So all night I only laid down for like five and a half hours anyway because I just had too much stuff to do. And yeah, he was up the whole night. The whole night. And then I finally got out of. I Woke up at 3:15 for good. Which is early. That's an early wake up.
Ethan Ross [00:07:26]:
Not as early as some of our 2:30 wake ups but 3:15 is early for me. Yeah, I try to try to sleep till 4, 4:30 some days. The other day I told my wife, I was like, hey, I don't have anywhere to be first thing in the morning. We're not doing the recording like we were planning because Adam had canceled it and because he's a loser. A loser.
Adam Smith [00:07:45]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:07:46]:
And I was like, I'm sleeping like 4:30 tomorrow. And she just started laughing. Yeah, weird man. She doesn't call me man. She doesn't.
Adam Smith [00:07:58]:
But. Well, but you know, there's something about waking up early like that. But morning routines. Do you have a morning routine?
Ethan Ross [00:08:12]:
Yeah, and it's, it changes. It's changed since I decided that a morning routine was a good thing. It's. It's always evolving because again like we talked about with the, the self improvement, I think last episode was if you're not trying to not even just correct but improve, you're not, you're going backwards. Right. If you're not going forward, you're going backwards. And so it's changed over the years. But it's pretty, the base of it is very consistent now.
Ethan Ross [00:08:43]:
Well I say that the only thing that ever stays completely the Same is the first thing I do is I hop out of bed and do 25 push ups. And I might have to up that now because when I started that. You okay? Is it Covid? Is the COVID in here again? It's okay.
Adam Smith [00:09:03]:
Carry on with what you were saying.
Ethan Ross [00:09:05]:
Well, to segue or to throw in an anecdote. I took six years off of lifting. Yeah, I went there.
Adam Smith [00:09:14]:
And you're going to start back here for too long, right? You know, hey, that was. You got to admit, here's why I'm mad.
Ethan Ross [00:09:24]:
It was really good. That was good.
Adam Smith [00:09:26]:
And that's out of character for me.
Ethan Ross [00:09:28]:
Normally.
Adam Smith [00:09:29]:
Normally it would have been 20 minutes later I thought about that.
Ethan Ross [00:09:32]:
Hey, you're small.
Adam Smith [00:09:34]:
Hey, you remember when you said yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:09:36]:
Or yeah, later in the shower, you're like, I should have said this.
Adam Smith [00:09:40]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:09:42]:
Oh, boy. Thanks.
Adam Smith [00:09:45]:
So you took. Took six 12 years off? Feels like it.
Ethan Ross [00:09:50]:
No, from like 20. 2019 to. Well, at the end of 2024, so almost six full years. I went in the gym maybe three times. And it was a huge part of my life before that. But I went through. I went through a really dark time. I was not living well before that.
Ethan Ross [00:10:14]:
I had not been living the life that God wanted me to live. And I had drawn away from him and was blaming him for everything, which is the dumbest thing you can do. And hindsight's 20 20, and now I can see that. And now it's. It's, you know, it's fueling me for the future, and I'm okay now. But back then, it was a dark time, and I just left the gym behind. And so when I started trying to, you know, we talked a few weeks ago about becoming a man. When I started feeling like a man, when I started actually trying to improve my life, I met my wife and we started moving forward together.
Ethan Ross [00:10:52]:
I decided I need a morning routine. And so I started doing push ups and 15 push ups. It was a struggle. And I used to do 120 on the PT test in two minutes. And literally 15 push ups was tough for me. But so Now I do 25 every morning. And I think I'm gonna have to up it because it's easier now. But that's the first thing I do.
Ethan Ross [00:11:17]:
And if I don't. If I can't do anything else, I can do that. You ever read make your bed by Admiral McRaven? It's a good book. His whole thing is just for them. I know. You know, but make your bed first thing, because if you can accomplish nothing else if you succeed at no other task that day, at least you started the day doing something successfully. My problem is my wife is still in bed when I get up in the morning, so I can't make it.
Adam Smith [00:11:43]:
She wouldn't appreciate.
Ethan Ross [00:11:44]:
She would not. No, no, I can't imagine she would. She does get up with me sometimes, though. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Adam Smith [00:11:51]:
Yeah, but.
Ethan Ross [00:11:53]:
Yeah, so that's kind of my one task that if I don't do anything else, at least I've tried to push myself a little bit. Because even 25 push ups, if it's not that much for you doing it, like literally the first thing you do is just do it like. Like, remember in Batman movie he does that weird, like gets up on his tiptoes and falls forward. It's an old movie. You remember the Christopher Nolan Batman Begins series with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger was the Joker and then he died?
Adam Smith [00:12:24]:
Oh, yeah, I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:12:27]:
Was it the first one?
Adam Smith [00:12:28]:
I don't know.
Ethan Ross [00:12:28]:
No, that was the.
Adam Smith [00:12:29]:
Asking the wrong guy.
Ethan Ross [00:12:30]:
He was the first. Anyway, it was the first one. No.
Adam Smith [00:12:34]:
Okay, let's move on.
Ethan Ross [00:12:37]:
It's not that.
Adam Smith [00:12:38]:
It's not that big deal.
Ethan Ross [00:12:40]:
Push ups.
Adam Smith [00:12:41]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:12:42]:
First. Okay.
Adam Smith [00:12:43]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:12:46]:
And then I try to do more stuff, but you can. Why don't you talk for a little bit? So I'm not doing my whole morning routine. What do you start with?
Adam Smith [00:12:54]:
Well, I. I'll go.
Ethan Ross [00:12:59]:
Do you work out?
Adam Smith [00:13:00]:
I'll go back to. Well, obviously not right now, but that is not true.
Ethan Ross [00:13:08]:
When I came in first thing this morning, I noticed that you had affixed the lat pull down little seat with the little leg. You know, things. It looked like you've been at least moving gym equipment around.
Adam Smith [00:13:18]:
Yeah, that's what it was.
