Transcription
I call the way people live life art. Like I wrote a forward to my friend Cameron Haynes's book, "I and I." One of the things that I said was that his practice is an art that very few people appreciate, and it's the art of the Maximized Life. And that the discipline that he displays in his life and through his practices and all the things that he does—it's so difficult to live the way he lives. That for someone like me who understands it and knows what he's doing and appreciates it, and appreciates how insanely difficult it is to have a full-time job and run ultramarathons—get up at 4:00 in the morning, run a full marathon before work—like that's the kind of thing that he does when he's training for these 240-mile runs. All the while being like a father, um, a husband, uh, having this full-time job, also being the best bow hunter on Earth, lifting weights—it's like, how is how does a person do this?
Hit the road at 2:45 a.m., um, just getting in miles, uh, I like, uh, I like walking out of that house—it's like a warm, comfortable house, really no reason to leave, um, except I don't think anything great happens being warm and comfortable. I've been more 4 fitting like a Mory. I ain't regular. Feel like Jordan, wear 45. Traumatized, victimize my di, knock you off a base with a bat when them slide. H aide genocide, televis, emphasiz, perpetua, and War to that he going pick a side. Hood from Hood lines now doing dop lines. I'm running to the cops. That's always been hard, you know, bow hunters in the west to make it. And Cam, I mean, pretty much right now is one of the biggest figures in bow hunting, and he's got there through work ethic. I mean, just hard, hard work ethic. Not only being dedicated to bow hunting but also being dedicated, you know, to running and athletics and lifting weights. I mean, you know, he's just at a different level. So super proud of him that he's been able to make it because it is hard, really really hard for, you know, a bow hunter in the west to make it. He's one of the industry leaders. I mean, he has his own signature bow, he has his own signature target. I mean, pretty much, you know, Cam probably turns down more sponsorships because he's only going to shoot what he believes in. I mean, he's not he's not one of the guys that's just out there are just going to grab everything. It's only what works for him and what he believes in. I mean, he he really doesn't care about money; he cares about, you know, what works and what works well and what he likes.
We hit it at 2:45 this morning, got in a bunch of miles, um, now that what I do my every day is right before I take off, I got my cup of coffee I'm going to go grab, but before I do that and get in my truck and drive, I get a few bow shots in every day. The key to what I do is repetition and being consistent, so the only way that happens, you can't really shortcut it, it's just reps. So that's what we're doing here right now. Got my target down there at about 40, all right, now headed to the 9 to 5. [Applause] As far as why, I don't know, it's just what I do. I just get up and I I go to work. So I've been I've had this same job for 24 years. Um, before that, I worked for nine years at this warehouse. I worked up into a I was a warehouse supervisor, and um, and it's that's like the only two jobs I've ever had really to to speak of. I miss days because uh I have it scheduled and I have vacation. I've been there a long time, and then I do have hunts and I things like that, but if I'm supposed to be there, I mean, I'm going to be there every I I've never called in sick in 24 years. So it's like when I'm they're expecting me to be there, I'm going to be there. You can you can count on that. I go in early, um, I'm usually there half an hour early. I stay late, so I take a little longer lunch, and I just got to get those miles in. That's kind of my time away. I'm not really an office person; it's my job, so I like I don't have a choice really, but I really need that uh to reset and get outside and get some fresh air. When I can go and bust out 10 miles at lunch, it's like I come back and I'm I'm thinking clear, I'm fired up, uh, I feel better, uh, just obviously physically because I just got a good workout in, but also mentally. And so that's that's what I that's what I'll do, and I take lunch anywhere from noon to 2, whenever I can find that gap and uh, you know, so I'm at I think around 18 miles right now. My goal generally, my goal is always to get a marathon done a day, so whatever I need to get eight more miles, nine more miles, something like that.
