Order of Man - Turning Tragedy into Triumph ｜ SIDNEY SMITH

00:00:00.000 Guys, every once in a while, you meet somebody so special that you know, you just need to connect

00:00:04.400 with this person more. And today I have the opportunity to share my conversation with one

00:00:09.440 of those people, Sidney Smith. I met him very, very briefly at a 5k last year. And then earlier

00:00:14.720 this year, I had a chance to spend a couple of hours hiking down a mountainside while shooting

00:00:18.900 our bows at the total archery challenge. And that really doesn't sound that special until you learn

00:00:23.340 that Sid is a double amputee and does his walking and running and everything else that he does,

00:00:29.160 which you'll learn about on prosthetics. So today we talk about overcoming the fear that he faced as

00:00:35.080 he made the decision to have his legs amputated, focusing on the positives of life, learning to

00:00:41.120 appreciate what we have, getting used to pain, and then ultimately turning what could be a tragedy

00:00:46.920 into triumph. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly

00:00:52.720 chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not

00:00:58.840 easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.

00:01:06.020 This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call

00:01:11.320 yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the

00:01:16.660 founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. I want to welcome you, as I always do. Whether you're new or

00:01:22.620 you've been with us for any amount of time, I'm glad that you're here. We need more men in this fight.

00:01:26.480 Trust me, it is a fight. It's a fight to reclaim and restore masculinity. I believe

00:01:30.640 that there is a vocal minority that wants to dictate the tone of the conversation. I think

00:01:37.420 it's up to us as noble and strong, honorable men to be dictating that conversation and to

00:01:44.240 be talking about what it really means to be a man and giving you all the tools and the guidance and

00:01:48.180 the direction and the skill sets and the conversations, which is what this podcast is all about, to help

00:01:53.180 you become a more effective father, husband, business owner, community leader, whatever

00:01:59.220 facet of life you're showing up as a man. It's my goal to equip you with the tools that you need in

00:02:04.040 order to be more effective and more productive in those areas of your life. So we've been going strong

00:02:09.560 for about three and a half years now, and guys, we could not do it without you. I appreciate you

00:02:13.580 sharing this with the men in your life. I appreciate the ratings and the reviews and the

00:02:17.280 conversations. You guys are buying books. You're supporting the show. You're sharing it with your

00:02:21.560 friends and the people that you care about. It's evident. It's obvious that you're doing those

00:02:25.920 things because we continue to see the growth within this podcast and organization and mission in

00:02:31.600 general, which again is to reclaim and restore masculinity. So I want to thank you for that.

00:02:35.300 First and foremost, we've got a very, very powerful show for you today. One of my favorites

00:02:38.800 with a man who I've got to spend a little time with over the past year or so, not a whole lot of time,

00:02:44.700 but man, every time I talk with this gentleman, I am more and more inspired by who he is,

00:02:48.840 how he shows up and what he does. We're going to get into that in a minute. In the meantime,

00:02:53.300 I do want to mention our show sponsors and my friends over at origin and specifically Pete

00:02:58.700 Roberts. I just learned that he's in the hospital. He's down and out. He, I think he went a little

00:03:03.680 too hard after having some injuries that he was nursing. He went a little too hard and he's in the

00:03:09.400 hospital. So we hope him a speedy recovery guys. If you're not familiar with what Pete is doing and

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00:04:05.500 the discount code order, O-R-D-E-R at checkout for a 10% discount. Again, origin, maine.com order

00:04:13.560 at checkout. And, uh, we'll wish Pete a speedy recover in the meantime. All right, guys, with that

00:04:19.380 said, let's get into my conversation. I already briefly mentioned and introduced you to Sid a

00:04:25.880 couple of months ago. Like I said, I had the opportunity to participate in the total archery

00:04:30.800 challenge in Northern Utah with my friends over at mountain ops. And, you know, I got to meet a lot

00:04:34.780 of great people, but I had this incredible opportunity to run the course with my guest

00:04:39.040 today. His name is Sid Smith. I had only bumped into him one other time, but as I spent the last,

00:04:44.140 you know, three hours walking down this mountainside with Sid and shooting our bows and having

00:04:49.240 conversations, I was just amazed. I mean, genuinely amazed and humbled at how this man shows up in his

00:04:55.400 life. I didn't hear him complain once. Uh, he probably actually shot better than me. Uh, I learned

00:05:00.580 about his hunting adventures and his triathlons that he runs. I mean, this is an incredible

00:05:04.680 individual as it is, but considering the fact that he's also a double amputee makes it that much more

00:05:10.420 incredible. Um, he's an avid bow hunter. He's a triathlete, but man, he just doesn't let that keep

00:05:15.300 him from living his life in a big way. And then of course, inspiring others, myself included along

00:05:20.160 the way to do the same. Sid, what's up, man? Long time in the works. Glad to have you on the show

00:05:25.720 today. Hey, thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it. Most of that was my fault though. I kept, uh, bailing on you

00:05:30.460 and forgetting when we were meeting and then you had a hunt and everything else, but, uh, we're

00:05:34.020 making it work. Yeah, definitely. Worth the wait, I guess. I'm looking at you on video right now.