Ethan Ross [00:13:20]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:13:20]:
Yeah. You know, I used to enjoy getting up early, mainly to hunt. But I don't know, once. Once I got back into the mode of reading and really started analyzing my life and my. My routine and what I'm doing to improve myself and things like that. So there were several books that I. That I read and I'm not exactly sure which one it came from, but whether it been the. The Spartan way magic of thinking big or the 10x rule.
Ethan Ross [00:14:17]:
Who wrote Spartan way?
Adam Smith [00:14:18]:
Do you remember? Dude, don't put me on the spot like that. I. I can't remember. But there are so many things about DeLuca maybe there are so many things about him that I think I could have written this book. Some things.
Ethan Ross [00:14:40]:
You guys heard it here first. Adam's got a book on the way.
Adam Smith [00:14:45]:
You know, I. I know that's another topic, but I would love to write a book. And someday maybe I will, but maybe.
Ethan Ross [00:14:54]:
I'll write a memoir called Boy, I screwed that up. I like that. Pretty good, actually.
Adam Smith [00:15:00]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now somebody's gonna take that idea and run with it.
Ethan Ross [00:15:04]:
Come up with a better one. Jokes on you, buddy.
Adam Smith [00:15:08]:
But one of those books inspired me to, you know, have a morning routine. Yeah. But it doesn't start that morning. It starts the night before. Like, take, for instance, the night before. I'm preparing for the next morning. So I have the coffee ready, I have my breakfast ready, my, you know, protein shakes, pre workout, you know, all that good stuff. BCAAs, all that's ready.
Adam Smith [00:15:50]:
I have my clothes for work laid out. I have my clothes for the gym laid out.
Ethan Ross [00:15:55]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:15:56]:
So, you know, all that's done. I don't have to think about that in the morning.
Ethan Ross [00:16:02]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:16:03]:
All of that is. Is prepared.
Ethan Ross [00:16:05]:
How would it go if you didn't do that?
Adam Smith [00:16:09]:
It would. It would take up a lot of time because it's like, okay, everything's not in the same place. Yeah. So, you know, well, I need to go get my socks. I need to go.
Ethan Ross [00:16:23]:
Do you still do it? You just take more time.
Adam Smith [00:16:27]:
What do you mean? So.
Ethan Ross [00:16:28]:
So, for instance, my problem is, like, last night, I didn't make a protein shake for this morning, and so I didn't have a protein shake this morning.
Adam Smith [00:16:35]:
Ah, I got you.
Ethan Ross [00:16:37]:
So I just didn't do it.
Adam Smith [00:16:38]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:16:38]:
Because I didn't do it last night. And this morning was kind of rushed anyway, trying to get here early to. To record and then having to wait on our videographer. But no. So if I don't do it the night before for some, like, picking out clothes, I have to. You can't skip that. But if it's something that I can skip, like not having my protein shake, I just won't do it. And I'm sure that's a character flaw and a failure of mine.
Ethan Ross [00:17:04]:
Adam, if you'd care to point that out to our friends here. Yeah. Write that down on your notes that we're not supposed to have.
Adam Smith [00:17:13]:
So.
Ethan Ross [00:17:16]:
You go ahead.
Adam Smith [00:17:20]:
Like I said, I prepare the night before, and occasionally I will set an alarm, but it's rare.
Ethan Ross [00:17:31]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:17:33]:
This morning I had an alarm set just to be. To be safe. I'm still up at 3:45.
Ethan Ross [00:17:40]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:17:40]:
Before my alarm went off, which we've.
Ethan Ross [00:17:42]:
Talked about that before too.
Adam Smith [00:17:44]:
You know, setting that if you go to bed, if.
Ethan Ross [00:17:47]:
If you don't get enough sleep. You need an alarm. But usually if you do need enough sleep and you get up at the same time, you don't. Have you ever. This is weird. It's going to sound weird to start out, but it. It has a point. You ever read Tom Clancy's books?
Adam Smith [00:18:03]:
Can't. I really can't say that I have.
Ethan Ross [00:18:05]:
He wrote A Splinter Cell, which is like Sneaky boy is the best way to describe. And he has this cool, like, I don't know, digital something. I don't know if it's a. I guess it's a watch type of thing, but it like taps and it like puts pressure on his. One of his veins or something like that and kind of wakes him up very silent. Because he's a sneaky boy, Right? So like, if he climbs into some. Somebody's air duct and like to hide out and you know, get ready for somebody to, you know, assassinate him or something, and then he'll take a nap because you got it. When you're in the military, you got to be ready to sleep at the drop of a hat.
Ethan Ross [00:18:44]:
Sleep on command.
Adam Smith [00:18:45]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:18:46]:
But also. That was awesome. And now I. This watch, which I. For anybody that noticed, I have an Apple watch. I didn't buy it. A client gave this to me.
Adam Smith [00:18:59]:
Oh, okay.
Ethan Ross [00:19:00]:
Yeah. Really nice of them. Thank you.
Adam Smith [00:19:02]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:19:02]:
I won't call you out because you maybe don't want me to, but thank you so much. You're my favorite. But it vibrates so I don't have to have any noise.
Adam Smith [00:19:15]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:19:16]:
And I love it. But I Woke up at 3:15 this morning, like I said, because I didn't sleep at all.
Adam Smith [00:19:23]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:19:23]:
So do you. Do you. Do you find that your mornings are better if you haven't woken up with an alarm?
Adam Smith [00:19:32]:
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you wake up to an alarm, it's.
Ethan Ross [00:19:39]:
It's interrupted your natural sleep patterns.
Adam Smith [00:19:40]:
Yes. Yeah. But when you wake up naturally. Yeah, yeah. And something else that, that I failed to mention. It's critical that when you're going to sleep, do you think a certain way? Me, I. Well, okay, let me back.
Ethan Ross [00:20:05]:
I don't do more, so you tell me.
Adam Smith [00:20:07]:
Okay, so I do the three, two, one. I don't eat three hours before bed. I don't drink two hours before bed. And no screen time. Like water, screen time, liquids. I don't drink anything two hours prior to bed and then no screen time an hour before. Now I say that I. And this will also take us, you know, to another topic to come back to at a Later date.
