#88 - How Tommy Short went 365 days without a phone

Tommy Short  0:00  

My first thing is start ridiculously small, like if you've never gone without your phone, because statistics show that 57% of people that own a cell phone have not gone longer than 24 hours without touching their phone. Think about that. Start ridiculously small. Start for two minutes, right? Start for the first five minutes of your day, because 89% of people reach for their phone within the first 10 minutes of waking up. So if over 350 million people have smartphones, 310,000 - 20 million people are starting their day by reaching for their phone. I'm not saying completely abandoned work. What would happen if you just spent the first 10 minutes? What would happen if you just said, Hey, you know what? This next week, all I'm going to do is go five minutes without my phone and just sit and whatever comes good or bad, just write it down, just for five minutes, and then do that for a week or two. Just start so small.

Joey Odom  0:48  

Welcome back to the Aro podcast. Hey, it's your good friend, Joey Odom, co founder of Aro. And to kick things off, have you downloaded the Aro app yet? The Aro app is a totally new experience, and it is free to try. This is first ever to try Aro for free. You don't have to buy the box up front. You can experience Aro the platform itself, for free for seven days. Just go download the app on the Google Play Store or in the app store. You're going to love it. You're going to join 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of others who have done the exact same thing. Today on the show, we have somebody who did something absolutely insane. And you may think of all the crazy things you've done, maybe you've been a skydiver, maybe you have walked over burning coals. I don't know what you've done, something crazy like that. This guy is crushing you because he went 365 days without a phone. And when I say without a phone, I actually mean without a phone. He would travel and he didn't have a phone. He'd go to dinner. He didn't have a phone, he would go out on a walk. He didn't have a phone. Literally, no phone for 365 years. And it makes sense. And I rib mouth this a little bit. This was a professional basketball referee over 750 games on the NCAA level. He's a guy who is accustomed to doing uncomfortable things, but this was the biggest one of all. And Tommy short goes through his story. He goes through how the idea came to him on spending a year away from his phone, that conversation with his wife, of explaining it, the practicalities of what it was like to detach away from your phone, and then really the meat, like, what happened in the meantime? Because this was an open ended experiment. At the beginning, what would happen, and then he walks through. How did this impact his personal life? How did this impact his interactions with the people around him? How did this impact his focus? How did this impact his spiritual walk? This is a spiritual journey for him, and you're going to love this story. And the great news is, at the very, very end, he talks about what you can do today. In just a little sneak peek. I'm not going to tell you much more than this, but he does not tell you to get rid of your phone for a year. So there's the good news, but he's going to give some advice that may surprise you, especially in light of what he did. Tommy's a speaker, you can hear that motivation seeping from his pores. He is a fantastic communicator, and he's inspired us. I'm inspired right now on taking this massive step so that you don't have to he's working on a book about his experience, so be on the lookout for that next year, and I'm sure we'll have him back on before the book comes out. But for now, sit back, relax and enjoy my conversation with Mr. No phone. 365 himself. Tommy short gang, start your engines, because today, straight outta Indy, we have our very first Daredevil, and I don't mean a fake Daredevil like Evil Knievel. You see, this guy actually risked his life for a full year without a phone, but he's always been an animal, whether wearing zebra stripes on the basketball court or ferociously inspiring crowds from the stage. He wants you to do boring better. Find your 86 own your three foot circle, and go beyond the screen. He might be short in name, but he's long on motivation. Tomorrow. Him loves today's pain, and today you is going to love today's episode. Please join me in welcoming to the Aro podcast. Mr. No phone, 365 himself. It's Tommy. Short, Tommy, it's good to see you, brother.

Tommy Short  4:13  

Good to see you. Joey, after that introduction, I might have to have you just come on board to be my copywriter. That was, that was phenomenal.

Joey Odom  4:19  

I'll be your wingman, bro. I'll be your hype. Man.

Tommy Short  4:22  

Let's do it. Okay, let's do it.

Joey Odom  4:23  

Get it, get out in front of stage. Well, man, it's I'm excited to talk about this you and we'll go into it. But you did something that many would call lunacy, even for a guy like me who thinks about this all the time, you did something that was huge and bold, and I can't wait to talk about it, but first you did something that was very bold years ago. And I want to dig into this, because at any sporting event, half of the crowd does not like the official at any given moment. Yet you chose a career where you where you were an official and you were a basketball you did over seven. 750 games. I mean, you were, you were, you were on the sidelines next to Coach K and you did, you know all the NBA guys, so you've been on the scene in a big way. So tell me, how did, how did officiating, how did that become a career for you, and why did someone choose to be yelled at non stop for 40 minutes in a college basketball

Tommy Short  5:18  

game? Well, first of all, 50 you're right, 50% of the people didn't like me, but the other 50% still didn't like me, but they just liked me a little bit less because the call went in their favor. But let's be clear, it was not 5050, liking and not liking, right? Obviously, I've got a couple of screws loose to want to go on a basketball court, run up and down and get yelled at for two hours. But it really all started right around sixth grade. If there was a technical tracker for the most technicals in sixth grade basketball, your boy right here led the league. Not proud. But you know, I always appreciated the referees that were human, the referees that would come over and have a conversation, never agreed or liked what they had to say, but I appreciated that human approach. And it it wasn't just one conversation, Joey, but, uh, numerous conversations over the you know, 1112, years old, however old I was, and I just remember thinking to myself, That's what I want to do one day. I knew it. You know, five, nine, the NBA, from a playing standpoint, was probably out of the cards. But hey, how can I stay involved with this game. How can I just continue that? And how can I bring my love of basketball and this human connection, ironically enough, ties into our discussion today. But how can I merge those two? And so when a lot of kids had aspirations to make it to the NBA, I did as well. Only mine were on the playing court. So like you said, almost two decades, made it to division one Men's College, and then spent about five years traveling overseas, working with our international or, I mean, our Olympic basketball team. And just I often tell people it was really a PhD in human behavior. You know, how to make tough decisions, how to be a great teammate, how to block out the noise literally and figuratively, how to have tough conversations, how to when you know in your gut and in your heart It's the right thing to do, but as soon as you do that, you know it's just inviting just this rabid I call them idiots. You probably call them fans, down on top of you, right? And so that has. There's so many things from my basketball officiating days that correlate to not only what I did this past year, but just over my life, that has really set set me up for success based on what I was able to do running up and down a basketball court.

Joey Odom  7:29  

I have to assume you learn. You really do learn so many lessons, because it is I mean, as much as you know Bob Huggins may be screaming at you from the sidelines, you probably also have a relationship with Bob Huggins and Coach K and those guys know you by first name. And so in a way, it's, it's disagreeing with a certain decision, but then being able to maintain a relationship, knowing you're going to see each other again and again and again, right? So it's, there's a lot you to your point. There has to be a lot of of kind of microcosms of just human relationships and how those things go when it comes to a heated moment.