00:05:38.780 That 70.3, is that a run that you did? Yes. This one right here is the St. George one,

00:05:44.880 the half Ironman. Oh yeah, that's right. Okay. Yeah. They moved that from a full Ironman to a half

00:05:50.520 Ironman, I believe like after one year of doing it. Yeah. It was too hard. St. George is no place. I know,

00:05:57.720 I know you live there, but it is hell on earth sometimes. Yes, it definitely is. It's starting

00:06:01.660 to cool off, which is a nice thing, man. I don't know if I want to go run any Ironmans or half

00:06:06.700 Ironmans in the heat down here at all. That's not something that's even on my radar. No, I think

00:06:11.620 that's a, to date, one of the hardest things I've done is to deal with that kind of heat.

00:06:14.760 Is that right? Beautiful weather though, and wintertime and beautiful town, but too hot for me.

00:06:19.460 Yeah. How'd you get into running? Wasn't actually until a few years ago as a kid,

00:06:24.580 I didn't like it. You know, it was just boring and I hurt because of my situation. But since I've

00:06:30.940 been an amputee, I've been given some opportunities with running legs and always wanted to kind of feel

00:06:37.020 like a kid now because I'm making up for last time having running blades. And I just have certain

00:06:43.120 goals that I want to achieve that started from day one in the hospital. It included running certain

00:06:48.940 races that I want to participate in and so forth. And so that's kind of where I'll stem from.

00:06:53.680 Yeah. I want to get into that, man. I can't tell you how impressed I was. We went and did

00:06:58.080 the total archery challenge, what a couple of months ago, and we were fortunate enough to

00:07:02.320 shoot together. And man, I was so impressed. Like you went that whole time and you did every target.

00:07:08.800 You walked everywhere we went and never beat yourself up, never got down on yourself. Like

00:07:14.140 I was just so blown away. And I was familiar with you before that. I think we had met once before that.

00:07:20.260 And then just spending that morning and that afternoon with you was, it was really inspiring,

00:07:24.540 man, which is why I wanted to have you on the show.

00:07:26.560 Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It definitely is an awesome course. I mean, it's,

00:07:31.000 I look at it this way. I mean, the deer and the elk don't give me any opportunity as far as,

00:07:36.660 they don't go easy on me. So I need to get, be ready on the terrain just as much as anybody else.

00:07:41.780 So. Well, you just took a nice mule deer, didn't you? What, a couple of weeks ago?

00:07:44.900 Yeah. Yeah. I did a, around opening day, took a nice mule deer and yeah, it felt great on the

00:07:52.500 confidence, but at the same time it was shaking on the confidence just because I've, before that I

00:07:58.100 had a missed opportunities and I injured one and just a lot of frustration. And to the point where

00:08:04.580 I'm like, man, this bow hunting sucks. But when the success happened, I remember it, you know,

00:08:09.080 why it sucks and the whole benefit from it all. And just kind of helped me realize that bow hunting is

00:08:14.700 just like any other kind of challenge in life. The harder it is, the more the reward is at the end.

00:08:20.080 Yeah, that's true. Man, I have so much I want to talk with you about today and so many different

00:08:23.760 angles. I'm like, how do I, how do I cover all of this in the best way possible? You talked about

00:08:29.920 being younger and running being not fun, not enjoyable, a challenge and a chore for you. Tell me

00:08:36.100 a little bit about your backstory. Did you have a medical condition? I'm not even sure I quite

00:08:40.740 understand or know the full story about how you lost your legs.

00:08:45.560 Yeah, I wish I had a cool story like a bear attack because I think a lot of people would find that

00:08:51.100 more entertaining. But on your show, to be honest, it was actually a disease I was born with called

00:08:56.480 Charp Marie Tooth. It's a progressive genetic disorder. So as a kid, I was fine. My feet weren't

00:09:02.560 having problems. It wasn't until I hit about 12 that they start to deform and the muscles would

00:09:09.180 atrophy, making it very difficult to play sports and do some of the fun things with my friends,

00:09:15.560 be competitive with them. As I got older, I was given some braces, kind of like what Forrest Gump wore.

00:09:22.340 Wore that up into my 20s. But as I got older too, then bones started breaking down and then it became

00:09:28.500 real painful to the point where it was functional to do activities. Even walking was painful.

00:09:34.640 Did your bones actually break as you would walk and be engaged in activities or did it not get that bad?

00:09:40.600 Towards my late 20s, early 30s is when they started breaking. By the time I went to the doctor,

00:09:47.320 I mean, I've been in and out of surgeries, 10 surgeries throughout my life. But towards the end,

00:09:52.780 I had about six broken bones. And I had just lived with the broken bones in my feet because I'm so

00:10:00.200 used to the pain and the dysfunction of my legs that I just assumed that was the norm. So when

00:10:05.380 the doctor looked at it, he's like, holy cow, yeah, we were having some major problems with your feet.

00:10:10.320 Is it isolated to your legs or is this other parts of your body?

00:10:13.980 The disease itself as a whole, there's so many different subtypes, but it affects all the muscles.

00:10:19.140 Most of the types is going to be the extremities. So your hands and your feet. For me, my type is a

00:10:25.700 little rare just because the way it was passed and the way it's historically not being shown in my

00:10:32.600 children or my parents or my grandparents and so on. It's just very rare. But most of the severity

00:10:39.040 has happened in my feet. Very little in my hands, but my feet was by far the worst.