His dad was uh sick for um quite a while before he passed away. He had liver cancer and kidney failure, and um, he had been a heavy drinker in his earlier life, had been clean and sober for lots of years before he got sick, and um, that was really difficult for Cam because his dad was someone that he just loved so much, admired so much. He talked at his dad's service that I know was really difficult for him, and um, but he wouldn't have had it any other way. He um, and there were a lot of people there, but he got up and said what he wanted to say about his dad and how much his dad had meant to him. I know his dad would have been really proud of him. I think it is a tribute to his dad because his dad was so athletic, and Cam really looked up to him because of that. And so I think that, you know, he's probably thinking, "Dad, I just ran 240 miles," you know, his dad never did that. So I think it is a tribute to his dad that he has become athletic like his dad was. [Music] So right now what we're doing is uh just a recovery session. So Cam doesn't take any days off, so we have to implement recovery every single day. So this is just uh a partner stretching, stretching the hips, legs, IT band, quads. We just do head to toe every with movement. So right now we're just putting movement into his hips. Today he took 47,000 steps, so his body is a little uh tight. You know, you have pulling a bow, might if you just did that you might be unbalanced, but when we lift we do even amounts on both sides, so it's uh we put in way more work lifting weights than shooting a bow. 2:45 in the morning or 7:00 at night? What's harder? None of us. Hard hard is uh having cancer or when your dad dies or your best friend dies, which I've had both those happen. This isn't hard; this is what I love to do. I love to feel the pain. They say you make friends with pain and you'll never be alone. This tripping why [Music] you [Music] Pro.
I've been talking to my he said the only reason why you can do that is because of this or that or this or I could do it if I had this or that. It's like, no, we're all afforded the same opportunity. I came from I didn't have all I ever wanted was my dad around my house and he wasn't, and uh nobody would want my childhood. Nobody would say, "Oh, you had it so lucky, you had it so good." No wonder nobody would want to trade me how I I grew up. So the way I see it is if I can come up and achieve dreams I never even thought possible, anybody can. Anybody can. But there's no secret to it; it's punching that time clock, it's putting in work every single day, and the sooner you realize that, uh, the quicker you're going to get to the path where you want to go, and uh, you can do it. I mean, nobody has to believe in you, nobody has to see the dream, nobody has to get it; it's all in you. It's you, and pretty soon they'll come on, they'll be like, "Oh, I guess guess you are. I mean, guess you were on something. I guess maybe that is real." But to get started, you don't need anybody.
One of the things that I'm so proud of Cam about is when he worked for Eastman's Boney journal and he had a a section where he wrote, and they were having a meeting and he was talking about running and they said, "You know, nobody cares about your running, Cam," and that just motivated him so much. He didn't even miss a beat; he just went, "Okay, well, maybe you don't care about my running, but I do," and he built that into something that a lot of people care about. And I think it was because of that negative input that he got that he just went with it. Okay, well, I care about it; we'll see who cares about it. How amazing is this? The the reason why I like this event here, um, I think we've done this this might be 5 years now, five years. Y so for all you guys who've been here all five years, thank you. I appreciate you so much. But for even if it's your first year, I like this event because it takes a little heart to get up here this morning. It's in the 20s, it's early, it's just getting light, it's a Saturday morning, so it this gets us ready for hunt season, those early starts. But the fact that you're here sets you apart from so many people. This is why you're probably successful in life is because you have heart, you have passion, you have something, you have a purpose. And this gives me strength; seeing you guys out here gives me strength, so thank you. Let's get a big hell yeah for a Saturday morning run. Yeah.
It's getting late. A diner by the interstate serves him up a nice hot plate. The fing for time. Chery's always working there, the big blue eyes. You walk through the fire complaining along the way, or you can walk through the fire and create an example for everyone else, so that the trials and tribulations of their own life seem trivial because they were comparing themselves to the way you handle things, or the way you handle things with grace and dignity and discipline can show people that they can handle their own life this way. It discipline is art. I think it is, cuz it's beautiful for me to see when I see someone who's really truly disciplined, someone who just like truly maximizes the grind. I feel like there's an art with everything. We have just to make it by. Yeah, we try, we try, try with all our heart and soul. Just feel like sham says, "Will that be all?" A jbox play a country WS. Jim is feeling mighty tall, and he asks her to dance. Chery says, "Oh, I don't know," but round and round the floor they go, holding hands and dances slow. Feels just like romance.