Tommy Short  8:01  

I'll share a quick story. It was a conversation during the summer, as you mentioned in your wonderful intro, here in in the suburbs of Indian so I would referee a lot of Butler practices, and IU during during the summer to as they got ready. It was a chance for us to get ready too. And I remember one conversation with Brad Stevens back when he was the coach, just personally, as a young official, I was like, hey, help me understand. How can I have a conversation with you or other coaches right now? And it's so cordial off the court, because, you know, just for clarity, you know, the relationship was within the confines of the game. It's not like, you know, we're texting and calling in the summers, but you know, help me understand what it is that during a game, like, all bets, all bets are off, and everyone turns into a different animal. And he was like, you know, Tommy, have you ever really thought about what, what it is that that we go through? And I'll tell you, Joey, this was like the best, most profound empathy lesson. I mean, there's like, empathy 101, and two. This was like a PhD course in empathy. And he was like, you know, just think about what we have to do leading up to a game. So we've got to listen, you know, we have to answer to our athletic director, the president. We have media obligations. We have apparel obligations. You know, a lot of times when we coach, it's really just 20% coaching, because I've got to get my assistant coaches ready for the next game or the next game. And if I'm not coaching, I'm out recruiting, you know, 13 to 18 year olds. And then I've got to, you know, not babysit, but basically monitor the kids on my team during the week, make sure they're going to class, make sure they're being an upstanding system. So he's listing all these things off. And he was like, and so then I got to take all of that. Now I've got to compartmentalize all that in the confines of the court so that when you make a bad call. It's not because I'm mad at you. It's just, it's the stripes you just happen to, you know, If Joey was wearing the stripes, or Bill was wearing the stripes, or whoever's wearing the stripes. So it's not personal, but that's just kind of the outlet. And knowing that a win here could escalate a contract, which then will extend a contract, which means you can stay. In your house for a couple years because, you know, coaches like officiating, and no different than, like a musician, it's like, doing all these small gigs in hopes that you can, one day, you know, get to the big stage. So that was, I share that story all the time, that was like the best, because then it was like, oh, okay, when you get mad during a game, it's not, you're not mad at Tommy the ref, you're you're mad at the striped shirt. And so I was separate. I was able to separate the who from the do, because I used to, I used to think it was personal if, if Joey's coaching and he's yelling at me, oh my gosh, she doesn't like me. Well, regardless if you like me or not, you're just yelling at the striped shirt. Now, if you take it personal and take it to another level, that's a different discussion, and there's ways to handle that, but that, from that moment on, it completely changed my trajectory. And now even when I see people, you know, my first thought is like, what's going on in their life? Like, if someone's going to take the time, whether it's on social media and make a negative comment or a bad comment, or even in person to, like, yell at a Starbucks employee, it's like, it's not, hey, look at this person, what, look what they're doing. It's like, man, what's going on in their life that that would cause them to do that. So it's, it completely changed my perspective of interacting and just having a conversation with someone. Man,

Joey Odom  11:08  

it's so true. I mean, it goes back to the old and we could say it every day, every day of our lives, and just that everybody's fighting a battle you know nothing about. So you just got to be kind. And even if you're, even if you're calling a foul on their guy, or whatever it is, you, it's still that that kindness is so key. I'm curious. We can cut this if you don't have one. Do you have any good like, the best fan comment towards you ever? Like the best someone yelled something out, and you all you had yelled something out. You kind of had to, like, chuckle a little bit. Did you ever have a really great one? Yeah. So

Tommy Short  11:38  

there was, there was one time, specifically I want to say I was at Marshall University at a game, and there was a guy just kind of ribbing me up and down the court. And you know, one time he was he was like, Come on, man, call it both ways. And I was like, hold on. You want me to call fouls on your team too, and the other team? He's like, Well, no, no, no, I don't want that. I'm like, Well, you just said call it both ways. And so, you know, I go down the court and come back and and then he stands up and he's like, Hey, that's a travel Come on. And so we go into a media timeout, and I went over there, and I had a you have to be careful, especially towards it, because I retired in 2020 you had to be careful what you said. Just because of social media, people have their phone out. They could clip out the whole funny interaction, and then they just get and this has happened to many of my friends. So I was really cautious, especially towards the end of my career. I didn't want to say anything, right? Because you just never know where it ends up. But so I go over to that same individual, and he stands up, and we're kind of going back and forth, all cordial, and I said, Hey, do you want to know the rule for travel, or do you want to sound like the rest of these idiots and just yell travel? And he just kind of looked at me, and I'm like, hey, the next time you before you yell travel, you have to yell out, which foot is the pivot foot, so unless I hear it right or left, you're not allowed to yell travel. And he just kind of looked at me and he was like, I don't have anything to say, right? Like, he What is he gonna say? I'm like, I always said, if you want to curb, like, all the issues with youth sports, make all the parents referee at least five games, and they have to pass a rules test every year. I can promise you, they they're not going to want to refer you five games. They'll get to about two or three, and they're like, all right, I'm done. And those, those two things would probably curb about 95% of the problems we have in youth sports as it relates to both the confidence with the kids, how the parents interact, and then just the interaction with sports officials.

Joey Odom  13:19  

Amazing. I love it. Yeah, you figure out. A lot of people think they're geniuses in the stands until they until they understand what the actual rules are. So Tommy, I would as a quick segue into no phone 365, because the story is fascinating. I think the takeaways you have from and the experience you had is even more fascinating. But, but after, after you got out of officiating, you've been doing motivational speaking, inspirational speaking, and you have so many really, really great principles. You're very good at taking complex thoughts and issues and kind of synthesizing them down even into just a phrase. And one of the phrases that you say, that I'd love for you to talk about a little bit is do boring better. And I think this is going to tie into the no phone 365 but will you talk to us a little bit about that principle of doing boring better? I mentioned a little bit in the intro. I'd love for you to unpack that for us for a minute.