00:10:43.860 And so in your 20s, it sounds like then, did you make that voluntary decision or did the doc say,

00:10:49.140 we've got to do this or he gave you a couple options and this is what you chose? How'd that

00:10:53.760 work out? It was a mutual decision. It was one of those where he did start off with the options

00:11:00.640 saying like, okay, we can give you, you know, you can keep your feet. We'd fuse them together.

00:11:06.440 So you wouldn't have the function of, you know, doing any activities really, because you wouldn't

00:11:12.380 have the flexion. You'd still have the pain. And a lot of times you'll spend, you know, a little bit

00:11:17.640 in a wheelchair. Uh, so the other option was prosthetics and, and of course, to me, that was

00:11:24.960 shocking, but at the same time, it felt like it was a risk that was worth taking. And so it was

00:11:31.660 something that we talked about and kind of explained the whole process almost as if he was prepared for

00:11:36.980 this conversation. And, uh, we went from there. Now I can't remember, are your legs amputated below

00:11:43.320 the knee? Is that right? Or above the knee? Below the knee. Below the knee. So, I mean,

00:11:47.800 not to say that's an advantage, but of course that's, that's better than being above the knee,

00:11:51.700 right? Cause you, you're able to flex that. Absolutely. Amputees that I've met that are 0.90

00:11:56.040 above the knee. I mean, there's some badasses out there, but it's very difficult for them to do simple

00:12:01.480 functions that are easy for me, like standing up out of a chair or going upstairs and for a bilateral

00:12:07.380 above knee amputee. That's a very, very difficult thing for them to do.

00:12:12.860 Yeah. I imagine. So, so you have the procedure done and you talked about being in the hospital.

00:12:17.460 And at this point, thinking to yourself that you made these decisions to do some of these

00:12:21.720 physically demanding and challenging tasks. Walk me through that a little bit, because I think,

00:12:26.340 I think most people would be pretty discouraged at that point. And I'm sure there was some elements

00:12:30.780 of that too, but it seems like you decided to take a different path, which is, it's inspired me.

00:12:35.940 And it certainly inspired a lot of other people that, that I know who know you as well. So walk

00:12:40.640 me through that thought process. It definitely was a new feeling to me. I mean, it's, you gotta think

00:12:48.880 my entire life I've dealt with pain and frustration and, and almost to the point where I didn't think

00:12:57.120 that life was going to get any better. You know, in fact, it just was getting worse. And then with the

00:13:02.920 stress of a job and a family, you know, as selfish as it sounds, it felt like, you know, suicide or

00:13:09.040 harming myself in a way was the best solution. Even though you hear all these sad stories of people

00:13:16.480 that do that, it just doesn't make sense, but it does make sense at the moment for some odd reason.

00:13:23.620 But for me, amputation actually, I don't know for sure, but it may have saved my life because it

00:13:29.520 brought me down a path that gave me almost a second chance to do the things I loved.

00:13:37.240 The fact that when it got to that time and getting out of the hospital into the hospital,

00:13:43.020 it helped me realize that I can't take advantage of what I've been given.

00:13:48.760 This is God's way of saying, Hey, here's your chance to do these things. Don't throw them away.

00:13:54.860 For example, if you were given a pair of wings, you know, you'd more likely want to fly everywhere

00:13:59.920 you want to go. And for me, I was given a pair of legs and that's kind of where things stem from.

00:14:06.140 The decision to do triathlons, although it sounds crazy, actually came in the hospital when I was

00:14:11.680 watching television and it was on TV. And I just was super impressed and motivated that that's what

00:14:17.400 I wanted to do and train for. It just kind of stemmed from there.

00:14:21.000 How long between you being in the hospital in the recovery process to now I'm going to run,

00:14:27.640 and I imagine it didn't start with a triathlon, but you running your first race in your new,

00:14:33.180 what they call blades. Is that what they're called?

00:14:35.380 They're called blades. I first started with, my first race was with a 5k and it was with my

00:14:40.380 walking legs, not to get into insurance politics. Insurance don't technically like to give out

00:14:47.040 running legs. They don't find it in necessity. Got the running legs a little bit

00:14:50.920 later through an organization called Amputee Blade Runners. But to answer your question,

00:14:56.200 because running is so difficult on the limb itself and for your body to adjust to that,

00:15:02.240 I started off with swimming as soon as the stitches were out, which was about six weeks.

00:15:06.980 And then we moved to the bike and then we moved to the run.

00:15:10.560 When you swim, do you have prosthetics on?

00:15:12.960 No, that's a funny, that's a common question. I wish, I mean, it'd be sweet to have like a

00:15:18.320 mermaid fin or something like that.

00:15:19.800 That's what I was saying. You can just create all kinds of different stuff to help you out a little

00:15:23.000 bit. I'm sure people sometimes would say maybe there's an advantage, whether it's blades or a

00:15:27.700 dolphin fin or whatever it may be.

00:15:29.880 It's Merman, Pops.

00:15:30.980 Merman, Merman, that's right.

00:15:33.700 The guidelines for the triathlon and Ironman is no prosthetics in the water. So,

00:15:39.700 just a wetsuit, I actually had to retrain myself, get a coach that specializes in disabled or

00:15:46.220 challenged athletes to pretty much learn how to swim again.

00:15:50.520 Yeah, because you don't have the foot that you're able to articulate that will help you

00:15:53.700 propel, essentially.

00:15:55.300 When I first got in the water, I kind of sank to the bottom and I wasn't for sure what I was doing.

