Speaker 1
I've debated in my mind about whether or not I would include this as an episode of the Cliff Ravenscraft show. And if you are clicking play for the very first time for this podcast, and you get about two to three minutes into what you're about ready to hear and you say, this is not the show for me. Just do me a favor, delete this episode and choose any other episode from the archive. Any of them, it doesn't matter. One episode back, three episodes back, 20 episodes back. Just try any other episode as your first experience of the show and then come to a conclusion about whether or not this might be something you want to subscribe to. Now, for those of you who have been longtime listeners of the Cliff Ravenscrath show, several of you are very much aware that I have another podcast called the Train with Cliff Audio Journal. It's a behind the scenes podcast that has absolutely zero limits when it comes to the format of the show. Some of those episodes, most of them, I'm in my studio speaking into my Heil PR 40. I am sometimes out in the field walking with a digital audio recorder in my hand, which by the way is what I'm doing in this episode. I was about ready to say incredibly extended length episode. And that's what I want to speak about next. And the Train with Cliff Audio Journal podcast, it has no limit as to how long an episode can be. And when I finish introing what you're about ready to hear, what you're about ready to hear is going to be two hours and 20 minutes. I already know that that's unacceptable for some. Although, you know, I find myself more and more listening to two and three hour episodes of a Joe Rogan podcast every now and then or a Lex Friedman podcast or some other shows out there. I personally have always enjoyed listening to content that is entertaining me, educating me, encouraging me, inspiring me, motivating me. It doesn't matter to me at all the length of a podcast episode as long as I'm enjoying listening to it. With that being said, the Train with Cliff Audio Journal has no limit. They're not always two hours and 20 minutes in length. They're on average about an hour. But what you are about ready to hear is a perfect glimpse into what that show is. A behind-the unscripted, authentic, transparent communication style that is me without filters. And if you're interested in learning more about what that sounds like, listen to this. Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of what will be the Train with Cliff Audio Journal, episode 436, and also episode 754 of the Cliff Ravenscraft show. I am out for a walk, as you might be able to instantly tell from the audio sounds and the environment. I am currently walking up a significant hill throughout the windy roads around Lake Douglas in Sevierville, Tennessee, just outside of the Smoky Mountains. My parents have an incredibly beautiful lake house down on Lake Douglas, which is... it offers a stunning view of English Mountain, which is just across the lake, and the sun comes up over top of it every morning. and Douglas, I'm sorry, English Mountain is considered a part of the Smoky Mountain range. It would be considered one of the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. And I think even as a foothill, it has an elevation of like 3,800 feet or something like that. This road is not a mountain that I'm climbing right now, but it certainly feels like it while trying to talk and record a podcast at the same time. I could have picked maybe a different time to start this podcast episode. And in full transparency, I already did start this episode four different times. So this is take five. And I did that for your convenience, for your enjoyment. I just have each time recognized how far off track I had already gotten from what I intended to do with this episode. So you might be asking, Cliff, what do you intend to do with this episode? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let me take a pause from walking up this incredibly large hill. Take an incredibly awesome breath of crisp, freezing cold, fresh air. Wow, is it beautiful out here. Oh my gosh, is it beautiful. Anyway, let me just share this with you. It is Saturday, January 4th, 2025. It is currently day three of week two of my three-week creative, personal, working retreat. An emphasis on each of those four words. It is a personal retreat, a creative retreat, it is a working retreat, and it is actually a retreat. It is retreating out into nature, out into a different environment for the purpose of creativity, inspiration, connecting with nature, fresh new perspectives, fresh new air, fresh new everything. So yeah, that's what I'm down here on a three week personal creative working retreat to kick off 2025 i've talked about it in episode 753 of the cliff ravenscraft show and i've already been talking everybody who's subscribed to the train with cliff audio journal you guys already know about all of this. So what am I going to share with you? Well, first of all, I just want to tell you, I'm freezing out here, but I'm out here because the sun is shining. There is almost no clouds in the sky right now. And the sun is absolutely bright, shining. Its rays of warmth on my face is amazing. But