Tommy Short  14:12  

I wish I could say, Joey, that this was a stroke of creative genius, genius. It was actually the first time I ever spoke when I started my business three years ago, and the first group, or the group, was asking some some questions. And one of the first questions was, hey, as as you look back at your officiating career, understanding you had a, you know, pretty successful career relative, you know, in the world of officiating, what would you attribute? And this was, you know, speaking to a sales team, what would you attribute your success to? I success to? And, you know, I just started listing things off, Joey, I prioritized nutrition, I prioritized sleep, exercise. I was in the rule book every day. I was watching film every day. I just listed off about eight or 10 things. And I kind of the closing comment was, I guess I was just. Better at doing the boring things than other officials. Fast forward, I, you know, as a true film junkie and just performer like, Hey, what did I do? Well, what can I do better? And how can I translate that? And I sorry, I kept thinking about that last statement. I guess I was just better at doing boring things. And I'm like, I bet that's a really cool, like, website. And so I'm like, do boring better.com I'm like, You gotta be kidding me, I can get this for like, 399 on godaddy for like, five years. I'm like, well, I'll buy that. And I'm like, Well, I bet somebody, like, trademarked it. That's that's got to be a really cool, like, you know, slogan or trademark. And I'm sure there's a ton of shirts and it wasn't trademarked. And so I was like, I had a couple of other ideas. You mentioned a couple own your three foot circle tomorrow. Me loves today's pain. And I was like, hey, look, I can, I can unpack these from the world of officiating, but there's so many other correlations to just life, whether you're a performer, whether you're a business owner, whether you're whatever it is. And so for me, do boring better is how you look at the things that create success, and maybe even have you taken the time to define success on your own? One of the biggest things when I used to do one on one executive coaching, that was the first question I asked, is like, and these are all successful six and seven figure earners, and I would just say, Hey, what's your definition of success? Not what your parents told you, not what your siblings told you, not what your mentors told you, have you even defined success? Because my finding was people were just chasing this because somebody else was, which is fine if that's what you want, but have you taken the time to define success? And so do boring better is just doing the things. It's not success is not about one big flash in the pan. It's about the boring things consistently day in and day out. And then you realize when you look at the boring things, those are actually the things that can become fun if you treat it that way, and that's how you get ahead in whatever walk of life you're in. So for me, it's like in business and life and officiating just by doing the boring things better than others, because others aren't willing to do those boring things, because if they weren't boring, everyone would be doing. Man,

Joey Odom  17:01  

that's so true. It really is. And that's that, that that is the key, and no one wants to hear it. Everybody probably knows it. So this, what's interesting about even just that phrase, and I think this, this is pretty illustrative of the power of words, is that everybody knows it, and it's sometimes it's like, we need to hear it again, but we need to hear it in a way that's so understandable. And if you can even that's just like a little just like a little mantra, you can say to yourself, if you find yourself in a moment doing something that you know you should to get better, but that might just not be that much fun, even just that statement to yourself, do boring better. Do boring better. Do boring better. I really, really like that. And so you have a knack for making things simple, and you're at that that segues into into no phone 365, and I want you to explain that, but even before the idea came to you and we I want to hear that story. But before that, will you tell me about early last year? So this is we're talking 2023 that the all the time, the months leading up to when you had this idea to spend a year, literally a year without a phone. What was the tension you were feeling like? What was, what was the stuff that you were feeling that eventually kind of coalesced into an idea and a lifestyle for a year? But what was that tension you were feeling? What did life look like? Then I'll

Tommy Short  18:21  

tell you a very it was two books and one conversation. So the conversation is summer last summer. So summer of 2023, at the time, our four year old comes up to me and is like, Daddy, why are you always on your phone? Now keep in mind, this wasn't a Tuesday at 1pm this was a Saturday during the day, and like, what, what was so important on the phone at that single time? And it was, like, that was the first, like, she said that right there was this, this rush of shame and guilt and, like, it probably wasn't even anything important. That just shows you, I can't even remember what I was doing, so that just shows you right there of how little it was. So, you know, you put the phone away, and then that, that kind of just lingers with you, of like, man, is this? Is this a problem? Like, is this something I need to address? So, you know, like a lot of things in life, you think about something, but you look at the calendar and you've got to go on to the next thing, whatever that is, right, picking up the kids, work, your spouse, you know, whatever it is. And then, just as an avid reader, two of the last books I read right before I went into this or the idea came to me was digital minimalism by Cal Newport and the ruthless elimination of hurry son, Mark comer, yeah, what

Joey Odom  19:33  

a guy.

Tommy Short  19:34  

Those are the last two books I read, right? So it's that conversation just to happen. You know, those books were just kind of up next. Those books were speaking to me at that point in my life. And then, you know, I'll segue into it was, I'd have to look back at the exact date, Joey, but it was like late June. I had a rule ever since I retired from officiating because of many sleepless nights and watching film as I'm trying to go to sleep. And, you know, Monday morning quarterback. I could have done this different. I could have handled that conversation different. I just made a personal rule after I retired in 2020 that when I put my head on my pillow, if I'm not able to fall asleep, and it's not like I have a stopwatch, but I give myself about five minutes, and if I'm still counting sheep or thinking about tomorrow, I physically get up and I do one of two things. I come downstairs and I will actually write with a pen and paper. I know it's a weird thing, not on a computer or pick up a physical book. I know again, another it's not a Kindle, it's not, you know, a digital reader, which I have, but And so I tried to go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. And the idea popped in my head, what if you gave up your phone for a year? And I'm like, that is the dumbest idea I've ever heard of like in 2023 who gives up their phone, right? I'm like, I just started my business two years ago. Wife, two young kids, dealing with some health issues with my folks, and so a bunch of other like this. If nobody else takes anything else away Joey from from my year, and hearing about my story, to just realize there is never, and I again, this is you've never you've heard this before. There's never a perfect time to do anything like I could be the national spokesman for there's never a perfect time to do something. Yet went into this challenge, I thought about it for about three weeks. I logistically wanted to go through, okay, how would this work? I've got a wife, I've got a business. How am I going to talk to clients? How am I going to talk to prospects? What's going to happen if the kids are at school and they need to be picked like so there were so many logistical things, and then it was probably said it to my wife, probably like, mid July, and I decided to start it on August 6 for a bunch of different reasons. 86 was the jersey number that I got invited to try out for the NBA. That didn't work out. That's a big number for me, August, 6, 8/6. Is the day that I started my company. So it was like going to be the anniversary. So I just said, Hey, if I wait till January, one of two things is going to happen. A lot of excuses are going to come in because I'm just going to procrastinate. Or, honestly, it was a little parent I was paranoid, a little bit a little bit of scarcity mindset. What if somebody else hears about this idea and they started in like, September, and then I want to start it in January. And now I'm, you know, five months behind the eight ball. So I, I started August 6 of 2023 and went a full year. And just to clarify for your audience, I didn't have a flip phone. I didn't go from like an iPhone to the light phone, which I've ordered, by the way, I just went all in, no landline, and, you know, happy to discuss some of the logistical challenges. But it was, it was a big step. But I think too often we we don't pursue a big vision in the future because of little inconveniences in the present. So we might have this big vision, and we might have this, Hey, I wonder if, what if I could do this, and then we get so overwhelmed that we're like, Man, I just, I don't even know what to do on day one. It's like, we'll just do something. And then, you know, every decision is not going to be right or wrong. It's just some are going to be better than others. So just do what do do that day? Look back at the day, Hey, did I like that? Did I not like that? What can I iterate and then, and then keep going. And so for me, it was just like, I'm going to go all in. The only thing I really knew when starting was I want to write a book, and I'll keep my family and friends updated with a blog. And other than that, I'm just going to be open to everything, still going to run my business and let the chips fall where they may. Wow you.

