Hey, it's so good to have you here with me today. So excited to be back. Hey, let's get into that awesome intro music. Oh my gosh. I love that. I'm so excited for today's podcast. So excited and a little dreadful today's podcast. Let's let that music wind down. Oh yeah. Today's podcast is, I say this all the time because as these podcasts come about, you know how they come about. It's me living my life and learning and growing. And that is a hundred percent how these podcasts come about. When I, with intention, I live my life looking and finding meaning and purpose, trying to grow, trying to leave the baggage behind that keeps me from not being a person of meaning and purpose. And as I do that, I intentionally move into the quantum realm where I discover these principles and thus the podcast Redneck Wisdom, because it's wisdom that I have fought hard for to get. And I don't believe in being selfish. It does me no good to keep it to myself because I want to live in a world where there are people like me that are seeking a life and meaning and purpose and to live better lives, to make more of an impact on their community. And so of course, as I learn these, I'm going to dish them out and I'm going to get them out because this podcast is a hundred percent supported by me and you support by listening, which I love. And it's amazing, but I don't do this to make money. And yeah, I have a lot of followers. And yeah, there are a lot of downloaded podcasts, but I do this because I feel in my heart that I just have to get it out. If you want to call it a mission from God, then call it a mission for God, but it has to come out. And so when I learned these principles that are life-changing for me, that's where the podcast comes from. And some, I have more energy. Like today, I was just at a wonderful restaurant here in the Gallatin Valley. It's called Gallatin River Lodge, and there's a happy hour on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday. Well, I think it's actually every day of the week where they have drink specials, obviously, and food specials, a limited menu, but food specials. And today I just come off of having three old fashions, two of them classic old fashion, and one of them really isn't old fashion. It's called a whiskey botanical, and it was like whiskey with hazelnut, Aperol, and hazelnut bitters. Oh, my dreamy ecstasy orgasm of a drink. Yeah, that would cause you to blow your top, if you know what I mean, guys. I'm sorry, ladies, and a waterfall in your case. Anyway, should we talk about that kind of stuff? Yeah, because men are men, and women are women, and they should have hormones, and they should feel those things, and they should be able to relate because you should have had experiences like that in your life. And obviously, from my position in a covenant relationship, I go crazy. I have lots of it, and enjoy it. Anyway, and the super exciting part is because I'm wearing a CGM, Continuous Glucose Monitor. Some people would call it a ball and chain. I am loving it because after three cocktails, and some potatoes, and some other stuff here, I'm pulling it up on my phone. I will tell you what my blood sugar is. It's 101. It's amazing. I'm amazing. My body's amazing. What a great body I have. And on top of it, we've been losing weight. Yeah, that is amazing. You're like, dude, I know you need to lose some. You're right. I do, and I am. Let's all be happy together. Tom, should you take a deep breath, or should you go on like this? Today's podcast is something that kind of slapped me in the face this week. I was, oh, just living my life as we do, and practicing metacognition. That is observing yourself as a third party, and looking, and kind of analyzing, and then being like, is that normal? No, that's not normal. And not that we even really know what normal is, but as you do the practice of metacognition, you kind of get to the place where you're just like, huh, that's, yeah, it doesn't feel good. And I definitely had one of those things this week, and it immediately came to me in understanding, and I'm gonna do my best to convey it, and we need to really start with kind of the definition or talk about what a narcissist is, because it has to do with narcissism, and there are 100% narcissists out there, and there are the rest of us that deal with issues of narcissism because of our dysfunctional past, and the woundedness, and the things we have. And in my very basic understanding of a narcissist, it is somebody that has built this very weak framework of drawing identity and affirmation from outside, because that hasn't been built into them like it should in childhood. Instead of getting that attaboy as a young person, and good job, and it's like, I love you just because of who you are. You have value just because of who you are. Instead, oftentimes, and the woundedness comes in many ways, but some of them are, I wish you could just get it right. Can't you do anything right? You're so stupid. You're gonna end up being a nothing. You're a no for good, just like your father. And, you know, we can go on and on, and you can add your words that you heard, and those things that kind of kept us from getting those genuine foundations of identity, the really solid, the concrete, reinforced with rebar foundations of you have value because you have been brought into this world. You are meant to be here. You have a purpose. You are identifying your talents and your giftings, and we all have them. Sometimes they're a little different, and they're harder to identify, but we all have them, and narcissists and those of us that deal with traits of narcissism didn't get that. Well, there is something that every human being has to have. They have to have an identity. They have to get affirmation because you absolutely need that to survive, or you're just gonna cease to exist. You're just gonna pull out the plug in whichever fashion you choose. I don't like talking about