Turning Tragedy into Triumph ｜ SIDNEY SMITH
Episode Stats
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203.66031
Summary
Sidney Smith is a double amputee and does his walking and running on prosthetics. In this episode, we talk about overcoming the fear that he faced as he made the decision to have his legs amputated, focusing on the positives of life, and getting used to pain.
Transcript
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Guys, every once in a while, you meet somebody so special that you know, you just need to connect
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with this person more. And today I have the opportunity to share my conversation with one
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of those people, Sidney Smith. I met him very, very briefly at a 5k last year. And then earlier
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this year, I had a chance to spend a couple of hours hiking down a mountainside while shooting
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our bows at the total archery challenge. And that really doesn't sound that special until you learn
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that Sid is a double amputee and does his walking and running and everything else that he does,
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which you'll learn about on prosthetics. So today we talk about overcoming the fear that he faced as
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he made the decision to have his legs amputated, focusing on the positives of life, learning to
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appreciate what we have, getting used to pain, and then ultimately turning what could be a tragedy
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into triumph. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly
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chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not
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easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.
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This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call
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yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the
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founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. I want to welcome you, as I always do. Whether you're new or
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you've been with us for any amount of time, I'm glad that you're here. We need more men in this fight.
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Trust me, it is a fight. It's a fight to reclaim and restore masculinity. I believe
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that there is a vocal minority that wants to dictate the tone of the conversation. I think
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it's up to us as noble and strong, honorable men to be dictating that conversation and to
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be talking about what it really means to be a man and giving you all the tools and the guidance and
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the direction and the skill sets and the conversations, which is what this podcast is all about, to help
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you become a more effective father, husband, business owner, community leader, whatever
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facet of life you're showing up as a man. It's my goal to equip you with the tools that you need in
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order to be more effective and more productive in those areas of your life. So we've been going strong
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for about three and a half years now, and guys, we could not do it without you. I appreciate you
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sharing this with the men in your life. I appreciate the ratings and the reviews and the
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conversations. You guys are buying books. You're supporting the show. You're sharing it with your
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friends and the people that you care about. It's evident. It's obvious that you're doing those
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things because we continue to see the growth within this podcast and organization and mission in
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general, which again is to reclaim and restore masculinity. So I want to thank you for that.
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First and foremost, we've got a very, very powerful show for you today. One of my favorites
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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,
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but man, every time I talk with this gentleman, I am more and more inspired by who he is,
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how he shows up and what he does. We're going to get into that in a minute. In the meantime,
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I do want to mention our show sponsors and my friends over at origin and specifically Pete
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Roberts. I just learned that he's in the hospital. He's down and out. He, I think he went a little
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too hard after having some injuries that he was nursing. He went a little too hard and he's in the
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hospital. So we hope him a speedy recovery guys. If you're not familiar with what Pete is doing and
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at checkout. And, uh, we'll wish Pete a speedy recover in the meantime. All right, guys, with that
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said, let's get into my conversation. I already briefly mentioned and introduced you to Sid a
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couple of months ago. Like I said, I had the opportunity to participate in the total archery
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challenge in Northern Utah with my friends over at mountain ops. And, you know, I got to meet a lot
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of great people, but I had this incredible opportunity to run the course with my guest
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today. His name is Sid Smith. I had only bumped into him one other time, but as I spent the last,
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you know, three hours walking down this mountainside with Sid and shooting our bows and having
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conversations, I was just amazed. I mean, genuinely amazed and humbled at how this man shows up in his
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life. I didn't hear him complain once. Uh, he probably actually shot better than me. Uh, I learned
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about his hunting adventures and his triathlons that he runs. I mean, this is an incredible
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individual as it is, but considering the fact that he's also a double amputee makes it that much more
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incredible. Um, he's an avid bow hunter. He's a triathlete, but man, he just doesn't let that keep
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him from living his life in a big way. And then of course, inspiring others, myself included along
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the way to do the same. Sid, what's up, man? Long time in the works. Glad to have you on the show
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today. Hey, thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it. Most of that was my fault though. I kept, uh, bailing on you
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and forgetting when we were meeting and then you had a hunt and everything else, but, uh, we're
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making it work. Yeah, definitely. Worth the wait, I guess. I'm looking at you on video right now.
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That 70.3, is that a run that you did? Yes. This one right here is the St. George one,
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the half Ironman. Oh yeah, that's right. Okay. Yeah. They moved that from a full Ironman to a half
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Ironman, I believe like after one year of doing it. Yeah. It was too hard. St. George is no place. I know,
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I know you live there, but it is hell on earth sometimes. Yes, it definitely is. It's starting
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to cool off, which is a nice thing, man. I don't know if I want to go run any Ironmans or half
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Ironmans in the heat down here at all. That's not something that's even on my radar. No, I think
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that's a, to date, one of the hardest things I've done is to deal with that kind of heat.