Adam Smith [00:20:44]:
But do you have a list of goals and objectives and. And a. I'm drawing a blank mission statement. Do you have a mission?
Ethan Ross [00:21:03]:
I have a mission statement. I don't have written down goals so that's part of my morning routine when I do the whole thing. Is. Is that. So when you finish what you're talking about, I'll come back to mine. I do have a mission statement though. Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:21:14]:
So yeah, I like to read those things at night just for positivity. But going to sleep, kind of like.
Ethan Ross [00:21:25]:
Setting yourself to sleep mode?
Adam Smith [00:21:26]:
Pretty much. Yeah. So. But going to sleep, if, if I let work thoughts or bill thoughts or you know, anything like that slip in, then my mind turns on and it's going to be hours before I go to sleep. So you know, I prepare my mind and I think about specific things and it's mainly, it mainly revolves around family that I'm thinking of that is calming and happy thoughts and relaxing and so I, I did a, A sleep study. I've actually done a couple of sleep studies and cuz you wear a cpap, right? No.
Ethan Ross [00:22:24]:
Didn't you? Oh boy. Story time.
Adam Smith [00:22:30]:
Yeah. For another day. No, I don't wear a se.
Ethan Ross [00:22:34]:
Personal.
Adam Smith [00:22:37]:
But just. You just totally cannot. But I think positive. Oh, I know. I was going to say. So I generally fall asleep within 11 minutes from the time that I did I get in the bed.
Ethan Ross [00:22:59]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:23:00]:
And one of the reasons is because of thinking those pleasant thoughts. Yeah. So I don't have the little triggers, you know, making me think about this and you know, chasing a squirrel here and there and you know, what am I going to do about this? Oh, did I quote this customer? This.
Ethan Ross [00:23:20]:
You know, see I think because I don't do, I don't do that. I don't do either one of those. I don't think the positive things. But I also don't get caught up in the negatives either before bed. And I think there's just a really simple trick you can use to not do that. And it's just to be exhausted all the time because I bet my wife would say that I can fall asleep within 30 seconds. I mean I'm. I'm so tired.
Ethan Ross [00:23:45]:
And do your eyes do this thing when you get, when you get real sleepy where it's like you can't hardly hold them open. That's every day. I get to a point like I guess I gotta go to bed because I can't see anymore. But yeah, I just instantly. And I guess I'm blessed that I can both do that. And that I don't think negative things. Yeah. But maybe if I was getting eight hours a night or close to that, I would have more time and energy to focus on the negative.
Adam Smith [00:24:12]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:24:12]:
So look, that's another way God's blessed me.
Adam Smith [00:24:14]:
That's right.
Ethan Ross [00:24:15]:
Exhaustion.
Adam Smith [00:24:15]:
That's right.
Ethan Ross [00:24:16]:
It comes in all forms. Blessings do.
Adam Smith [00:24:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. So speaking of God speaking. So when I wake up in the.
Ethan Ross [00:24:24]:
Morning, are you done with your nighttime routine?
Adam Smith [00:24:27]:
Yes.
Ethan Ross [00:24:27]:
Okay.
Adam Smith [00:24:28]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:24:28]:
And now sleep. And now we rise. Okay, go ahead.
Adam Smith [00:24:33]:
When I wake up in the morning, when I wake up before I get out of bed, I thank God for blessing me with another day.
Ethan Ross [00:24:45]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:24:46]:
And I pray that everything I do and say in that day brings honor and glory to him. Now, I failed that pretty quickly.
Ethan Ross [00:24:59]:
I hadn't noticed. Never seen that.
Adam Smith [00:25:02]:
Well, generally I. I get in traffic or, you know, get.
Ethan Ross [00:25:10]:
I've seen those moments. We've had some zoom calls or whatever where. Not zoom.
Adam Smith [00:25:14]:
Yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:25:15]:
An undisclosed. Well, we don't use actually. But where you've. The frustration is palpable, you know. But I will say, let me just compliment you real quick here before you move on. Let me interrupt you to compliment you. It's. It's apparent that that effort is there.
Adam Smith [00:25:32]:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:25:33]:
Well, you seem like you try to be godly sometimes.
Adam Smith [00:25:36]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, as a buddy of mine says, and I use this phrase, you know, quite often during the day, especially like, you know, driving in Memphis or whatever. Hey, buddy. It's the big pedal on the right.
Ethan Ross [00:25:52]:
Oh, see, I call it the skinny pedal.
Adam Smith [00:25:55]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:25:55]:
But the same, same thing.
Adam Smith [00:25:57]:
Hey, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:25:57]:
Don't forget your skinny pedal.
Adam Smith [00:25:58]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:25:59]:
My wife laughs. I think she thinks I'm insane because sometimes I got like, you know.
Adam Smith [00:26:04]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, and we had some friends with us. We went to the Brandon Lake concert. Have I talked about that?
Ethan Ross [00:26:12]:
No. I don't want to hear it though. So you can continue.
Adam Smith [00:26:15]:
Okay. A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Brandon Lake concert. Yeah, it was phenomenal. But on the way we had some friends with us and I kind of expressed my feelings toward another driver, kind of loudly.
Ethan Ross [00:26:33]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:26:33]:
You know, so I may have made them uncomfortable. So back to morning routine.
Ethan Ross [00:26:38]:
I wish you would.
Adam Smith [00:26:39]:
Yeah. So then when I wake up and get out of bed, I don't do the push ups like you do. Maybe I should. Maybe I should make a note of that and start doing it. But I get up and the first thing I do is go to the kitchen, grab my breakfast, my pre workout, and I go to my office and that's when I have my God time. You know, I read my devotion.
Ethan Ross [00:27:14]:
I.
Adam Smith [00:27:18]:
You know, spend time in prayer and that is, you know, I, I generally, you know, say it's 3:45. Yeah. I generally don't look at my phone or my laptop, anything as far as like emails, text messages, news, anything like that until generally after six o'. Clock.
Ethan Ross [00:27:46]:
That's good. So after, so at least two hours.