as soon as I turn away from the sun, it's instantly realized that it is 27 degrees Fahrenheit. That is literally below freezing. So I'm out for a walk because the sun is shining and I'm going to continue to walk up this hill as I share with you what I intend to share in this episode. So I came down here for a great deal of inspired thought, creative ideas, things. I came down here for a time of reflection. I came down here for the ability to break free from the habitual, hypnotic rhythms and patterns of behavior that my subconscious mind had put on autopilot for my benefit. That associated the environments that I live in on a daily basis with certain activities. With certain thoughts. With certain behaviors and even emotional states. This is all neuroassociation. It is neurologically creating synapses and connections in the brain that this equals that. This equals that. So if this, sitting in front of my desk in my office, then this. Check your email. Check your to-do list. Start working on these things and get these things done as quickly as possible. There's more, you know, and there's thoughts that are associated. There's only so much time in the day. There's more to be done than there's time for. Let's evaluate the priorities of these things. And let's just take the things that's most important, blah, blah, blah. And what's not in that association is, hey, let me step back from all of that thought and ask myself, these things that I have on my list to do today, are they even what is right for me to do in this season of my life? So that's why I've come down here. And I began creating a list called my, what is it called? Let me open up Notion and I'll tell you what I actually called it. Let's see here. Favorites. Oh, it's just called Inspired Ideas. I simplifies it. Simplifies it. Let me try that again. I simplified the title to just Inspired Ideas and it's got a little light bulb icon on there and the reason why i called it or what what this document is it's it it's actually to capture and communicate in a clear and concise way the ideas and insights and inspiration that I'm receiving while on this personal creative working retreat. So I'm going to share with you in this episode what's on that list. I may also, let me go back to my notes here and tell you about some other things you might learn here. I'll share with you two books that I have started reading while on this time away. I will share with you what's on my list for the rest of the day. And I may even share some technical things, some tools that I've been using as far as how do I have internet access in the middle of nowhere? And what has that been like with the various tools that I'm using? I'm going to share with you my routines that I have. One of the things that I want to do is also create new routines while I'm down here, new habits, and reestablish some of the more, let's just say higher standards of what my routines were, have been. So I might have always had a standard of working out daily. I may have always had a standard of eating healthy and intentionally. I may have always had a standard of journaling. I may have always had a standard of regular daily meditation. But what I've noticed in some of those areas is the actual quality of some of those daily routines when carried out are oftentimes not at the level at which my intention was when I set those out as being, hey, these are the practices that allow me to show up in the world the way I most want to show up in the world. I'm going to share with you in this episode, uh, some client engagement that I've had, uh, some client re-engagement, some potential client engagement, some things that are up in the air right now. You know, it's just going to be a very authentic, transparent episode when it comes to all of those things and like I said I'm pretty sure this is the episode where I this is like take five I'm gonna go straight into it so I've already talked about what day it's I think I told you it's Saturday January 4th 2025 day three week two of my three week I did did I mention the emphasis on the four words in here this is the problem when you did like the fifth time that you did i know i did this in the first four but i do it in this one i want to emphasize all four words of what i've chosen to call what i'm on it is a personal meaning solo solitude it is a creative it means that i'm creating new. There's things that are being put into my reality as a result of the thoughts that are inspired. It's creative. So things are being put into action, put into place, being brought forth into reality. By the way, if I ever seem like I get caught off guard or something like that, I am walking on these back roads that are up and down hills. They are winding roads. And there's a lot of evergreen, a little bit of vegetation. Okay. A lot of bit of vegetation around me. Oh my gosh. These mountain ranges that I'm seeing right here are stunning. And I didn't even see it until I just paused for a moment. Wow. Okay. So father Roderick, my friend in the Netherlands does this all the time where he gets caught and he stops to take pictures. But I'm going to do this right here because I'm going to put these into my journal for sure.