suicide, but if you don't get those somehow, that's why I believe narcissism saves lives because the other alternative is just to give up and to pull the plug, and we need you. And if you're a little dysfunctional or if you're a lot dysfunctional, and you're a narcissist, and you're just awful to be around unless you're around other narcissists or other codependent people that need you to be a narcissist so you can feed their codependency to feed into you, and you cycle into that amazingly sick circle, right? But it saves lives because in a very dysfunctional way, it manipulates people, surroundings, and circumstances in a way where identity is spoken in. It's not even spoken in, it's taken. It's like, it is somebody almost like putting a gun to someone's head so they speak the words of identity and the words of meaning, and it does. It comes through incredible dark psychology, gaslighting, manipulation, false memories, all that dark, ugly psychology stuff plays into a narcissist, you know, from being a victim to being the dominator, the legalistic one, the guilt tripper, whatever, all the things of dysfunction. And as you're looking for a life of meaning and purpose, you are identifying these and understanding, even in a basic sense, feels wrong. That's a great indicator, feels wrong. Go with that because it is wrong. But a narcissist is, and really is, and they often don't seem like this, they seem incredibly hard, dominating, or really smart, or really efficient, or superhuman, but it's all a front to get that affirmation that wasn't built into the foundation. So it has to come in on a consistent basis because it doesn't last. It's not like a foundation that's set in concrete and stone. So it has to continue to come in. So the manipulation, the control, the deception has to continue to feed, to keep this person alive. And the narcissism really is, it is working. It is a dysfunctional mechanism to keep a person alive, to keep you alive, or to keep a portion of you going, because maybe you receive some healing, but not all the way. And there are certain areas where you're like, oh, everything but that, you can't go there, we're not gonna touch that. Nope. Narcissism, really, it does a great job in keeping people that aren't all the way there alive. And I so appreciate it. And I say a lot of gratitude towards it, because it does, because it's protecting a very fragile, a very vulnerable person. And I've 100% been there, like 100, all of me. Well, maybe not all of me, because my dad built some good foundations. Now, some of the other stuff, being raised by the other parent that's very much in that, that didn't get it, a wounded person that didn't get it as a child, was raised in a very performance, critical environment, so didn't get it, so didn't know how to give it. So I have been there. And I was, I don't know, I want to say the king, but, you know, that's kind of grandiose. And I'm sure I'm not the best at it. And in these days, I really didn't want to be the best at control, manipulation, guilt trips. But I really did get to be really good at reading people and knowing how to get what I needed, how to get the affirmation from them, how to get the give in when they weren't willing to do something, get them to change their mind and give in and compromise principle or whatever, to give me something, do something for me, because I was insecure, but I didn't want to tell them I was insecure. So I made up a, oh my gosh, just so much work. I was like, how did I have so much energy for that? And I did all that. So I know what it is to be a narcissist, and I know how scary it is to let go of that, because that is your sustenance of identity and purpose and meaning. And without it, you feel so naked and empty, and it's so hard to let go. And so with that premise, talking about a narcissist, I want to talk about a concept that came to me today, and it, well, it didn't actually come to me today. This is the first time that I've had time to sit down in the amazing closet that Adrian and I share that are full of amazing clothes, and it gives amazing acoustics with all the clothes. It's totally amazing. It really came, oh, probably Thursday-ish is probably when it came, and it came through a series of circumstances. One was a conversation with my wife. One was, I was out in the garage picking up boxes, because that's, I don't know that it's my chore. It's a chore that I've taken up, like the boxes from Costco and Amazon, and piling them for recycle or compost or whatever we're going to do, because they just get tossed out there. No matter how many times I've asked people not to do that, if they can please break it down, but you guys are part of the issue right there. And through some other things that I began to think about, examining my own feelings and examining conversations that I've had, that I really came to this principle, and those of you that are older will remember a game called Tetherball. And Tetherball was a game, a big, long metal pole, went up, I don't know, eight feet, and then it had a rope that came out, maybe eight feet. I don't know what the actual regulation is, but if you're standing, there was enough from ground level around the pole to kind of hit it, and there was kind of a line draw, and there was a rope, and so you would hit it, and then the other person would try to hit it back, and the goal was to get your direction that you're hitting it for the rope to wrap all the way around the pole, and then the ball to hit it. And I was thinking about the issues, and I'll get more specifically into them in a minute, but I want to give you this imagery. I was really, really good at Tetherball because I was tall, and if you play the game or can imagine it, you're going to get that when you're tall, when you hit it, you can get the ball to go higher. If the other person was shorter, they couldn't reach it, and you could keep touching it, and if you kept the ball