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Ep. 31: Day 3 Inca Trail
50 Plays2 years ago
Bobby continues his journey on day 3 of the Inca Trail. He reflects on failures and advice he would give his younger self. What would you tell your younger self? Bobby's advice deals with fear.
Bobby is enjoying this physically brutal adventure. He reflects upon the adage that amazing things happen when you say why not!
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Transcript
Inca Trail Reflections and Personal Growth
00:00:00
Speaker
hey there y'all this is day three Inca Trail I'll call this Inca Trail Musings what have I learned what have I thought about while going on the Inca Trail you know it's as I've mentioned with the prior information I'm early 50s this adventures taught me an awful lot
00:00:31
Speaker
It's kind of pushed me to look at life slightly differently. I'm not a person that's afraid of failure. In fact, I often sort of relish failure. I try not to let.
00:00:52
Speaker
The thought of failure stopped me from doing something if I really believe it's important.
Embracing Failure and Reevaluating Life
00:00:59
Speaker
At no point on this adventure, and frankly it's been physically brutal, mentally it hasn't been that tough. And at no point did I say to myself, I want to quit. And I'm a little bit surprised by that, frankly. I'm generally not a quitter.
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm a person that likes to look at the lay of the land and if information changes, situation changes, then certainly reevaluating my position. I don't want to go down with the sinking ship if the information has changed and what I, my beliefs I held previously shouldn't be held anymore and I'm okay with a change.
Pre-Trip Anxiety and Accomplishment
00:01:50
Speaker
But I got nervous going into this one. And I guess nervous and I'd call it anxiety. You know, I didn't have a whole lot of time to train. I've been doing a little bit every day, but most people would look at my daily training regimen over the last year and probably laugh. But I did something every day. And I was a little bit,
00:02:16
Speaker
happy that I was able to do what I was able to do over the past couple days. But it was still brutal. And I'm walking along the trail now.
Trail Challenges and Extroversion Struggles
00:02:27
Speaker
This is kind of the last part of day three. We are going to a campsite that'll be a fairly short distance from Machu Picchu. It's in the afternoon. It's about three o'clock.
00:02:43
Speaker
This is the rainforest area so we've had on and off rain. There's heavy brush to sort of protect us from the sun. Of course it's not out because it's been fairly cloudy. And it's a little bit of an easier go on this last
00:03:04
Speaker
couple hours. The trails are still different. If you're from America and you're used to hiking, Inca Trail is a whole different deal. He had all these rocks, fairly good size, nothing's really flat.
00:03:25
Speaker
Your ankles are probably, if they could, they'd cry and slap you for what you are doing to them.
Scenic Views and Practical Hiking Tips
00:03:33
Speaker
So it's been physically brutal and frankly it's been one of the most brutal or probably the most brutal physical experience of my life.
00:03:45
Speaker
But it's not something I complain about. It has given me a chance to sort of hike by myself a fair amount. I kind of struggle with that.
00:03:59
Speaker
I love being in a group. I'm an extrovert. I get my energy from people. I don't know if many of you are that way. I get terrified. I get anxious being alone. Something I struggle with other than in the morning. I kind of have a half an hour to an hour in the morning. I kind of consider my own sort of
00:04:25
Speaker
sacred time that I really try to protect and but other than that I really like to be around people I'm stopping here now there's this
00:04:43
Speaker
beautiful picture area there's several mountains that are just kind of poking through I had my phone turned off I have a
00:04:56
Speaker
battery that is got a bunch of battery options that are not really working as great as I'd like to. One of the little technical tips if you're hearing it's cold, that's going to wreck shop on your cell phone battery. It's going to wreck shop on your portable batteries.
00:05:20
Speaker
We brought four small portable chargers. I brought a kind of a mid-size solar panel that would hook on the back of my backpack. Pretty lightweight. Hasn't been too effective. Quite frankly, if I'm honest, I think I forgot to unplug or forgot to plug it in the first day.
00:05:44
Speaker
second day negligible charge at best this is the third day haven't checked it yet although I did check it was plugged in twice but we've had pretty heavy cloud coverage so I'm not sure what you don't want to do you don't want to end up with no charge on your phone to take pictures of Machu Picchu so
00:06:09
Speaker
But at nighttime, if it's cold, sleeping with your chargers in your sleeping bag, kind of wrap them up in something, put them in there, your cell phone, same sort of thing. That will help with matters. That's been my experience. Headlamps are pretty essential too. You know, a lot of things happen.
00:06:31
Speaker
Later in the evening early in the morning Including our trek. I believe tomorrow will start
Bhutan's Happiness and Humanitarian Interests
00:06:38
Speaker
off. I think they get us up at 3 a.m. So headlights are Awesome stuffy stuff has been resistant to headlamps Just because I think she thinks they're dorky But it really frees up your hands and a lot of times it's a real safety feature. So definitely get a good one of those
00:07:00
Speaker
But back to failure. You know, we talk a lot between two teeth about discovery and inspiration. And I've seen a lot of people on this track. Now, most people are probably in their 20s. A lot of people, early 30s. Some people in their 40s.
00:07:28
Speaker
I shouldn't say handful, I'm not carbon dating people or aging, people are asking them. But there's certainly people in their 50s and 60s. We have good friends who did this kind of early 60s. And I think there's people in their 70s doing this. And quite frankly, there's probably people in their 80s.
00:07:48
Speaker
but it is it's rough you don't go from no activity to doing this and But you learn a lot about yourself I learn a lot about myself I I don't know how you are But I really need to push myself out of my comfort zone I
00:08:11
Speaker
I want to do something with the country of Bhutan. It's a really small country, kind of a wedge between China, India, Nepal. I learned about it.