00:16:00.600 And I swam in high school and a little bit in college, so it wasn't too bad to try to figure out,

00:16:05.060 but ultimately, to get to the speed where I was, I had to get a new coach to learn how to

00:16:09.980 almost pull in the water, where to balance my hips and so forth.

00:16:15.460 Yeah, I imagine. Well, you said something interesting and I did want to ask you this,

00:16:19.340 and I try to be sensitive about this, but maybe I shouldn't. I mean, you're so accustomed to it

00:16:23.060 and you're willing to talk about it. You said disabled and then you said challenged athlete.

00:16:27.760 What do you consider yourself? I mean, do you even use those terms at all and just say athlete

00:16:31.640 or do you use those terms? That's a good question. When I use the word disabled, 0.97

00:16:36.180 it's only on the reason for people to understand.

00:16:39.400 Sure. Context, right?

00:16:40.840 Yeah, in context. Or if I'm talking to somebody that I know well, I won't use that word disabled

00:16:45.720 because really the only thing about me and just some of the things that I've accomplished and

00:16:52.320 I've learned about myself is this ability really wasn't in my legs. It wasn't what was holding me

00:17:00.140 back. I mean, there's a lot of people that are able-bodied that I'm able to beat in races and

00:17:05.460 do things that they're not willing to do. What was the disability was actually in that fear process

00:17:13.060 as I went through a process of fear was I was afraid to move on with my life and whether I'm

00:17:21.460 going to be in the hospital for the rest of my life. Am I going to have all these medical bills?

00:17:25.020 And my wife's still going to find me attractive. Am I going to play with my kids? All those things

00:17:30.020 that piled up really was when I look at disability, that was the disability, not so much the legs.

00:17:36.360 How did you overcome that? And maybe you haven't fully, maybe there's probably still some of that

00:17:40.600 in your life. How do you, how do you deal with those questions?

00:17:43.600 There's some days when you get to your comfort zone that sometimes those things will sneak up

00:17:48.420 on you, but not very often do I have a day where I get frustrated or I get the woe is me attitude.

00:17:55.100 For me, it's just a couple of things, serving others, not thinking about yourself, focusing on

00:18:00.760 things that you have. Like I have a great job. I have a great family. I still have my hands. I still

00:18:06.580 have my health, my hair, sort of. Well, you got a good beard coming in. You need to grow that a

00:18:12.820 little longer, but... I was going to say, you've been an inspiration for me because I don't think I've

00:18:16.680 chased since I've seen you. Is that right? Okay. That's cool. That's good to know.

00:18:19.680 I don't know for sure. My wife hates it. It's usually around hunting season.

00:18:23.960 It's your hunting beard. Of course.

00:18:25.800 I've just lived on the motto of you just kind of focus on the things that you have,

00:18:29.660 you'll end up forgetting the things that you don't.

00:18:32.280 I don't know how to say this. I guess a lot of the times it takes situations like yours

00:18:36.020 probably to wake up. And I imagine that there's a lot of things that you may have taken for granted

00:18:42.920 that have been restored a little bit to you. I don't want to put words in your mouth. I'm just

00:18:48.000 trying to think about it from your perspective, what that would actually feel like.

00:18:51.760 No, that's exactly right. Yeah. Taking things for granted. And that's probably why I've been

00:18:56.240 living life a little bit more extreme, such as putting my prosthetics to the limit, putting my

00:19:01.240 body to the limit. It's just because I didn't have it when I was younger and I realized what I have

00:19:07.820 and where I am in my age. Someone once said, you'll run out of health before you run out of

00:19:13.620 money. When I was struggling to find someone that motivated me was important. It makes me happy to

00:19:19.740 see that I can motivate others. So me doing those things, not necessarily for them, but to share my

00:19:26.100 experience with them, if it motivates them, I mean, that's just icing on the cake. Mountain Ops,

00:19:31.240 they did a story, kind of a backstory of my scenario. And I can't tell you how many people

00:19:36.240 had messaged me about, you know, going through similar destructive thoughts and how it just kind

00:19:43.380 of changed and helped them realize, you know, Hey, if Sydney is able to do all these things, 0.76

00:19:48.640 I don't know what my excuse is. And it's just changed their mindset to the point where they're

00:19:54.220 making better decisions. Yeah. I mean, isn't it amazing when we start to turn our challenges outward

00:20:00.260 and use it as a tool to assist and help other people, how some of those problems that we thought

00:20:04.900 were there seem to melt away or, or just not be as significant as they once were.

00:20:11.540 Yeah, no, definitely. And I look at challenges differently now. I mean, at the moment that it

00:20:17.340 happens, it's really hard to have this mindset, but I look at my challenges. It's, it's been more

00:20:22.640 of a blessing to the point where if I had the opportunity to live a different life, you know,

00:20:29.120 I don't think I would pick it differently because, or, or even given a wish to take all the pain that

00:20:34.680 I've ever had away. I don't think I'd ever want that just because of the, the things that I've

00:20:40.120 developed as a person, as a human, better at my job, I've had more patients at home, better as a

00:20:45.600 father. And it's just because of these challenges has been a blessing that it has been a curse.

00:20:50.820 And what do you consider your, your greatest challenges in your life now?