Joey Odom  23:46  

So it's one thing to and you really just went into some of this, but just thinking for myself, it's one thing to have a crazy idea. I have a lot of those crazy ideas, but it really is. I'm thinking about that period of time, even three weeks, certainly, if you'd wait until January, absolutely, the idea is gone. But the, you know, the the multiple week period up until August, 6, I'm interested that you didn't talk yourself out of that. I think that you would like, it would be so easy to to find a way out of that. I would love to hear what was your wife's response to this. Like, what was, I'm sure your daughters were pumped, but, like, what was your wife's response to this, to this crazy idea you had? Well,

Tommy Short  24:27  

I'll start with the girls. So the how they I think I told them, but how it really, like, hit home was about six months in, when my five year old was like, Hey, can we listen to Taylor Swift? And I was like, remember, daddy doesn't have a phone in the car. Was she wanna listen to, she's like, we need you don't have your phone. Like, you always have a phone. So that was, that was a funny interaction, you know, obviously my wife, you know, wasn't on board, right? Like, she's like, how are we gonna, how are we gonna do this with the kids? And, you know, if I need something, if you go to the store, and so just, you know, all the logistical things, and that's really what I. Spent that three weeks before. You know, thinking through this is like, Okay, I understand that. It's gonna it's gonna impose a lot of inconveniences on you, on friends, on family. I understand that. But I think you know at a certain point in life, if you're always concerned what either other people are gonna think about your decisions or, Hey, how is Joey going to feel if I do this, I think we limit our untapped potential, because we're always going to be looking around and thinking like, what does he think? What does she think? What? And so just it made me be really intentional with my wife, because one of the other things when I started my business, and this comes from years on the court, like I didn't just have email open throughout the day to use as a form of text message. Because when I started my business, my shutdown routine is I use email at the end of the day, so I block off an hour and that's when I respond. Because the reality is, and I understand, and I've made this very clear, and it will be in the book, I have zero expectations that anybody turns their phone off for a year, a month, a week or a day. That is, I would be the old man on the porch screaming, get off my lawn if I came out. And that would be tone deaf, like I don't. But how many of us, either, if you just look at the statistics, like 80 to 85% of people aren't engaged or enjoy their job. So one of the big conversations I had with people when they said this, when they heard about this, was work. I couldn't do that for my job. Now, not everybody I met needs their phone for their job. That's just statistically impossible. And that's the first thing. And the second thing is 85% of people don't even like their job. So did I only talk to people who are just fired up and like, so it was just this gentle conversation with people and really, like, Hey, you say you couldn't do that for your job. I'm gonna ask a tough question. Do you just prefer? Prefer the convenience and comfort of your current job that provides a great living for your family, which is fine over the little inconveniences in the present. To realize, hey, there's plenty of other ways to provide for my family, I might have to take a couple steps back, but am I even doing something I want to I want to pursue? So it was just the biggest thing was the intentionality and getting people to understand, like, I'm not doing this for anything tangible. There's nothing tangible that I'm seeking by going through this. It's all in what would the original thought, the original motive behind this was, after years of being attached to it and always on it, what would happen if I put it away, and I was 100% intentional and present with every interaction I had, whether it was work, whether it was at church, whether it was with family and friends, like whatever the situation my kids, what would happen? And if that was basically the only rule, the only motive behind it, and then let's just see what happens. And that was really how the whole year progressed, and so many different highs and lows, but it was all about just what would happen if I was present in every single interaction.

Joey Odom  27:49  

And I love that just just open ended. I mean, the result of this is, we're going to hear about a lot of the takeaways, but the result is going to be a book from it, and I mean, to have that much substance from an original question of, what would happen just open ended, will you tell us really quickly about you mentioned some of the practicalities. How are you going to manage the practicalities of being away from your phone? Will you tell us about that, like, how actually did you manage those logistical items in the practicalities? And then, will you tell us about, kind of, the detached period, and what that felt like when you were all of a sudden, you were kind of, you know, to go back to the to go back to the Daredevil example, you're on a tie rope without a net below you. So how would what, how did you handle the logistical items, and what did the detached season feel like for you?

Tommy Short  28:33  

Yeah, so the logistical was, you know, just hey, you know, talking with the wife, because as a speaker, there are times when I'm doing a half day workshop where I might be flying somewhere. So there's, there's going to be times throughout the week where I'm off the grid for three or four hours, if I'm doing a half day workshop or flying or whatever. So it wasn't like I haven't experienced that, that timeframe. So just being really intentional with my wife, like, look, you know, here's my schedule today. You know, I'm gonna plan on picking up the girls if, for some reason, something happens, because another thing, I didn't travel with my phone, so I didn't have it in my phone, if, God forbid, you know, I got a flat tire. Because my whole, my whole thing with my wife was I'm not gonna, if I need to call someone, I'm not gonna come to you, and you're gonna be my secretary. I put myself in this situation. So whatever happens, I need to figure it out. And I'll give you a very specific example that your audience will find humorous. About three days in one thing I never thought about Joey was two step authentication. So I'm on my Chase website. On the chase website, going to pay a credit card bill, and it says, I want to, I'll send a text, or you can call this number now, I very easily could have gone in the kitchen or, you know, if my wife was home at that time and said, Hey, Andrea, can you call Chase? But I was like, I put myself in this. I'm gonna go figure it out. So I spent three and a half hours at Chase that day proving who I was and so, and there was another example where I had a haircut scheduled, I showed up and they're like, Hey, we tried to call and text. Couldn't get ahold of you. Molly's sick. So I was like, I'll reschedule. I went back two days later. Bottle. Molly was still sick. I'm like, Oh, this is, this is gonna make Oh, yeah. And so then, you know, is the third. I basically had three haircuts scheduled within like a 72 hour period. But my whole thing was, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be toes in the water with this. I'm not gonna just carry my phone off in case something happens. Because one of my other kind of hypothesis going in was, I think too often, what if becomes the rule and not the exception. Because I thought about, hey, what if this goes wrong? What if I get a flat tire? What if I'm with the girls? What if a bit but guess what, and thank God, nothing terrible happened. I mean, there was, you know, a couple things that we figured out, but I think too often we let that that negative. What if become the the rule and not the exception? What if nothing goes wrong, and this is the most transformative year of my life, right? Let's

Joey Odom  30:48  

hear about the the that initial detachment whenever you you started to realize, Oh, crap, like, I don't have a phone for all these little things like, what did, not necessarily even the logistics of that piece, but more the feelings beneath it. What were, what were the things that began you felt began to emerge as you were detaching from your phone.