Adam Smith [00:27:49]:
Yeah. After my time, you know, whether it be, you know, after my gym time, you know, just because I don't want to be distracted because once I go into work mode, I'm there.
Ethan Ross [00:28:04]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:28:04]:
You know, there's no, there's no turning back. But so yeah, so I don't, I will look at my phone to go over those goals and objectives and mission statement and you know, things like that. But that's all. Just go into my notes and, and read those things. Yeah. And I spend time. After my God time, I spend time reading something that is either self development or motivating. Like I've got a jocko book that is just, it's like generally one page or one or two pages that is just, you know, inspirational things or motivating or.
Adam Smith [00:29:03]:
Yeah, most of his stuff is pretty motivating.
Ethan Ross [00:29:07]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:29:08]:
But you know, things like that are critical to, to how my day is going to play out in most cases.
Ethan Ross [00:29:18]:
Yeah. Yeah, I've, I've noticed that too. Just in general, my, my morning routine kind of sets, I mean as it's intended to do. It sets the tone for the day. So what's, what else is next on yours? You finish yours and then I'll go through mine.
Adam Smith [00:29:31]:
So once I get done with my reading, then I have my gym time, you know, I go to the gym and. Exactly. Right here.
Ethan Ross [00:29:44]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:29:45]:
And I get that done, I go back in, you know, and I have my know first breakfast, second breakfast, third like a hobby. Yeah. So I go back in and you know, do my eating routine, get in the shower, get dressed. My day starts.
Ethan Ross [00:30:06]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:30:06]:
So that's when I.
Ethan Ross [00:30:08]:
Okay.
Adam Smith [00:30:09]:
Yeah. That's when I get into work mode.
Ethan Ross [00:30:11]:
Yeah. That's good.
Adam Smith [00:30:13]:
So, so what about you?
Ethan Ross [00:30:16]:
As far as mine is similar. So I don't do anything in bed because the exhaustion will dictate that I fall back asleep. So I get up and I'm usually still pretty tired when I get up, but that's okay. The push ups help that. So do the push ups and then I go in and have a protein shake if I've made it the night before. And then I used to just go down immediately and Sit down and start reading my devotional. And then I would do morning mobility. Since I listened to that other podcast about the Savers routine, I've started incorporating that.
Ethan Ross [00:30:54]:
What was that guy's name?
Adam Smith [00:30:56]:
The Miracle Morning is the book, and I've got it in my notes. Well, find the guy's name that I'm not looking at.
Ethan Ross [00:31:02]:
Do you have his name in there?
Adam Smith [00:31:03]:
No, I don't. The Miracle Morning is.
Ethan Ross [00:31:10]:
Yeah, the miracle.
Adam Smith [00:31:10]:
The name of the book. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:31:12]:
Anyway, that guy, Great guy.
Adam Smith [00:31:14]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:31:14]:
So I started incorporating that structure into mine. It's kind of marrying the two. And I don't do all of it.
Adam Smith [00:31:22]:
No. Neither.
Ethan Ross [00:31:23]:
But his is it Savers. It's silence, affirmation, visualization exercise, reading, scribing, or writing. So I do. Now I do after the protein shake, go sit on my desk. And I've got mine on my laptop, and I've got it all written out so I don't have to go anywhere else. It's just on one screen. And so I do silence, which is just. It's just start in the morning with some deep breaths in complete silence.
Ethan Ross [00:31:50]:
And then I'll pray. And my prayers, first thing, are just two. I only focus on two things. One is gratitude, and the other is surrender. Because if I get nothing else accomplished that day, if I can thank God for what he's given me and try to give it all back to him, then that's. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Right. So I do that, and that takes around five minutes or so.
Ethan Ross [00:32:18]:
And then I do my affirmations, which is when I do, I will read. So I've got a daily affirmation. I read. I've got a personal creed that I read, and then I've got a mission statement. And they're all pretty similar. They just have, like, different objectives, I guess. But I'll read those, and sometimes I'll go back and read them again. Sometimes I'll repeat stuff, and it's all still kind of a prayer.
Ethan Ross [00:32:47]:
Right. But it sets the tone.
Adam Smith [00:32:52]:
You know, one of the. One of those books I was referring to said to write, like, your goals and objectives. You know, write those out, handwrite them out. You know, maybe even multiple times. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:33:11]:
So do that every day.
Adam Smith [00:33:12]:
Yeah, yeah. And there was one of those books, I'm pretty sure it was one of those. Basically said to create your own commercial that.
Ethan Ross [00:33:28]:
About yourself.
Adam Smith [00:33:29]:
Yeah. That you record. You record this commercial about yourself and listen to it every morning.
Ethan Ross [00:33:37]:
That would be tough for you.
Adam Smith [00:33:38]:
Yes, extremely. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:33:41]:
Yeah. But I've never heard of that. Yeah, maybe I'll try.
Adam Smith [00:33:45]:
Yeah. And meditation. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:33:51]:
So that I do that as part of my silence too. So when I'm. When I'm sitting there in complete silence, I do a quick like 60 to 100 second meditation of just thinking. My feet are on the floor butts in this chair. I'm breathing deeply. I can feel all my breaths. I'm connected right here. Just physical connections.
Ethan Ross [00:34:08]:
How, how I'm feeling in that moment before I start anything else. So that I always have that center to come back to, which then praying, obviously fully envelops that.
Adam Smith [00:34:20]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:34:21]:
So I used to meditate more. I used to do like 15, 20 minute meditations from an app that I won't endorse.
Adam Smith [00:34:33]:
Well, we're talking about miracle morning.
Ethan Ross [00:34:38]:
Or.
Adam Smith [00:34:38]:
Milk or miracle mornings, whatever. So. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:34:45]:
Because then I'll get back to my morning routine.
Adam Smith [00:34:47]:
Yeah. He says, you know, you, you have to break up your time, you know, and prioritize. And, you know, okay, this may take five minutes. This, you may want to take 10 minutes, you know, 60 seconds for this, you know, but.
Ethan Ross [00:35:11]:
And it's individual.