high, they couldn't hit it, and so eventually that ball would wrap around and hit, and you'd win the game, and it felt really good because I was tall. I thought I was an amazing athlete. Turns out I was just tall, and it turns out that a lot of people caught up to me, even my brother, who's now taller. They can probably totally kick my butt at Tetherball, but I was thinking of my life as a ball and connected to a rope, and that the circumstances and the beliefs that I have hit that ball and cause it to go round and round and round, and as I'm looking at my life, and eventually it hits the pole, and I was like, I was envisioning it, not in a good way. It's like you go round and round and round, and then whap, and then it would unwind, and then there'd be another game round and round and round and whap, and as I've been diving into these quantum principles, I'm realizing that's a problem because the quantum realm isn't tethered. If anything, it is a realm of freedom because reality is fluid, so you're not stuck to any reality, and you're not stuck like when you really embrace the quantum realm, and you begin to be at peace with yourself, and you can quiet the inside. You can be alone with yourself for, let's say, 30 to 20 minutes, and just be relaxed and chill, and able to just like hold a peaceful thought and not have your mind bombarded, and we get into this quantum realm where there's freedom. We're not tethered. I'm going to use that word because that's kind of where I'm going, to thoughts of the day, worries of the day, that when you sit down and you're ready to really live in the best reality now, and that is the realm where you create, collapse the best possibility. There's infinite possibilities for every moment. In the best reality now, you're collapsing all the best possibilities because your mind is clear. Your heart, your soul, your inside, the you, is at peace and rest. It's not tethered to, what if this? What about tomorrow? Remember that guy driving home that just cut you off? What an asshole. Yeah, I hope he just, and then at work, that lady that was so snotty, and then my co-worker who didn't even get up to help. My friend, if those are your thoughts, and you can relate, I have sad but good news. You're not in a quantum realm, and you're creating the very reality that your mind is speaking of. The good news is that you can change right now, and that's what I call the tether. And the other day, I was having, well, this is a couple conversations with Adrian. The first was on the way home from Mexico, and this is going to be controversial to a lot of you, and it was challenging. It was challenging even as I was processing and speaking to Adrian, and she's like, we were talking about the best reality now and principles around that, and she's like, what about Jeffrey Epstein? What about the child trafficking? What about all these things that we're finding out about the elite class and how they're using, they're tainting the food chain, they're trafficking children and women and even men. And my response to Adrian is, my best reality now is that they don't exist. She's like, but they do. I'm like, do they exist because we brought them in? Do they continue because we give them attention? We're finding what we give attention and what we give thoughts to manifest in our reality. It's pretty sobering, and it's disturbing, and you want to push back from it immediately. I get it. You want to push back from it immediately. Why? Because you've heard it about in the news. You think you may have seen it, but you think you may have seen it because of what you've seen in the news, what you've seen, what people have talked about, and I'm not denying that exists. What I'm suggesting is, does it have to? And I think it has to if you are so tethered to the idea of it, and you're like, I hate the thought of child trafficking. Good. That is right, and that is meaningful, purposeful living to end that. If we really embrace the reality as fluid, and we want the best reality now, but we're tethered to the idea that this exists. Let's say, Adrian and I have been in this place in the past where we've fallen into this proper mentality because the world's going to shit, right? And if you look and you watch the news, conservative, liberal, in between, whatever, the world's going to shit. Yeah. Are you tethered to that? And so Adrian and I have this proper mentality preparing, storing food. What reality are we building there? And you'll ask me, because this conversation begs this question, do I just ignore it? I don't know what the answer is where you engage with that. For me, my point of engaging is, I want to use my brain, and I don't want to be ignorant that sometimes I'm even compromising. I'm feeling conviction over the words I'm about ready to speak. And so I don't even know that I should speak them, but I'm going to because I'm in process. So I haven't arrived 100%, but I'm getting there, and I'm darn close. So the words are going to be a testament that I'm still in process, but I'm getting darn close, and I'm going to arrive at any time. But I want to be in a reasonable state of preparedness in case we need food for a week or two weeks. Does that concession collapse a reality and move into a reality? I believe it does. And with all my heart, and I'm getting there, I'm tethered to worry and fear. And the ancient scriptures and the ancient religious and faith writings don't talk well about fear and worry and acting out of fear and worry, and especially Jesus, because he knows the principles of this fluid reality, this quantum realm, this kingdom of heaven. And when we speak words like that, because the scriptures say things like, Do not be anxious. Do not worry. Do you not even know? I know the very heads on your head. Why are you anxious? Okay, those words bring peace to you, don't they? They bring peace to me, even if you're not a person of faith. And so even Jesus knew that your words, I