00:20:53.740 A lot of this has come pretty fast as far as trying to cope with it. Sometimes it's, you know,

00:20:59.960 I, I find myself wanting to make everybody happy. And, and, um, sometimes it's hard with hunting and

00:21:07.060 races. It's right now I find both of them. It sounds bad. It almost like they're almost a selfish

00:21:14.460 activity because it does take away time from the family. And as much as I try to balance that, I,

00:21:21.380 I find that sometimes as a challenge to try to get that balance with all these activities I want

00:21:26.860 to do. You know, I can't forget the most important thing in my life. And that is my family. I see so

00:21:33.580 many people out there and, and a lot of it's the perspective of social media, but you'll never be

00:21:39.520 able to keep up with everybody. I mean, you can't be number one without letting something fall on the

00:21:44.540 wayside. And so to answer your question, I say that that's a challenge is just to try to find that

00:21:49.240 balance and focusing on the most important things yet at the same time, you know, do the things I

00:21:54.760 love and try to achieve those goals that I've always wanted to do. Gents, I just want to pause 0.96

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00:22:59.060 resources that we have inside this powerful group, this, this network of men who are working

00:23:03.580 to improve their lives, then I'd encourage you to head over to order of man.com slash iron council.

00:23:09.340 Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council. You can check out what we're doing.

00:23:13.440 You can get signed up. You can reserve your spot at the table. Again, order of man.com slash iron

00:23:18.620 council. Do that after the show, guys, let's get back to this conversation with Sid.

00:23:23.840 What is it that you tell yourself or how do you come to terms with the fact that you do want to go

00:23:28.800 race and that you do want to go hunt and you need those things for yourself? How do you come to terms

00:23:35.040 with that? I try to find the balance of it, you know, and I try to make things happen. That's not

00:23:40.680 going to affect the family. So a lot of times I'll get up at, you know, anywhere from four to four 30,

00:23:44.820 if I'm trained for a big event to do that outside of that window or hunting to try to involve my son

00:23:51.520 if I can in some scenarios. But, and I think everybody needs to be able to do that because

00:23:57.340 you have to take care of yourself. It's okay to be a little bit selfish on those things because if

00:24:02.660 you're not making yourself better and achieving those goals and having that release, when you carry it

00:24:08.860 over to the family at home, you're just on a short fuse. And I find myself when I skip a workout or,

00:24:14.960 you know, I'm injured and I'm stuck at home for a while, I get, I almost go, my wife calls it PMS. And so

00:24:21.980 I sometimes get a little bitchy. So. Yeah, I think we all deal with that for sure. No, I think having

00:24:28.020 these outlets that are for yourself and being a little bit selfish with those things, as long as you're

00:24:33.200 engaged in your other activities, you're not neglecting your family. You're not neglecting your work.

00:24:37.860 And that gives you, I think, in a way, permission to be able to pursue some of these endeavors. Have

00:24:43.400 you always been a hunter? That I have been. The triathlon stuff is new, but the hunting has started

00:24:49.720 with all the way from grandpa. And yeah, it's just been a family tradition. So. How has that changed

00:24:55.380 over the past several years? When were your legs amputated? 2015. It hasn't been as long as I

00:25:00.480 thought initially. So how did that change for you beside the obvious? Like what does your hunt look like

00:25:06.060 now relative to what it looked like before? The culture to amputation hunting became more of a

00:25:12.100 dip as far as being able to actually get out as far as physically as a kid. Yeah, I was fine,

00:25:20.240 really. I mean, I wore the braces, but I was still able to get around. Couldn't run, but I can still get

00:25:25.580 around, you know, without the pain. It was mostly rifle, shotgun for birds and so forth. And it wasn't,

00:25:31.900 I liked to shoot the bow, but it wasn't that I got into bow hunting and the extremity that it is in

00:25:38.660 the back country until after the amputation. So now I find hunting, it's almost a lifestyle and a

00:25:47.780 release before it was more something I like to do in the fall. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. What's the

00:25:54.120 biggest challenge? Because I know when we were up there at Total Archery Challenge, you would think,

00:25:59.080 okay, maybe it's drawing the bow back, but that's not really it. Cause you've got the strength. I

00:26:02.800 imagine it's the balance. Cause I look at me, I've got my knees, I've got my calves, I've got the

00:26:07.360 muscles there. I've got my toes, I've got articulation of my ankles and you don't have the

00:26:12.060 same luxury. So I was thinking, well, it's gotta be balanced. Maybe it's not. What's the biggest

00:26:16.080 challenge for you? When it comes to drawing the bow and actually shooting, that is a big challenge

00:26:23.140 standing up just because take your shoe off and look at your bare foot. And if you were to just

00:26:29.260 kind of zone in on what your foot life looks like standing on one foot or balancing on that one foot,

00:26:36.100 your muscles are just twitching everywhere, just trying to find that center. For me, that is

00:26:40.760 difficult because I don't have that ankle or heel or toes. And so if the ground feels comfortable,

00:26:46.980 I could kind of focus on my hips and my knees as the balance and I'll take a shot. But sometimes

00:26:53.600 if the ground's uneven and it's a long shot, then I'll just drop from my knees and shoot from there.