Adam Smith [00:35:12]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:35:13]:
It's. It's not a cookie cutter mold. It's. You figure out what best for you.
Adam Smith [00:35:17]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:35:17]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:35:17]:
And it depends on how much time you have as well. Yeah. So, okay, this morning I've got 30 minutes to do that. How am I going to break everything up? What do I need today specifically? You know, because you may have certain challenges coming up that day. So, you know, basically you just, you break it up to what, what best fits you.
Ethan Ross [00:35:46]:
Yeah. So my silence. Yeah. Takes about five minutes. My affirmations take about another five minutes. Then it calls for visualization, which is picturing yourself, like, succeeding in the day and carrying your affirmations, like whatever your personal creed is or your mission statement. How does that look as you accomplish the day? And for me, I can't do those other things. I can't do the silence or the affirmations without thinking about what it looks like that day.
Ethan Ross [00:36:11]:
So I need like maybe 30 more seconds, 60 seconds for visualization just to kind of complete the picture. But for me it's not. I'm already, I'm already there.
Adam Smith [00:36:19]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:36:21]:
And then the ease exercise, which for me is not what it is for you. I don't come in the gym. My gym time is later in the day. When, what after, like, usually I attach it after I get in with a client. I'll work out then. But my exercise is morning mobility. And, you know, 10 years ago I would have been ashamed to Say this, but yoga man. And I know I'm only in my mid-30s, but things really hurt if I don't get a little stretchy in the morning.
Adam Smith [00:36:51]:
Dude, what do you get into your 50s?
Ethan Ross [00:36:53]:
I don't know if I'll make it. That's so long from now. Oh, and I'll be so old. No, I'm just kidding.
Adam Smith [00:37:02]:
Really?
Ethan Ross [00:37:03]:
No, I actually, somebody a couple years ago was point out a gray hair, and I was like, good, it's about time. I think I've earned one. I'm ready to earn a full head of gray hair. I'm excited about it.
Adam Smith [00:37:18]:
So that said, I was with my buddies Rick and Billy yesterday, and Billy's a very animated guy, and he's looking at me and he's like, so you still color your hair? I'm like, dude, really?
Ethan Ross [00:37:36]:
Do you dye your hair?
Adam Smith [00:37:37]:
No, I do not. But I have been accused of that forever. I got some gray hairs in there.
Ethan Ross [00:37:43]:
You guys just drop a comment below and tell us what you think.
Adam Smith [00:37:45]:
Now, granted, my facial hair is white.
Ethan Ross [00:37:48]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:37:49]:
But my grandfather, I think he was 89 when he passed away, and he didn't have much more gray than I have right now. Yeah. So. But for real, my beard.
Ethan Ross [00:38:10]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:38:11]:
It's white.
Ethan Ross [00:38:12]:
Yeah. So anyway, so I get stretchy in the morning and just moving around because motion is lotion. And if you start your day with activity, it really sets the tone for the rest of the day. Plus, by this time in my morning routine, I'm starting to get a little. A little sleepy again. And after exercise, I do reading, which takes awakeness. So I'll do my devotional then. And then I'll try to do my daily Bible reading.
Ethan Ross [00:38:40]:
Sometimes I have to put that to later, depending on, because it takes 20 minutes or so. And then I'll. I still don't do the scribing. I don't journal. I know I should. I know all these successful people journal. I know that they talk about how great it is. You know why?
Adam Smith [00:39:02]:
Why?
Ethan Ross [00:39:03]:
Because all of my notebooks are for something else. I don't have a notebook that I have just for that. And so I don't. I use that as an excuse not to do it. All of my other notebooks have a purpose. This one is for books. I read. I take notes for books.
Adam Smith [00:39:17]:
Okay. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:39:18]:
All my. The one I've got in here right now is for meetings. I don't use it for anything else. I've got one that I do copy working. Have you ever done copy work?
Adam Smith [00:39:26]:
What is that?
Ethan Ross [00:39:26]:
So, like, Schoolboys, I guess girls too. I don't know, maybe they still had it over when girls started going to school, but would just used to just copy text, old text, Latin or Greek, or after it was translated in English, would just copy text. And that's how they would learn. And I still do that. So I'll just word for word copy. I'm doing Marcus Aurelius's Meditations right now.
Adam Smith [00:39:51]:
Okay. Now I, I do that from books. Yeah, books that I'm reading.
Ethan Ross [00:39:55]:
I'm talking about.
Adam Smith [00:39:56]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:39:57]:
Writing the whole thing.
Adam Smith [00:39:58]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:39:59]:
And I use it to help my oldest son work on his penmanship.
Adam Smith [00:40:05]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:40:05]:
So he copies. He's got some. There's a beetle. He's got some, like age appropriate. It's the COVID It's attacking us right now. What time is it? What day that's coming? Age appropriate, like science books and books about. I think he's got one about like biblical heroes that he copies.
Adam Smith [00:40:31]:
Okay, so that's good.
Ethan Ross [00:40:32]:
Yeah, but I don't have a notebook. That's my point.
Adam Smith [00:40:37]:
Penmanship.
Ethan Ross [00:40:38]:
Penmanship, yes.
Adam Smith [00:40:39]:
That is so important.
Ethan Ross [00:40:41]:
And yours is much better than mine. Oh, just looking at this. Oh, look at that. Look at, look at this. So whereas. Do I even have notes for today? I took some notes. Look, you can't read that.
Adam Smith [00:40:54]:
Oh, dang. Yeah, I'm just kidding.
Ethan Ross [00:40:56]:
Oh, well, you just need your reading glasses.
Adam Smith [00:41:02]:
But penmanship, yeah, that's. That's important.
Ethan Ross [00:41:06]:
It is.
Adam Smith [00:41:08]:
And I have, I've actually looked into. Are there classes to improve your penmanship? You know, I mean, I can write all day long. It doesn't mean it's going to improve.
Ethan Ross [00:41:21]:
What if you try harder? Try that.
Adam Smith [00:41:24]:
Oh, write that down. Yeah, maybe I should. Yeah. Well, so you don't journal, you don't have a diary or.