Tommy Short  31:05  

I love this question, because there's no other point in my life where I would get in the car and feel two opposite ends of the spectrums, as far as feelings, I'll explain. I would get in the car and it was the most freeing feeling in the world, knowing that there was not a human being in the world that could get a hold of me if they wanted to. On the other end, it was the most lonely feeling in the world, knowing that if something happened, I have no way of calling 911, getting a hold of somebody, so just a lot of time. I've never really done this before, but even just turning the radio off and just being in my thoughts and just, hey, you know, whatever comes up, just sit in those thoughts. As opposed to, you know, a good friend of mine refers to the phone as the adult pacifier, and he says that, you know, you know, as kids, when our kids, our babies, are sick or tired or hungry or cranker or we don't even know, we just give them a pacifier. Well, as adults, if we're bored, if we don't want to have a tough conversation, if thoughts start to come up that we're like, Ooh, that's a little, you know, that makes me a little uncomfortable. We just pull out our phone if we're you know, one of my big takeaways was we're just bored being bored. We don't know how to be bored anymore. You know, if we're sitting in line at Starbucks, or we're waiting for a meeting to start, or we're having lunch with someone, and they get up, we can't even sit with ourselves for two minutes. We gotta pull out our phone and just swipe and so for me, it was just this feeling. I thought going in Joey, my hypothesis was it would be similar to a marathon. If any of your listeners have ever ran a marathon, they say kind of the first five miles, it's just this euphoria. You're so excited. It's the honeymoon stage. Then really, miles six to, like, 22 you find out who you are because it's, it's just, it's the middle, right? Like, it's the suck, it's the boring part. Nobody wants to be in that long stretch. And then, you know, you get to, like, mile 22 on, it's like, you kind of see the the finish line. But for me, I had the honeymoon stage. The middle wasn't so so tough. It was really, like the last 60 days that mentally were the toughest for me, which was surprising, and I think really for a couple of reasons. One, it was like, what's going to happen when I go back right? Like, because so many transformational things, one of the unintended benefits was it taught me to be more resourceful. There were just situations I was in, whether it's you're in another city, you can't just pull out your phone and get Uber you got to figure out how to get to where you're going. I was one of the people that still looks up at the monitors in an airport, because I didn't have a phone to check what gate my plane was at or if it was even on time. But it just allowed me to not only be more resourceful, but to really just, you know, we our society, our culture, is just like we want it now, right? Like the microwave, I want that 32nd fix. And it's like, hold on, what if I just sat with this? You know, I don't, I don't. I don't have time to just come out and scroll. It's like, why am I feeling this? What? What? Why is that thought coming up? So for me, it was just really sitting in that period, and that last 60 days was like, hey, it's kind of the unknown you've gone through this. What? What was it worth it? What do you hope others to take away from it? You know, what areas of your life you and I were talking before this? Like, as much as this was a year about going without a phone, this year really had nothing to do with the phone. It really transformed all areas of my life. Some still have work to do. It's a work in progress, but it's I go back to. It's not the tangible thing. It's who I can become, as a husband, as a dad, as a speaker, as a writer that I don't know if I would have been able to arrive at that place. And it's, it's a destination. It's not just a, I mean, it's a journey. It's just not a destination. I don't know if I would have been able to get there without going through this. Will

Joey Odom  34:51  

you take us a little bit deeper on those you've talked there three areas you've highlighted, and I'm sure there, there are lots of not to oversimplify, but you've talked in the areas of personal growth. Think of focus and then authentic human connections. What did you kind of dovetailing with the last answer, will you go a little bit deeper on those things, those really, like deep things that you did discover in the process? And it could be in those three categories, it could be in others.

Tommy Short  35:15  

Yeah. So the first, really, the first was that you realize, and this is just me, specifically, you realize how much people use email, or want to use email as like a as a text messaging messaging service. And it also brought awareness that, for me, that sometimes we let other people's quote, unquote emergencies become our priorities, and that's not a shot at other people. It's just what's so important to them. That's okay. But that doesn't necessarily have to be my most important thing. Number two, I realized, because I was in the camp of people checking their phone 144 times a day, I was in the camp of at least four and a half hours. I was in the camp of that was the first thing I reached for when I wake up. So for me, it was just, it was the grounding and the be able the the ability to set the day, to set the tone, where it's like I don't have and now, yeah, could I have come and just turned on the laptop? Yeah. But the reason I didn't do that was because I wanted the full experience. So it wasn't just, hey, I don't have a phone. Let me go do the laptop. It was hey, let me ground my day and actually get it started, so that, however the day might progress, I don't want to start with a text message or an email from a client that now that dictates how the rest of my day is going to go. As far as the authentic connection. Let's say you and I were grabbing lunch, right? I think in the past, not I think I know in the past, you might have mentioned a book or a podcast episode or something, and in the moment, I would have just pulled out my phone and looked at it like mid conversation and not thought anything of it for me, what it made me realize, if we discussed five of those things, 10 things during lunch when I got home, in front of my computer, Maybe I would have looked up one of those things. And I just think, like, we tell ourselves that all these things are important throughout the day, and it's not that they're important. It's just it's filling that space. And we're always looking to, like, fill space, because we don't know how to sit in silence. And so for me, it was, there was so many times Joey that it was, it would just be sit there, no headphones, no music. I'm not on my computer. I'm just going to sit with a piece of paper and a pen and whatever comes I'm just going to write good, bad. There's, there's no label. Just sitting with that that really helped increase my awareness. I always thought I was fairly self aware as an official but just You're so aware when you're in public, and you see how often people are just straining their neck and looking down, and I had to catch myself through a mentor. I went through a stage of heavy judgment where I would be at the point of that, I would be at the park with my girls, and I would see a dad, and I wanted to go over and just hit the phone out of his hand, but I had to just Okay, the reason that's getting me so fired up is because that's who I was, that's what I was doing. And the only reason that I it's even drawing my attention is because I was there and I noticed that no different than when I watch a college basketball game, I'm so in tune with the referee, because that's what I used to do. And so is this. It was this awakening of realizing, like, hey, the reason that's upsetting you is because that's what you used to do. And then back to the empathy, like, I don't know he could be trying to figure out. The reality is he probably wasn't, but I was giving people the benefit of doubt. Maybe he's talking with his wife of who's picking up dinner. Maybe he's, you know, there could be a litany of things. So don't, don't jump to this conclusion. So I would say that in the authentic connection piece. And then, you know, the last piece is that the phone really was in all these buckets of my life. It was really a magnifying glass. And so for me, it was the things that maybe had been sitting on the bottom, the things that maybe were trying to come up to the surface. But by having a phone out, it pushed everything down. It really allowed me, okay, let's sit and because we all go through this, all do that when right, whether it's thinking about our next idea or our next hobby we want to pursue or what. But then life gets in the way, right? Parents, kids, work, sports, whatever it is. But this really gave me the opportunity. I told someone, you know, just based on the average four and a half hours a day that the average American spends on their phone, which I was guilty of, I essentially got 68 extra days in 2023 and 24 man. Now it was up to me, what did, what am I going to do with it? Am I going to just waste it away, or am I going to am I going to be intentional? And then the last thing I'll say about the authentic connection, and this is a new, very tactical way that all the listeners can imply as soon as they hear this. I just thought two things. One, what if I was so intentional before entering any conversation? So whether it's talking with you on this podcast, before I walk on stage to speak, before my kids come home. Home. So the question that I used as a reference, and then I'll I'll share the reference point despite how I feel, and that's very important, because too often we let our feelings dictate our actions. So I always started the reference off with, despite how I feel, how would the best insert whatever you're about to do, do this, whatever I was about to do. So, despite how I feel, wife and kids just came home, how would the best husband and dad show up right now, despite how I feel, how would the best speaker show up on a podcast interview, despite how I feel, how but and then my reference point was every time I walk through a doorway. So think about it, if you go through, how many doorways Do we go through in a day, at least 100 go into the bathroom, out of the bathroom, in your car, out of the car, into Starbucks, out of Starbucks, into a meeting, out of a meeting, into my office, out of my office. So every time a doorframe was a reminder to me to reference that question, to be intentional with every conversation I showed up to not just because my feet are there and my mind is 15 other places, thinking about the next meeting or what I have, it was just using the doorframe and then whatever conversation I was walking into, or interaction, despite how I feel, how would the best dot, dot, dot, show up today? And that was the biggest thing from a connection standpoint, to really be intentional and to be where my feet are.