mean, the scripture in Peter, it says, Speak the very words of God, for God's sake. What are the words of God? God does not fear. God doesn't speak fear. God does not speak worry. What does God speak? Life, future, wholeness, restoration, growth. Yes, yes. And so even as I'm conceding a point, when I'm talking about this, I'm feeling the conviction. And so I'm going to touch some sensitive spots out there. Are you tethered to worry? Does worry give you meaning and purpose? Oh, I just need to worry. That's just who I am. You are tethered to that reality. Are you a conspiracy theorist? I'm raising my hand. If you can see me in the podcast studio, oh baby, this hand is up. Are you tethered to that? I wonder what your reality looks like. I wonder what, and I love this, and I'm going to tell you this, and you're not going to like it, but TikTok knows what you believe for your reality, and so does Instagram, and so does Facebook. What's showing up on your feed? You want to see what reality you're tethered to, baby, man, child, boy, girl, dude, broad? See what pops up on your feed. That's the reality you're tethered to. Tethered to words of affirmation, gratitude, people talking about these principles, giving you insight. Are you tethered to the next conspiracy, the next thing that you have to worry about, where you give your precious resource of attention to when it could be going to your new reality? Don't be a butthead. Your awareness, your attention, where's it going? Is it going to where you're tethered to and you're feeding it? You get wrapped around the pole, get whacked, and then you get unwound again, then you get wrapped around the pole and you're whacked, and you know that's what your life feels like. Gosh, you know it, and gosh, you're mad right now because you're like, those are words of truth, Tombo. You suck. I don't suck. I'm awesome, just so you can get that, and I'm awesome for you. I'm not awesome to be awesome. I'm awesome because I want my brothers and sisters everywhere to be free and living the best reality now, a reality of meaning and purpose. Settle for nothing less, you amazing person. Stop giving away your attention and focus unless that app is leading you in the right direction, and it actually can, but you got to have some attention around it. It's a tool. Why don't you use it for good instead of all the squandering and wasteful things that's happening right now? So yeah, this tethered podcast, when we get back, let's just tie a little to narcissism, okay? When you're a conspiracy theorist or a worrier, you find identity in that, and you find purpose and meaning, and the reason there are so many conspiracy theories is because too many people follow one person. It's like, wait, that's who I follow. You can't follow them because my identity is in them, and you can't have your same identity, so I got to follow this person, and then somebody says a conspiracy, and you say, oh, but have you heard this? The one up, right? Because your narcissism, you can feel better by the perception that you're better than the other person. Same with worry. Oh, I was so worried about them. I didn't eat for three days. Oh, well, I didn't eat for six, plus I didn't have coffee. Oh my gosh, that's incredible, but there was a time when I worried for two weeks. You understand you can be tethered to anything, and you can get meaning from anything, but there are always some things that are really healthy, and that's a life of meaning and purpose, and so you're giving all your energy to something, and you're actually creating the reality. I honestly believe if this world and the people in it will begin seeking a life of meaning and purpose, dealing with the dysfunction in their lives, the things that drive the appetites of the dysfunctional for child trafficking and for the sick things that are happening out there will disappear. It's like we fight it. We want to fight it with action. We fight it with imagination and emotion. We imagine a world without it. We put emotion to it. We feel what it's like, because this world in two senses is way more complex than we ever imagined on the conscious interaction with imagination and how that shapes reality, and way less involved in the physical manual, raising money and fighting child trafficking. We are conscious beings. We live in this quantum kingdom of heaven field, and we're divine, and we're just starting to understand that we're creating a reality, and so we're tethered to the programming that has come out there through the news that there is this stuff, this ugly stuff, and we're like, yeah, reinforcing that reality. Every one of you know the words that you spoke that are self-fulfilling reality, and they're mostly negative. See, this bad stuff always happens to me. I either have time, or I have money, and I'm not saying that these are words I've spoke, but I have nullified them, but these are words that you'll hear possibly yourself saying, I hope not, but you're tethering and creating reality, and you don't like it because if your reality sucks, guess what? There's some personal responsibility there. Oh boy, I think I'm in deep. My friends, I really do. I love you. I hope this lands well with you. If anything, things came to mind during this podcast. Do the work. Sit down. Be quiet. Untether yourself. Forgive yourself. Thank yourself. Thank those things for helping you during this time period. Give gratitude. Release them. Say, I no longer need you. You know the routine. Hey, I really, really love you, and if you get something from this podcast, share it with somebody, and if you see my post across Instagram and TikTok, if you give me a like, ah, just kind of as an attaboy for me. I don't need it because I do this here regardless, but everybody appreciates an attaboy, so I give one to myself. Attaboy Tommo. Thanks, dude. See you later. Bye, dude. Hey, hey, hey. I got you. Go do something radical. I do. I do. I do. I got you.