Ethan Ross [00:41:34]:
A diary sounds a little.
Adam Smith [00:41:37]:
A whimsy log or.
Ethan Ross [00:41:44]:
Did you make that up?
Adam Smith [00:41:46]:
No, I heard that in a movie.
Ethan Ross [00:41:48]:
A whimsy log.
Adam Smith [00:41:49]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:41:51]:
Huh.
Adam Smith [00:41:51]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:41:51]:
What are you writing in whimsies?
Adam Smith [00:41:53]:
Yeah. So.
Ethan Ross [00:41:57]:
No, I don't. I have before journaled. I just can't get into it.
Adam Smith [00:42:04]:
Well, I have so many other notes that I need to make.
Ethan Ross [00:42:08]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:42:10]:
It really seems exhausting to be able. I mean, to have to write down anything else really.
Ethan Ross [00:42:19]:
What about. And you know, I'm always plugging that other podcast, Art of Manliness. He, he, he doesn't journal personally. He's tried it before and he said he doesn't found enough value in it personally for him. But he does encourage you to try it because so many people have Found value. But one of the things he did was he, he released on his blog 30 days of journaling and it was 30 days of props and I think even released it as its own book. Like a journal.
Adam Smith [00:42:46]:
Okay.
Ethan Ross [00:42:47]:
Have you ever tried prompt based journaling?
Adam Smith [00:42:50]:
No.
Ethan Ross [00:42:50]:
I wonder if you would get value from that then like asking you a deep personal question, then you have to consider and I think that would narrow your focus.
Adam Smith [00:43:01]:
I may have to try that. Yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:43:05]:
But yeah, like you said, notes, like this note. Well, we'll get to here in a row a couple of minutes is. Oh, yeah, I, I use this notebook for the book we're reading now. As you can see, I've also used it for other things. I've got some client programming later in here that I think I did on the fly one time because I didn't have anything else to write it in. But I've got notebooks for certain things because I want to be able to go back and find it.
Adam Smith [00:43:35]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:43:35]:
Now how often have I gone back and found the things I've written? Not that much. Not as much as you have. I can't count the number of times you've been like, I gotta go back and find this.
Adam Smith [00:43:44]:
Yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:43:47]:
We're very different people.
Adam Smith [00:43:49]:
It's a good thing.
Ethan Ross [00:43:50]:
Yeah, you got that right, nerd.
Adam Smith [00:43:53]:
Well, you know, I do that with books. Like right now, you know, I said I'm reading David Goggins book or can't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Can't hurt me.
Ethan Ross [00:44:08]:
Can't hurt.
Adam Smith [00:44:09]:
Yeah, it's, it's.
Ethan Ross [00:44:10]:
I don't think he says don't hurt me. Yeah, don't hurt me.
Adam Smith [00:44:13]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:44:13]:
I can't see David Goggins saying that.
Adam Smith [00:44:16]:
But. And it's funny how so many things that I read tie into other things. But like I had to go ahead and read Cicero of the Tuscan. Tuscan Disputations.
Ethan Ross [00:44:30]:
Was it good?
Adam Smith [00:44:30]:
Yeah, yeah, it, it really was.
Ethan Ross [00:44:33]:
I gotta read it now.
Adam Smith [00:44:34]:
Okay. And. But so many things tied into other things that I have read or I'm reading and we. Well, and funny thing is I just read it and then I had Covid last week.
Ethan Ross [00:44:57]:
You and what?
Adam Smith [00:44:58]:
And you know, he talks about pain. He talks about pain and how Cicero does. Yeah. And how a barbarian can be in battle and you know, not feel pain, but is basically can be overtaken by the common cold. You know, so. But that. And I know I'm going all over the place, but for me, that ties into so many things. There was.
Adam Smith [00:45:40]:
I gotta think about why I was Preparing this. But Gideon, I started reading into Gideon and. And in a way, putting a study together about judges.
Ethan Ross [00:45:57]:
Chapters six through ten, I believe.
Adam Smith [00:45:59]:
Yep.
Ethan Ross [00:46:00]:
Six through nine.
Adam Smith [00:46:01]:
And that's where. Oh, yeah. If you remember, that's where I had them made that note about drink like dogs.
Ethan Ross [00:46:07]:
Gideon wasn't. He ended up being real bad. Yeah, he kind of. He kind of sucked there at the end.
Adam Smith [00:46:13]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:46:14]:
You know, made like a bail and.
Adam Smith [00:46:17]:
Yeah, yeah, but you can't do that. No, no, not at all.
Ethan Ross [00:46:21]:
For you guys listening, don't make idols.
Adam Smith [00:46:24]:
Yeah. But David Goggins, in his book, he said, so if you have a hundred men in battle. And I'll. I'll probably get this wrong. If you have 100 men in battle.
Ethan Ross [00:46:41]:
Fact check us in the comments below.
Adam Smith [00:46:43]:
10 shouldn't be there at all. 80 are targets, nine are true fighters, and one is a warrior. And that tied into the 300 because.
Ethan Ross [00:47:03]:
You know, Gideon's 300, not the Spartan 300.
Adam Smith [00:47:05]:
Right. You had this huge army and, you.
Ethan Ross [00:47:09]:
Know, there's like 40, 000 people or something like that.
Adam Smith [00:47:11]:
Yeah, yeah. And they kept, you know, narrowing it down. Narrowing it down. And then the last way they narrowed it down was they had them go to the water and drink.
Ethan Ross [00:47:22]:
Yeah. Doing this versus doing this.
Adam Smith [00:47:25]:
Yeah. The ones who drank like dogs were the 300. Yeah. So they could still hear that in the mic. Yeah. So they could still mouth noises, keep an eye on their surroundings. Yeah. So I know.
Adam Smith [00:47:38]:
I just went just.
Ethan Ross [00:47:39]:
Well, no, that's okay. I think we ought to read Tuscan Disputations.
Adam Smith [00:47:42]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:47:42]:
As one of our books. I think it might be easier. Will you tell me, will it be easier than reading?