00:26:58.980 But like, uh, when I went hunting this year, I actually missed a deer from my knees and injured

00:27:05.160 him. And then, but the deer that I did end up harvesting, I was standing up. So sometimes it just

00:27:10.160 depends on the shot opportunity when it comes to shooting, but overall in the backwoods,

00:27:14.680 being able to put a stalk is dang near impossible. Before I had killed that deer, I had put on

00:27:22.660 about four other stalks and had failed just because I, I can't roll my toes on the ground and they hear

00:27:30.260 me or it's just, you know, overall balancing. So I kind of slip a little bit and I can't be too,

00:27:35.980 too smooth, but eventually it happened. And that's just, again, how low hunting is.

00:27:40.920 And so you gave yourself that much copper, eventually there'll be success.

00:27:46.800 You know, you're talking about stalks and you're talking about tripping over. How do you feel

00:27:50.440 rocks? Can you feel that in your legs? Can you feel it on the articulation of the prosthetic? Like,

00:27:56.040 how do you feel variance in the ground itself? I'm really curious about that.

00:28:00.860 So it just depends on the rock, smaller stuff. It's fine. It just could be the severity of the

00:28:06.420 angle. For example, this year, my son and my dad, we hiked to the top of King's Peak,

00:28:12.240 the tallest mountain in Utah. And there's a section that's just flat, but it's a boulder field. So

00:28:18.120 everything was just angled at different things. And that honestly, it was only a few miles and it was

00:28:23.160 harder than hiking 10 miles because the ground was so uneven. And so I'm just using every muscle on my

00:28:29.180 hip and my waist, you know, and having my backpack on me to find that uneven ground. A lot of it is

00:28:35.660 just about feel, just where that pressure is, where it's a prosthetic taking me, is it going to the left

00:28:41.880 or the right and how to adjust my, my waist to counterbalance where the prosthetics take me.

00:28:47.460 That's interesting because I had always wondered that, like, how can you feel things and we hear about

00:28:52.060 these phantom pain or ghost pain, or I don't know the term, but do you get any of that in your feet or

00:28:56.840 your legs? Yeah, unfortunately, it's just something that's going to stay. I would have to say on the

00:29:02.520 good news, it's not as prominent or it's not as frequent. I still get it on a regular basis daily.

00:29:09.980 The phantom pain doesn't necessarily affect the way I walk. It's just more of having that numb or

00:29:16.860 sometimes it is painful. Like if you, you know, step on a Lego with your bare foot and just out of the

00:29:24.520 blue ball, a feeling. And then people in the office think I have Tourette's syndrome. So

00:29:28.980 I bet. Well, speaking of that, how do people treat you generally? Do they pander to you a little bit?

00:29:35.460 Do they, do they feel sorry? Like how do people treat you and how does that come across?

00:29:40.560 It does depend on the individual. You know, I don't ever use it as a crutch. I don't ever use it as

00:29:46.800 an excuse to do things in, at work or at home, or even on the race course or in the mountains.

00:29:54.660 I do have a handicap pass for parking. You got to take advantage of that advantage of it. You know,

00:30:00.080 you know, I do people that may know other amputees that may use that as an advantage to get things

00:30:08.620 done. They'll look at me and think that, but I don't, I try to just act like a normal person.

00:30:14.140 And sometimes people will try to help me with something and I'm like, no, no, I, I got it.

00:30:18.840 I can carry that or I'll help move my neighbor. And people are like, Whoa, we didn't even think

00:30:24.380 about inviting you. We didn't think you could do this. I'm like, yeah, I could do this. I'd love to

00:30:28.260 help. Yeah. It seems like just a lot of people will be walking on eggshells. And to me, I'm like,

00:30:33.660 man, I, I'm not going to treat you like a child. I'm going to treat you just like any other person.

00:30:38.540 I would, I imagine that's what you'd want. No, I do. And I, and same thing with work is I've had

00:30:44.640 a conversation with my employer. It says, Hey, you know, I don't want any different treatment

00:30:50.700 than you would treat any other employee. I mean, other than you, you may understand, I do have

00:30:55.360 limitations as far as I need to go to see the doctor to make an adjustment on the prosthetics.

00:31:00.440 But other than that, I mean, I'm able to use a ladder. I can go up and downstairs. I can go

00:31:05.820 out on the field. I can do, you know, carry things all around the office. I really don't

00:31:10.680 like to be treated any different or with kick gloves. In fact, I find it funny when I see

00:31:15.660 people feel like I wasn't unsure if I could ask something like that or, or talk to you about

00:31:21.500 that. If you feel uneasy, just let me know. I'm like, no, my life's an open book. Trust

00:31:25.280 me. I do public speaking to kids. They ask the most random odd questions that are just

00:31:31.640 hilarious. And so it doesn't bother me at all. And people feel uncomfortable or something like

00:31:36.620 that. Yeah. It's really funny. I had an interesting experience a couple, it was a couple of years

00:31:41.080 ago, but I remember it because it was so impactful. We went out to a restaurant, my wife and I,

00:31:45.480 and then her parents, and we were sitting in the booth of this restaurant. And just behind

00:31:50.100 us in a booth was another family. And there was an older gentleman there. And he was probably

00:31:55.140 in his seventies or eighties and he was in a wheelchair. And we recognized that they were

00:31:59.300 starting to get up and leave. And my father-in-law reached back and he put his hand on the wheelchair.

00:32:06.320 So the guy couldn't move his wheelchair. He looks back and he's looking around, he's trying to figure

00:32:11.040 out how he's doing this. And my father-in-law is just teasing him like a normal guy. And the guy

00:32:16.280 just starts laughing. And my, like, we're kind of like, I don't know if you should have done that.