Courtney Carrigan  41:23  

Well, and I do want to make the point that it has improved the quality, the quality and quantity, I would say, of our family time together. Our family time together during the week, Monday through Friday is so very limited. I do work full time outside the home. You know, our son is in a little like two day a week preschool program, which is wonderful, but, you know, while we work, we are obviously not together as a family. We get home in the evenings, and our time together usually starts around five or 530 with dinner, and we're getting him ready for bed between 730 and 8pm I mean, he's two years old, so it still goes to bed pretty early, and mornings are a little hectic, trying to get everybody ready and out the door, so those few hours that we have together in the evening are really special. We don't want to take those for granted, and we feel like Auro has helped us just make that time more intentional. We

Joey Odom  42:15  

love hearing stories from the RO community. The one you just heard actually comes from our voices of aro episodes where I sit down with ro members and they share about their stories and their lives with Auro. Make sure to check out the voices of ro episodes, and if you remember who would like to share your own story with Auro, please email us at stories@goro.com

Hmm, do you think the people on the other side of you so the your very close friends, your daughters, your wife? Do you think that they would say, obviously, there were some logistical items with with your wife that probably put some extra strain on her when it came to the connection between the two of you and the connection with your daughters. Do you believe you did see fruit in those, in those most important relationships in your life?

Tommy Short  42:59  

I would say yes, and I would say that it's still in process, right? There's still things that are are I'm working through in both of those relationships. But like I've said, As I look back on this year, this year will be the mark on timeline for however long I'm I'm here on this earth as the catalyst for the progress in each of those relationships. This will be the point.

Joey Odom  43:25  

It's got to almost have this that. Have you had this feeling, like, like, almost like, a feeling of fear on the other side of, like, holy crap, what if I wouldn't have done that? Have you thought about that? Have you thought about the alternative? What would, what would Tommy's life have looked like over by the way, we're recording seven days after you finish. So we're August 13 on the recording here. So if you had a moment there yet where you think, what would that would have it just, you've just been a an observer to your own life. What do you think that year would have looked like otherwise,

Tommy Short  43:56  

okay? And just like every other year, it just, you know, there would have been some good things that happened. There would have been, I think what this year did is probably took 10 to 15 years, and I won't know the answer this for many years to come. I think what it took maybe 1015, maybe even 20 years of growth shrunk that down into this time frame and just escalated the growth in that timeframe. Because the reality is, to your point, you know, you sit back and you're like, alright, if I'm writing right now, this book wouldn't have come out about the year long journey so that, like, that's the one specific thing, how I approach conversations. I wouldn't have thought about that. I wouldn't have been as intentional about that, because too often we're just, we're going through what we're going through to get to the next thing. We all are right, like, it's just we're going through this to get to that. And so it was like, I don't even, like, you know, I often say, like, one of the things that came away from this is like, again, and this is nothing that's like, earth shattering, yeah, Tommy, we all know that. But don't wait for tomorrow, because tomorrow's only three. Things, an assumption, a concept, and not guaranteed. And so how often do I just think, like, I'll do that tomorrow. I'll do that when the girls are older. I mean, that was one of the things I thought about. What if I just did this when the girls are out of school? That's 1516, years from now, right? Like, how do I even know what's going to happen in those 16 years? So for me, it was, I would have been the regret would have been higher than any potential outcome, and I wasn't willing to let regret way down the scale of opportunity for me, because I, I'm not against, and, like, one of the things I mentioned in the like, I have nothing against the use of cell phone, what I what I am against is burdening regret that may or may not surface for many years to come. That's what I'm against. I'm not against cell phone use, but I'm against head down, scrolling mindlessly and not realizing what's passing us by, and we're just doing it because either we've always done it or We've never taken time to think about what's the alternative,

Joey Odom  45:58  

man, that's good. There is a, I'd love for you to talk about this for a moment. There is a, there's a spiritual element this to this as well. You're a person of faith. And many people listening are as well. I am as well. And in fact, we're, we think there's a huge correlation with faith in our phones. And in fact, for those of you go, go check out digital fast 2020, five.com this is something we're launching with Darren Whitehead, and think media on on launching a digital fast in early 2025 and we talked about a little bit about this off air, but I would love to hear that was maybe a surprise for you. Is the spiritual journey you went on as well. Will you talk a little bit about that and how maybe surprising, how your phone intersected with your spiritual life.