Adam Smith [00:47:48]:
It's. It's difficult.
Ethan Ross [00:47:50]:
But we've been reading.
Adam Smith [00:47:52]:
I know, I know.
Ethan Ross [00:47:54]:
What is this book even called?
Adam Smith [00:47:57]:
Really forgot the Abolition.
Ethan Ross [00:47:59]:
Abolition of man.
Adam Smith [00:48:00]:
Yeah, it's. So we're. Chapter two where. What, what was your. Were your thoughts on chapter two?
Ethan Ross [00:48:06]:
Oh, you have to read the whole thing. He doesn't get to his point or he'll sprinkle a point in. And then he'll be like, oh, yeah, I made this point.
Adam Smith [00:48:15]:
Well, just like I said the other day, you got to read a couple of pages and then it's like, oh, okay, that's what he's. That's. That's his point.
Ethan Ross [00:48:24]:
Go back. So I've got my notes are, Are jumping all over the place because he'll say something. I'm like, well, that's not important. Then he'll reference it three pages later, like, okay, that was important. Let me go back and write it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adam Smith [00:48:39]:
So it's good.
Ethan Ross [00:48:40]:
The point is good.
Adam Smith [00:48:41]:
Yes, yes.
Ethan Ross [00:48:42]:
And I. I really. I enjoyed the first chapter more. I think the Men Without Chest, because he gets. He gets incredibly philosophically deep on chapter two, which is called the Way. And then I think what. Chapter three, I guess, will be the solution, because chapter one was Men Without Chess is just identifying the problem. Chapter two is describing what the Way is.
Ethan Ross [00:49:10]:
What the Tao is, or. Excuse me, the dao.
Adam Smith [00:49:13]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:49:16]:
What the dao is. And it's. It's a tough concept to wrap your mind around from a secular perspective.
Adam Smith [00:49:23]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:49:25]:
I really appreciate how he, at one point was talking about. It's not just for Christians, it's for anyone. It is. It's ancient Greeks, Romans, Jews, Hindus, Confucians where he gets the term the dao. It's for everyone. It's that global moral truth. What did you feel about the chapter before we dive into.
Adam Smith [00:49:52]:
Was. Yeah. Like you said it was. Well, I think I probably had to read the chapter through all the way through, probably four times.
Ethan Ross [00:50:03]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:50:04]:
But every time I read it, you know, I'm. I'm a highlighter person.
Ethan Ross [00:50:10]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:50:11]:
I will. I'll. I'll have highlights all through my.
Ethan Ross [00:50:15]:
All.
Adam Smith [00:50:15]:
Author of a book. And it seemed like every time I reread it, I highlighted something else.
Ethan Ross [00:50:22]:
Yeah. To the point where it's the whole thing because you finally get it.
Adam Smith [00:50:26]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:50:26]:
You finally understand.
Adam Smith [00:50:27]:
Yeah. Four times.
Ethan Ross [00:50:29]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:50:30]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:50:31]:
But that's good. That's the mark of a good book. Is. Is the rereads bring more highlighting.
Adam Smith [00:50:38]:
Yeah. Kind of like when you watch a movie and a movie you've seen, you know, 10, 20 times, and you're like, oh, I've never noticed that. Or I just caught what he said there, you know.
Ethan Ross [00:50:51]:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But. But for books, you know, the. With the words in them. But the whole point of this one. And you go ahead.
Ethan Ross [00:51:03]:
Do you want to. You want to summarize the chapter for us?
Adam Smith [00:51:06]:
No, I'll. I'll let you go.
Ethan Ross [00:51:07]:
Oh, boy.
Adam Smith [00:51:09]:
Thank you. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:51:10]:
So he continues the. The. The theme of the value of objectivism, and he starts referring to the author as the innovator. The author of the Green Book as the innovator.
Adam Smith [00:51:23]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:51:24]:
And talking about how the innovator wants to throw away objectivism or a global moral truth, to basically rewrite their own or allow everyone to rewrite their own, which was, if you remember from the first chapter, was when you describe something, you're not really describing that thing you're describing your own emotions about it, which is just wild. What a silly thing. But our culture today has grabbed onto that, and just saying however you feel is how you feel, and it's just as right as how the next person feels. And that is a dangerous slippery slope. And he. He has.
Adam Smith [00:52:11]:
He.
Ethan Ross [00:52:11]:
One of his best examples is sexual morality. And how when you. When you step outside of that global truth and you start letting people define what moral right is, it gets dangerous real quick. And CS Lewis didn't have and I. Internet pornography, and he was already writing about sexual immorality and the decline of society. Once that takes hold. And, man, like I said the last time, it's like he wrote this book yesterday. It's just crazy because once you start saying this is.
Ethan Ross [00:52:53]:
Okay, where's the line? Once you step outside that and there's no boundary for moral right, there's nothing to. To ground you anymore.
Adam Smith [00:53:03]:
Not. Not to take us down a different road, but. Have you ever listened to Paul Harvey's if I Were the Devil? Oh, dude, you've got. You've got to listen to that.
Ethan Ross [00:53:18]:
Okay?
Adam Smith [00:53:19]:
Google it. Listen to it. And it was. He recorded this in, like, the 60s or the 70s.
Ethan Ross [00:53:28]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:53:28]:
And it's like, oh, my gosh, these things are happening today. Yeah, if I were the devil, I would do this. And it's all things that's happening today. Anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take us.
Ethan Ross [00:53:43]:
No, no, there. So basically, he just says that, like, you can't. And this is where it got really in the weeds for me. Was he saying the innovator is trying to step outside of the Dow, redefine what morality is? But if he's saying there's no global anchor, how is he defining anything? Why write this book at all? If there's no anchor of moral judgment, of moral reality, then you have nothing to hold on to. Everything is slippery. It's like. It's like trying to climb a mountain of ice. There's no.
Ethan Ross [00:54:20]:
There's no. There's no way to do it because once you lose that. That center, you can't describe anything else. And it got really in the weeds there. And it was tough. It was tough even for me to understand. That's a joke.