00:32:20.880 You're teasing this guy. But he was so appreciative that my father-in-law was just

00:32:27.020 willing to treat him like a human being and just have some fun with him and try to keep him from

00:32:32.120 going out. And it was really impactful because I think there are so many people who are like, oh,

00:32:36.820 you got to treat this person special, or you got to, you got to walk on eggshells. And I just can't

00:32:41.940 imagine that is how anybody would want to live their life.

00:32:45.600 No, there is though, Ryan. There are people that like that. But for me, it's not. And I

00:32:52.340 understand that people are a little uneasy because they're just, you know, it's, they want to be

00:32:56.380 politically correct about stuff. But, you know, it's funny that you share that story here. A few

00:33:01.100 weeks ago, I went swimming and I had my legs out in the pool, out of the pool. And a buddy of mine

00:33:07.200 had took them and hit them. So when I got out of the water, I'm like, what the crap? I know I came in 0.99

00:33:12.560 here with them, obviously. That's a true friend right there. Somebody who's going to give you a

00:33:17.240 hard time with whatever ammunition they can use, right? It's true. My good honey buddy who showed

00:33:22.640 me all these spots, he's always said, if you ever take anybody to this spot, I will take your legs

00:33:29.480 from you. I'm like, all right. That's funny. Well, with all the challenges and everything that

00:33:35.220 you're doing, do you continue to push the bounds? Do you continue to do the triathlons? Do you make it

00:33:39.620 harder, more challenging? Where do you go from here? I'm still on that stride. Obviously,

00:33:45.380 I find triathlons not just something that I like a goal to check off. It's actually a really neat

00:33:51.320 lifestyle that I enjoy. At the Ironman level, it's almost like a part-time job. So I do want to check

00:33:58.580 that one off my list. Who knows? That goal was a little bit bigger of a bite than I expected.

00:34:05.220 You know, it's actually, I'm glad that it's a big goal because it kind of intimidates me to the point

00:34:10.600 where, you know, it's a drive. But to reach that Ironman status, I've had, you know, a couple times

00:34:18.180 where I've, you know, gotten ready to go down that chute and then something hit up. Like I got injured

00:34:23.440 this fall or this summer where I wasn't able to run for a little bit. Now I got a different, you know,

00:34:30.040 set up on my legs where I'm getting ready to maybe make that leap in 2019. So I'm actually

00:34:35.700 looking on signing up here shortly, get that final Ironman under my belt. Hunting's still a challenge,

00:34:42.000 but it's still something that's a push. The more that I do it, I enjoy the challenge. And obviously,

00:34:47.020 you know, you want to take more mature animal or try other species. So I'm looking at either going to

00:34:52.420 Alaska or New Zealand or into, get into Whitetail and so forth. But right now it's just kind of

00:34:58.720 taking each step by step and going down that direction.

00:35:02.080 Is the triathlon typically half of what an Ironman is? Is that, is that how it works out usually?

00:35:06.280 Triathlon is the sport itself. What the Ironman is, is a specific, well, it's a brand, but it's also a

00:35:13.340 specific distance that it represents. So an Ironman is 140.6 miles, twice of what I've done so far of a

00:35:23.280 half Ironman. A normal triathlon, like Olympic distance triathlon is around half of that. So

00:35:30.760 that's, it's about a mile swim, 26 mile bike ride, and then a 10K. So it's roughly a fourth

00:35:37.760 of what a full Ironman is. Where I'm at right now, I'm in that Olympic to half,

00:35:43.340 Ironman distance. And I'm just kind of getting ready to take it to that next level,

00:35:48.540 get a coach, lose much weight and focus on the, uh, the full Ironman.

00:35:53.540 Yeah. I imagine, like you said, that's a part-time job. I mean, the amount of training and,

00:35:58.040 and your regiment and your sleep and your food. I mean, this really is, becomes an occupation at

00:36:03.200 that point. It sounds like. Yeah, that's the hard part. And then what's frustrating for, like,

00:36:07.660 for me, you know, I was at marathon ability. I was, you know, getting ready to do a marathon

00:36:12.860 and then when I injured myself, I almost had to take six weeks off because of the bone bruise.

00:36:17.100 It ended up to the point where a 5K was difficult. In fact, that race that we did together

00:36:24.120 in Salt Lake, that was the first I had ran since that injury. And it was, it was hard.

00:36:32.100 Well, it was a 5K, right? So it was a 5K, but it wasn't easy because it was, most of it was uphill.

00:36:37.220 A lot of it was uphill. And then it got wet, which I imagine adds a new dimension for you.

00:36:42.560 So it wasn't an easy thing by any means. The trail itself, you know, with rocks and,

00:36:47.840 and roots that are around. I mean, I felt, I think I felt twice, but that's expected. That was,

00:36:53.720 I, the year I did it before, I think I fell like four times. So I, I'm prepared to fall.

00:36:58.040 So you're getting better. You're improving.

00:37:00.320 Yeah. I'm improving.

00:37:01.560 What was the injury that you, I wasn't sure that I caught what your injury was.