Tommy Short  46:41  

Yeah. So for context, I used to, you know, as an entrepreneur, I would have a daily habit of, you know, the one or two calls I would have a day, those would always be outside and just just walking. And I always appreciated that. And I'm like, Well, I'm not going to have calls anymore, but I don't want to lose that aspect, because that just really helps with mental clarity and just to get out in nature so I can remember very specifically, even the walk about two weeks into this, but even before going into this, because I said earlier in the interview that this was my idea, but I quickly realized, like I didn't come up with this idea. Like this idea was given to me, but I honestly thought just going in, like I wanted to write a book, I want to be intentional with conversations. And as a speaker, I was, like, doing research. I'm like, wow, it's kind of cool. There's no other speaker in the world that, as of seven days ago, has the experience of going a full year without a cell phone. So that kind of gives me a little feather in my cap of having a unique unfair advantage. But that was, that was all I thought about this experiment. So I'm going on a walk about two weeks in, and I just very, very clearly remember thinking, this has nothing to do with a cell phone. I'm like, well, that's kind of weird. Like I'm giving up a cell phone for a year. Like, this is all about giving up a cell phone. And the second thing was, this wasn't your idea this. This came from a higher power. I'm like, Well, I've always believed in God, but that's kind of weird, because nobody else was in my bedroom when I fell asleep, you know, other than, other than my wife, like, and she was sleeping. So who else gave me the idea? And the third thing was, and this, to be clear, these were all from God. The third thing was, I'm always talking, but are you always listening? And it was like, wow, whoa, okay. Like, never even thought about that because, you know, as an official I would have told you that all my success and all the things I achieved that was because of what I did. And then it quickly became apparent, like, yeah, I didn't, I didn't just achieve all that on my own. Like it was, he was allowing me to see, taste and feel success, and then still realize, okay, maybe there's something else out there. Maybe there's something else out there besides just telling my friends or family like, hey, my game is going to be on ESPN tonight. Tune in. It's like, okay, is that? Is that what life is all about? Just to have that short bit of pride and ego boost to be able to tell people like, Hey, you can watch me at work. So those are really, like, the three transformational things early on in the journey that what started as this cute little experiment, hey, I'm going a year without my phone, completely transformed into this deep, spiritual journey that was one of the, not one of the most transformational years of my life, that I know, things that happened during this year, that I unpacked, that I sat with, will stick with me for the rest of my life, and will completely change not only how I interact, but how I live life and inspire others to do the same. And again, it has nothing to do with a phone. I like. I'm here to tell people, we all have a phone, right, like you and I were talking before, and a phone can be whatever you say is your number one priority, but nobody else sits in a room and it's just you and your thoughts. And you can say, my kids are my priority, or you can say work is a priority. Or you can whatever you say is your priority, but you sit down and you look at your calendar, your checkbook, and just you're being real. Yourself, my gut is what you say is your number one priority probably isn't, and it's not to come from a place of pointing and shame and judgment. It's just like, if that's what you truly want to be your priority, that's fine, but only you can decide that, and you're the only one that's really going to care what your priority is. Is that what you want it to be. And so for me, it's what's your phone, what's the thing that you say is not your number one priority, but in reality, is probably the number one priority in your life.

Joey Odom  50:30  

Man, there's a lot there. What's cool about that is that that spiritual journey will continue on and just continue on have reverberating effects, not just in you, but in your marriage and your kids lives and the people around you, you've given confidence to others to take steps from people listening here. So most people, I'm just going to venture a guess, most people listening are not going to go for a year without their phone. So how do we take this experience that probably isn't relatable, because we're not going to do it, but put it in terms that we can, we can relate to on an everyday basis. How should we be thinking as people who want to be present and intentional, which my suspicion is, everybody listening today wants that for themselves. So how should we be thinking about it, and how should, how should someone today, how can they start to put legs on this for themselves? What's, what's the next step they can take in order to live more authentically, live more presently, without necessarily that constant toggle of their phone.

Tommy Short  51:28  

My first thing is, start ridiculously small. Like, start so small that so opposite of you correct, yeah, yeah. Start so small that that you would laugh at, like, if you've never gone without your phone, because statistics show that 57% of people that own a cell phone have not gone longer than 24 hours without touching their phone. Think about that, sure, right? So start ridiculously small. Start for two minutes, right? Start for the first five minutes of your day, because 89% of people reach for their phone within the first 10 minutes of waking up. So if over three, 50 million people have smartphones, three, 10,000,003 20 million people are starting their day by reaching for their phone. I'm not saying completely abandoned work. What would happen if you just spent the first 10 minutes? Right? What would happen if you just said, Hey, you know what? This next week, all I'm going to do is go five minutes without my phone and just sit and whatever comes good or bad, just write it down just for five minutes, and then do that for a week or two. But we you're not going to go from being on your phone five hours to something insane, like me, like going 365 days. There's tremendous benefits, but just start so small, and then the second thing I would say is have time for yourself that you set boundaries whatever they are, because most of the times, we don't have boundaries or non negotiables. So maybe it's just hey, this week I'm going to do five minutes, and then next week I'm going to add on Hey every time I walk from the car to the house or the car to lunch or the car to the office, I'm going to leave it in my pocket and I'm just going to take in whatever's around you. Start doing those little things. You'll get to a place in like two or three weeks where you're like, oh, I don't really miss it that much. How can I do a little bit more? But what happens is, we try to go too far, then we get frustrated. We say, well, this doesn't work. He's an idiot. Which there's probably some truth in that too many, many many college basketball coaches and fans could attest to that. But just start so small. If you don't laugh at whatever you write down, it's too big. Meaning, like, I'm going to go two minutes a day. To me, that's the litmus test. If you don't laugh at it, it's too big, right? And if it's too big, you're not going to follow through. You'll do it for two or three days and you'll stop. So you got to just realize, like, is it something? Because before any performance, behavior modification happens, you have to have the awareness. If you don't have the awareness, nothing's going to change. And so just understanding what's, what's something so small I can start with, and then just just evaluate it's, it's not good or bad, until you put a label on it. So just, hey, I went a week five minutes. What was, what was the outcome? Did you notice anything? Can I? Can I walk in and just have, you know, 30 minutes with my family, with the phone in the car, just leave the phone in the car, and come in, if you work at home, leave it in the office. And just, I'm gonna, you know what the first 30 minutes again, start so small. I'm just going to be with the family as much as I might not enjoy it. I'm just going to be present, and then if I have to come back and take care of stuff, do it. But just that would be my My thing is, just start so ridiculously small, and if you're not laughing at your whatever you wrote down, it's too big,

Joey Odom  54:30  

man. That's so good, by the way, that that seems pretty consistent with your theme, which is, do boring better. That's a little bit boring. Minutes away from your phone, it's it's small, and it may feel insignificant, but it does lead to change over time we have over our shoulder here. It's not in camera view, but we we have atomic habits on our shelf because it's those small little investments every single day. What says little deposits you can make every single day. Tommy, before we close out, you had, you ran a contest. On tommyshort.com that everybody should go visit, if you want a corporate speaker, if you want to read about Tommy's journey. But on tommyshort.com and there was the contest was for people to guess how many text messages you missed over the year. So I have, I think you've announced this now. I think we're beyond the contest, right? So can you tell us how many text messages in one year you missed.