00:08:22
Speaker
My Master's of Business Administration, my MBA program, I learned about it, did a paper in my international economics class, and they've been following the Gross Domestic Happiness. We follow Gross Domestic Product, GDP. Well, they follow Gross National Happiness, and they've been doing it for a long time. People actually get a day off of work paid.
00:08:46
Speaker
It's a full day survey. They've been following it. They take happiness very seriously. They actually have a commission on happiness. They're trying to balance economic growth with the happiness of the people.
Comparing Hiking Experiences and Personal Limits
00:09:04
Speaker
They're trying to balance it with the ecology of the environment. They charge tourists a certain amount per day. You have to have a guide. There's a bunch of different factors that come into play. So it's really pretty interesting and I would love
00:09:26
Speaker
to do a program they have challenges with access to health care medicine and dentistry in part because they have such far-ranging communities that are in the mountains and I would love to do a program where doctors from America go over there and help with access to care but also get a chance to
00:09:48
Speaker
interact with their commission on happiness and kind of learn some of what they're learning there. I think that would be a pretty unique experience. So that would mean for me probably doing some hiking and there's some quite high altitudes with that.
00:10:13
Speaker
And so this is in part preparation to see how I do for that adventure. So this has been tough. This has been a kick in the pants for me to say, I need to get out there. I need to go ahead and work out a little bit more every day. I need to push myself exercise wise. What I'm doing right now is
00:10:42
Speaker
not cutting it. Taking a picture in front of this gorgeous views. It is absolutely incredible. It's hard to describe the mountain ranges with the foliage.
Openness to New Experiences and Event Hosting
00:10:58
Speaker
I've spent a lot of time in California, a lot of time in Colorado.
00:11:03
Speaker
The Italian Alps with the motorcycle adventure But in Costa Rica and Guatemala and Nicaragua, but this is just kind of a different experience
00:11:18
Speaker
Quite frankly, a lot more, a lot different when you've had to hike between the mountains and up the mountains to get to the different views and mountain ranges. Pretty intense experience, but failure. Don't let failure, unreasonable failure, stop you from doing what you really want to do.
00:11:49
Speaker
You know what? If you sign up for something and you try and you can't accomplish it, at least you tried. I'd rather be someone that tried and failed than never tried at all.
00:12:05
Speaker
You know, think of the advice you'd give to your younger self. If I was talking to young Bobby McNeil in ninth grade or grade nine, I'm from Canada originally, they call it grade nine. I'd say don't let fear hold you back. You know, amazing things can happen when you say why not.
00:12:36
Speaker
amazing things can happen when you're open to new experiences. If you had told me, I'd have a YouTube channel and a podcast called Between Two Teeth, and I would be co-hosting the American Dental Association annual session in 2023. I'd say, what?
00:13:02
Speaker
But we put it out there and we said, we'd love to host it. And we got asked to host. And we put a message out there. We have so few subscribers. So if you're one of our subscribers, thank you
Personal Discovery and Staying True
00:13:17
Speaker
so much. And if you're not, oh my gosh, we'd love you to subscribe.
00:13:22
Speaker
But you gotta be okay with helping one person. And that one person may be yourself. Once again, I look at this as a journal for me. As I'm walking the Inca Trail, I was advised just to shut up and not record anything, audio or video, and just absorb everything. Well, you know what? If that works for you, knock yourself out.
00:13:48
Speaker
For me, being able to kind of do what I'm doing right now. This is therapeutic. This is intellectually stimulating for me. This helps me sort of process the whole experience.
00:14:06
Speaker
I'm sure when I'm home and I've showered and actually got into clean clothes, that'll give me a chance to reflect and maybe think a little bit differently. But I think I'm going to love having these conversations to listen back upon. There's a fair amount of evidence that you gain
00:14:27
Speaker
happiness and enjoyment and pleasure from planning vacations, from going on vacations, and from remembering vacations. And the remembrance can be audio, video, pictures, all that kind of stuff. But do what works for you. Don't let me, don't let other people tell you what works for you. You know, part of our deal is connect, discover, inspire.
00:14:56
Speaker
We're just putting something out there, man. And it may be something that you pick up on. I've had some pretty nasty pushback from people on what we're doing. Most of the time they've done it anonymously. So you probably know what I think of that.
00:15:20
Speaker
But do what's right for you and try things out.
Embracing Failure and Shared Stories
00:15:25
Speaker
And when someone says why, say why not. And if you do something and it was a disaster, you've learned something. For me, if I took this trip and I couldn't complete it, I'm not there yet, so you know, shouldn't talk.
00:15:46
Speaker
But then that gives me information. And I know that if I'm trying to go to the country of Bhutan and go to some of their sacred sites, I know this altitude, I know that altitude, I know what I did training wise and I know we've got to crank it up. So failure gives you great information. I say I love failure, I actually love,
00:16:10
Speaker
I relish in people oftentimes saying no, especially if it's something I'm passionate about. Because then I figure out just
00:16:20
Speaker
If the juice is worth the squeeze, I try coming at it from a different angle. That may be working around somebody, that may be working through somebody, but just doing something a little different. So I'm going to push you because that's what I do. Think about what you want to do. Think about, is failure kind of a serious concern of yours?
00:16:49
Speaker
Is there some little baby step, medium step or big step that you'd love to take and you need the courage to do it? I'd love you to do it. And if you do it, we're also about connection. And I think we fail pretty strongly on that because it's hard to connect sometimes, but we'd love to hear your comments through any of our platforms, whether it's Instagram, YouTube, or
00:17:18
Speaker
podcast. We're at B2 Teeth, and between two teeth, you can find us somewhere. Website actually, b2teeth.com. But get out there and do something. We'd love to hear it. Thanks for listening, y'all. If you like what we're talking about, please hit the subscribe.