00:37:05.020 Again, I wish I had a cool story for this, but no, I took my family to California and

00:37:11.160 some of my kids had never seen the beach. So we went to the beach and some family members that

00:37:15.480 were with us, they had some surfboards and I thought, Hey, you know, it'd be fun if I were

00:37:20.060 to go surfing without any legs. So I tried that and I thought, Oh, I'm going to try to,

00:37:24.820 to get up on my stumps and balance that, you know, how awesome would that be? And I did it one

00:37:30.360 time. Oh, that was good. And I tried it again. The second time I kind of went over as

00:37:34.940 the wave crashed and then my stump had landed on, I would believe a rock and, um, thought I broke

00:37:41.280 it. Couldn't wear my leg for a while. The plus side is, is that I got that wheelchair pass at 0.99

00:37:45.780 Disneyland. So we got on all the rides really quickly. And then, uh, but again, it took me a

00:37:50.380 while. I had a marathon that Saturday I had to back out of, and then I was finally able to walk.

00:37:55.960 And it was about almost six weeks before I felt comfortable to, to run, you know, maybe

00:38:02.860 a mile. Hmm. So the recovery process essentially was just, just time off your feet a little bit

00:38:08.160 and just recovering. Yeah. Recovering oil and tried every kind of medicine out there that

00:38:14.900 helped try to help with healing CBD oil, lots of ice, lots of different natural things besides

00:38:21.300 just ibuprofen. So, right. Hmm. Well, Sid, I want to tell you, man, I really appreciate you. I mean,

00:38:27.380 it's inspiring to listen to your story and all the things that you're doing. And man, I've been

00:38:31.160 wanting to have this conversation for so long. I do want to ask you a couple of questions as we get

00:38:35.720 winded down here. Uh, the first one is what does it mean to be a man? I think to be a man, I mean,

00:38:43.340 every man is obviously a different person, but I think, and this sounds so cliche, you just have to be

00:38:50.020 humble. You have to accept criticism man itself. I think the natural man is rather selfish. And, um,

00:38:57.880 I think it's important to focus on, you know, other people serving other people. There's always

00:39:04.020 going to be someone better than you. And so to focus, to be the best, it's, it's almost a lost

00:39:09.180 cause, but I think a man is also someone that, uh, you know, has pride too. Uh, and not in a,

00:39:16.040 in a negative way, but in a good way, I think to be pride is positive thing. One that you could

00:39:20.880 take care of others and a man that, um, uh, something that you could be proud of.

00:39:25.560 Right on wholeheartedly agree with that. Well, again, Sid, I appreciate you, man. I appreciate

00:39:29.480 how you show up in our friendship and just being able to spend a little time with you. It's been

00:39:33.240 inspiring to see you. And I know a lot of guys are going to resonate with this because,

00:39:36.480 you know, we all deal with challenges and all of our challenges look different and,

00:39:41.260 but we all deal with them. And I think some people let those challenges get the better of

00:39:46.600 them. And I think other people like yourself rise to the occasion and become better men

00:39:51.600 because of those challenges. And that's what I admire and respect in you. And just want to let

00:39:55.800 you know, I appreciate you taking some time to, to share your story and a little bit about who you

00:39:59.320 are. Thanks, man. Thank you. There it is, man. My powerful, powerful conversation with a man that

00:40:06.180 I admire, a man that I respect and look up to and am inspired by in a lot of ways, Mr. Sid Smith.

00:40:12.120 So guys, if you would go connect with Sid, let him know what you thought about the show,

00:40:15.880 connect with him on Instagram, very active over there and, uh, connect with me as well. Let me

00:40:20.620 know what you thought about the show. Let me know how you're inspired. Uh, I love hearing from you guys

00:40:24.840 what's working well in your life, where you're wanting to improve and how you're wanting to grow.

00:40:29.540 This movement, as I said before, is just, is absolutely incredible. And it's a testament to guys like

00:40:34.340 Sid. It's a testament to guys like you who are tuning in and not just tuning in, but tuning in

00:40:39.120 and also doing the work. And that is the most important thing. You know, we all have big goals

00:40:43.860 and we all have aspirations and we all have things that we want to accomplish. But at the end of the

00:40:47.240 day, if we don't put these things into practice, then none of that really matters. And I got to tell

00:40:51.600 you, I'm inspired by each and every one of you. When I receive the messages that say, Hey, I'm improving

00:40:57.240 my relationship or I'm connecting with my kids. And I just got a promotion and I just started this

00:41:01.180 business or I lost 30 pounds or I ran my first marathon. These are the types of things that

00:41:05.540 inspire me. They motivate me. They uplift me. I thought this was going to be simply an inspiring

00:41:11.320 podcast for you. And I certainly hope it is, but I never had any idea how much it would motivate and

00:41:17.540 drive me to do bigger things in my life. So guys, if you would, on that note, just share the show.

00:41:22.600 All right, share, share the podcast, share the movement, talk about what we're doing here,

00:41:26.440 reclaiming and restoring masculinity. It's my goal to make this a top ranked podcast. And we can do

00:41:33.380 that through your help and you sharing. And of course the message and me trying to improve my

00:41:39.280 ability to communicate a message as well. So I appreciate you guys glad we're on this journey

00:41:43.480 together. And we certainly are on this together. I'm in the fight in the trenches, just like you

00:41:47.180 are until tomorrow for my ask me anything with Mr. Kip Sorensen, go out there, take action and

00:41:52.640 become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:41:59.380 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:42:03.440 We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

Order of Man - November 13, 2018

Turning Tragedy into Triumph ｜ SIDNEY SMITH

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