Adam Smith [00:54:37]:
A jab. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:54:41]:
Did you want to say something about it?
Adam Smith [00:54:42]:
No. No.
Ethan Ross [00:54:43]:
But then he goes on to say. And I was. I didn't know where. You know, oftentimes as. As. As Christians, we, I think, think. Well, what I think is right, and it's ordained by God and I don't have to change it. And that's, that's not true.
Ethan Ross [00:55:04]:
You should always be open to what other people are saying. Because if you, if you're saying that what you're saying is 100% right and you can't be moved, it's saying that you have a perfect connection with God or as he was hit with the doubt and it's not possible. Yeah, that's why we have to have these conversations. I mean people that are like that are just as bad as the my truth people. You know, you have to meet in the middle. You have to be open minded while still understanding that there is, that there is God or there is that, that moral correctness. And he lists a whole bunch of things which I thought was pretty cool, some core moral truth. So courage is better than cowardice.
Ethan Ross [00:55:45]:
We've always recognized that. But if you look at today's society, that's not true anymore. According to them, justice is better than deceit. Nope, that's been eroded as well. Parents should care for their children. That's not fashionable anymore. The weak deserve protection. They've really taken that as their only thing.
Adam Smith [00:56:10]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:56:12]:
And do unto others as you would have done unto you. He mentions that. But once that starts going away, like you said, there's no anchor anymore. There's nothing's right. Everybody just picks what they want.
Adam Smith [00:56:26]:
Yeah, yeah. And there are so many things I could say about that that would be considered very controversial.
Ethan Ross [00:56:37]:
Well, I'll just keep talking then.
Adam Smith [00:56:38]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:56:40]:
No, but he said, oh, this is, he said, you cannot invent morality out of thin air. Once outside the down, nothing is good or bad. And to bring it back to the first chapter about the feelings it's globally understood now. Well, that slavery is wrong. People still engage in it because people engage in evil every day. Slavery is wrong. Especially the slavery that we had here in America was race based and rooted in just disgusting racism. Slavery is wrong.
Ethan Ross [00:57:16]:
That requires the justice and dignity that the Dow gives you. But what the authors or the innovators were saying is my feelings prefer people not to be slaves. So if they, if they believe that that's okay. That's fine. That's not, that's, that's not right.
Adam Smith [00:57:33]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, so we're, we're still talking about the Green Book.
Ethan Ross [00:57:44]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:57:44]:
And, and the two authors and some of the notes, the, the key note that I made is, it's, this chapter is about, well, them, the, the writers and their belief of selfishness and the belief of instinct.
Ethan Ross [00:58:14]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [00:58:17]:
The, and I think we are, you Know, we're born a certain way. Yes. We are born. We're sinful. We're just.
Ethan Ross [00:58:37]:
We are.
Adam Smith [00:58:38]:
Yeah, we are. But for the most part, we are born as caring, compassionate, and then society creates us to be selfish or good.
Ethan Ross [00:58:59]:
Depending on the society you live in.
Adam Smith [00:59:01]:
Right. Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:59:02]:
And that's the whole. That's why it's important to have a.
Adam Smith [00:59:06]:
Society that is, that has that moral.
Ethan Ross [00:59:10]:
Has that moral compass.
Adam Smith [00:59:11]:
Yeah. So.
Ethan Ross [00:59:13]:
And it's, it's, it's not how, it's not forcing everybody to believe your, your spiritual beliefs or your religious beliefs. It's just recognizing that there is that moral compass.
Adam Smith [00:59:22]:
Yeah.
Ethan Ross [00:59:22]:
And these guys are saying that doesn't exist, but.
Adam Smith [00:59:25]:
Well, and you know, they're talking about men in general willing to risk their lives for the greater good for other men. You know, sacrifice for the greater good. When there are so many that, you know. And it made me think about, you know, how many times have you seen a television show or movie, whatever, where there's a, A situation. Take for instance, a bank robbery. And you know, there's. There's one guy that. Oh, I mean, I'm not going down for everybody else.
Adam Smith [01:00:07]:
You know, I'm not. I'm not going to be a hero.
Ethan Ross [01:00:10]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [01:00:10]:
You know, I'm all about getting myself out alive.
Ethan Ross [01:00:14]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [01:00:16]:
In, in, you know those, the hundred men in battle.
Ethan Ross [01:00:24]:
Yeah.
Adam Smith [01:00:25]:
One of them is a warrior.
Ethan Ross [01:00:28]:
Yeah. Well, and to bring it back to men, I've got a list here of if you take what they said, it's a list of things men can't do. Men can't leave. If you agree with the authors of the Green Book, men can't self judge and therefore they can't self correct. They can't be courageous, they can't sacrifice. And the reason is they can be. And I wrote these down. Clever but cowardly.
Ethan Ross [01:00:59]:
Educated but aimless and emotional but unprincipled. Because they were at. They were advocating for cleverness, education and emotion. And that doesn't get you where you need to go. Yeah, it can help. All those things can help. Being clever can help. Being educated can help.
Ethan Ross [01:01:15]:
Being emotional can help. But you got to have that guiding principle.
Adam Smith [01:01:19]:
Yep.
Ethan Ross [01:01:21]:
So I'm excited for a chapter three.
Adam Smith [01:01:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. So we'll get to that. I haven't even started reading chapter three.
Ethan Ross [01:01:28]:
I haven't either, but that's good. We didn't let that pollute how we felt about chapter two.
Adam Smith [01:01:34]:
Yeah. Because I got to read it four or five times.
Ethan Ross [01:01:36]:
Yeah, exactly.
Adam Smith [01:01:37]:
Alrighty. You got anything else before we close for nothing else.
Ethan Ross [01:01:42]:
Man, that was a good talk. Thank you for telling me about your morning and your thoughts of Chapter two.
Adam Smith [01:01:47]:
Yes, sir. And you as well. I'm Adam.
Ethan Ross [01:01:50]:
I'm Ethan.
Adam Smith [01:01:51]:
Y' all have a good day.
Ethan Ross [01:01:52]:
See you guys next time.