Tommy Short  55:21  

So this is a hilarious story. So I was talking to a local news channel that I did an interview with towards the end of my journey, and they said, Hey, we want to bring you back in coordinating with them via email. Towards the end, I said, Hey, the time you want to bring me back is actually like the day that I'm gonna turn on my phone I'm doing this contest. What if I turn my phone on during the interview on Live CD, and they're like, Oh, no way. That'd be amazing. Oh, it gets better. Joey, so I've got the portable charger. I know that. You know, they're gonna ask a couple questions, and then during the interview, we're gonna plug it in, turn it on, and the whole world's gonna find out, hey, if you go a year without your phone, this is how many text messages you might have. What do you think's the one thing I didn't think about for one full year, storage, my passcode. I'm on live TV. Joey,

Joey Odom  56:13  

oh my gosh,

Tommy Short  56:15  

I'm on live TV, and I plug it in, we're talking and the reporters are getting anxiety, thinking this is the first time you've turned it on a year. Couldn't think of my passcode, couldn't think of it. And I was like, they're like, how do you not know this? And I'm like, I haven't done it for a year. And frankly, face recognition. And one of the reporters, it was a great line. She was like, You're stranger danger. Your phone doesn't even recognize who you are. So fast forward that we end the interview. I'm kind of off stage left. I'm packing up my belongings. I finally get in right like, and I was on like, the seventh or eighth guess, and I know I think after 10 guesses on an iPhone, you get locked out. So I'm like, I'm in danger zone right now. Well, the first thing that pops up is, like, your iPhone hasn't been backed up in 52 weeks. So I had to reset my password. I didn't know that either. So it takes me like, 20 minutes. I finally get in big build up, come to find out, Verizon will try to send a text message three or four times, and if it doesn't go through, it just disappears into the abyss. Oh, my God, but so two things. So the only text I had for an entire year were 21 and they were from people that texted me that day, who were like, is your phone on yet? What time's your phone coming on? I can't believe you made it 365 days. But here's the thing we talked about, you know, earlier in the interview, as you were looking forward to the end, that was one thing I was actually dreaded, Joey of having to go through, not that I'm Mr. Everything, Mr. Popular. I was like, there could be like, 3000 text messages like that was giving me anxiety to sit there and scroll through. I mean, every time I went and got a coffee at the local coffee shop, I got a text. Every time two step authentication, I got it. I mean, so and I've got some, some knucklehead friends from high school and college. I'm sure I'm still on group text with them. So I had no idea how many there were. So this big build up, I was giving away, you know, $1,000 gift card, and it was twice. It was twice. It was 21 text messages. So it's kind of like the balloon being deflated, or the air being deflated from a balloon. But so it was 21 forgot the passcode, and all the rest of the text messages were purged into the abyss.

Joey Odom  58:15  

Well, what's so interesting about that, though, is it's like, did they matter to begin with? Like, you don't know what you missed, so it doesn't matter. Like, it's, I think there are two sides to this, so this, this might, maybe my closing thought here is, you don't know what you missed, so they didn't matter. And the other thought is, it's almost like, we don't know what we could experience if we take a step like this. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like, like. We like. We have no idea of what, what life waits. On the other side, it's helpful to have a very compelling why and a reason to do things, and that's great. But on the other side of it, we don't know what life can look like. And you are walking and living proof of somebody who is experiencing experience something transformational. And you said earlier this that year would have kind of looked like all the same. I know you agree with me on this, and I bet you everybody agrees with me here. I don't want my days to be indistinguishable from each other. I don't want my years to be indistinguishable from each other. I want every day to be full of wonder and a unique experience, even if that's even if that's around all the same people, but just having different conversations and being present. So what I think you've done, Tommy, I think you have given by taking this bold step, I think you've given courage to people out there to take steps for themselves, and I hope that people listening don't do things the same way as they did before they listen to this podcast. So thank you for doing that. Thank you for giving everyone courage, for giving us courage. I can't wait to read the book that will probably be next year, and we'll have you back when it comes out. But for people listening who want to learn more, is the best way? Is it to go to Tommy short Comm,

Tommy Short  59:50  

yeah. Tommy short Comm, get all my information, whether it's speaking or just just learning about it. I'll keep the blog going too. Obviously, it won't be specific to the No. Phone journey. But like you said, you know, if there's nothing else that somebody takes away, other than it causes them to think and take action on something that they've been putting off, and not some radical 365 day journey, whether it's starting a hobby or wanting to pursue a new career or wanting to do something, but have it because they're too concerned with what others think. If that's all someone takes away from my journey. Like to me, that's a success if it causes someone to take action in whatever area of their life, because I was willing to bypass the conveniences and the comfort of having a cell phone attached at all times. Like to me, that that's a win, and that's one of those things I will never know the true ripple effect of somebody that heard about it and that changed. And I'm okay with that, but that's to me, that's that's a big win if, if someone hears about it and it causes them to take action, that's a win for me.

Joey Odom  1:00:53  

Love it. Everybody take a step today. Tommy, thank you so much for joining us, man. It's been great to talk to you, and congratulations on being the other on the other side of 365

Tommy Short  1:01:01  

thanks, Joey.

Joey Odom  1:01:04  

I said this at the very end, and it goes back to what Tommy said. I asked Tommy, what would the year that you just went through? What would that have looked like if you had not done this? And he said that year would have been just like all the other years. And I want to repeat what I the first thought that came to me there. I don't want my years to look the same. I don't want my years to be indistinguishable from each other. I don't want my days to be indistinguishable indistinguishable from each other. I don't want my kids to feel like they're around the same guy every single day in a boring and predictable way. I want to be spontaneous and have the day filled with wonder and have new conversations and not accept the current reality we see as the ultimate reality. That's what I want. And I'm telling you this because maybe sometimes I do, maybe sometimes my days are indistinguishable. So this is a challenge to me. What can I do today? What can you do today to make this day indistinguishable from yesterday, to keep it fresh in your relationships, in your marriage and in your spiritual life and in your own personal focus and your work and your productivity, or whatever it is. So I don't know what that means for you, but I hope you can just sit on that thought for a moment and think, what can you do today to make it distinguishable from yesterday, to make it different and brand new. Thank you for joining us. I'm so glad you were here. Thank you to Tommy short for his experience and him sharing his wisdom with us. Go check him out at Tommy short.com thank you for being with us this week. We can't wait to see you again next week on the Aro podcast. The Aro podcast is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree pod Co. Special thanks to Emily miles and Caitlin Krings for media and digital support and to executive producers, Anthony Palmer of palm tree, podco and the prince of the low country, tides himself, rich Donnellan of Aro.

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