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Is that right? Beautiful weather though, and wintertime and beautiful town, but too hot for me.
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Yeah. How'd you get into running? Wasn't actually until a few years ago as a kid,
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I didn't like it. You know, it was just boring and I hurt because of my situation. But since I've
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been an amputee, I've been given some opportunities with running legs and always wanted to kind of feel
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like a kid now because I'm making up for last time having running blades. And I just have certain
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goals that I want to achieve that started from day one in the hospital. It included running certain
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races that I want to participate in and so forth. And so that's kind of where I'll stem from.
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Yeah. I want to get into that, man. I can't tell you how impressed I was. We went and did
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the total archery challenge, what a couple of months ago, and we were fortunate enough to
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shoot together. And man, I was so impressed. Like you went that whole time and you did every target.
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You walked everywhere we went and never beat yourself up, never got down on yourself. Like
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I was just so blown away. And I was familiar with you before that. I think we had met once before that.
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And then just spending that morning and that afternoon with you was, it was really inspiring,
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man, which is why I wanted to have you on the show.
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Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It definitely is an awesome course. I mean, it's,
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I look at it this way. I mean, the deer and the elk don't give me any opportunity as far as,
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they don't go easy on me. So I need to get, be ready on the terrain just as much as anybody else.
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So. Well, you just took a nice mule deer, didn't you? What, a couple of weeks ago?
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Yeah. Yeah. I did a, around opening day, took a nice mule deer and yeah, it felt great on the
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confidence, but at the same time it was shaking on the confidence just because I've, before that I
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had a missed opportunities and I injured one and just a lot of frustration. And to the point where
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I'm like, man, this bow hunting sucks. But when the success happened, I remember it, you know,
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why it sucks and the whole benefit from it all. And just kind of helped me realize that bow hunting is
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just like any other kind of challenge in life. The harder it is, the more the reward is at the end.
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Yeah, that's true. Man, I have so much I want to talk with you about today and so many different
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angles. I'm like, how do I, how do I cover all of this in the best way possible? You talked about
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being younger and running being not fun, not enjoyable, a challenge and a chore for you. Tell me
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a little bit about your backstory. Did you have a medical condition? I'm not even sure I quite
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understand or know the full story about how you lost your legs.
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Yeah, I wish I had a cool story like a bear attack because I think a lot of people would find that
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more entertaining. But on your show, to be honest, it was actually a disease I was born with called
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Charp Marie Tooth. It's a progressive genetic disorder. So as a kid, I was fine. My feet weren't
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having problems. It wasn't until I hit about 12 that they start to deform and the muscles would
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atrophy, making it very difficult to play sports and do some of the fun things with my friends,
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be competitive with them. As I got older, I was given some braces, kind of like what Forrest Gump wore.
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Wore that up into my 20s. But as I got older too, then bones started breaking down and then it became
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real painful to the point where it was functional to do activities. Even walking was painful.
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Did your bones actually break as you would walk and be engaged in activities or did it not get that bad?
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Towards my late 20s, early 30s is when they started breaking. By the time I went to the doctor,
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I mean, I've been in and out of surgeries, 10 surgeries throughout my life. But towards the end,
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I had about six broken bones. And I had just lived with the broken bones in my feet because I'm so
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used to the pain and the dysfunction of my legs that I just assumed that was the norm. So when
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the doctor looked at it, he's like, holy cow, yeah, we were having some major problems with your feet.
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Is it isolated to your legs or is this other parts of your body?
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The disease itself as a whole, there's so many different subtypes, but it affects all the muscles.
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Most of the types is going to be the extremities. So your hands and your feet. For me, my type is a
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little rare just because the way it was passed and the way it's historically not being shown in my
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children or my parents or my grandparents and so on. It's just very rare. But most of the severity
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has happened in my feet. Very little in my hands, but my feet was by far the worst.
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And so in your 20s, it sounds like then, did you make that voluntary decision or did the doc say,
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we've got to do this or he gave you a couple options and this is what you chose? How'd that
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work out? It was a mutual decision. It was one of those where he did start off with the options
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saying like, okay, we can give you, you know, you can keep your feet. We'd fuse them together.
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So you wouldn't have the function of, you know, doing any activities really, because you wouldn't
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have the flexion. You'd still have the pain. And a lot of times you'll spend, you know, a little bit
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in a wheelchair. Uh, so the other option was prosthetics and, and of course, to me, that was
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shocking, but at the same time, it felt like it was a risk that was worth taking. And so it was
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something that we talked about and kind of explained the whole process almost as if he was prepared for
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this conversation. And, uh, we went from there. Now I can't remember, are your legs amputated below
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the knee? Is that right? Or above the knee? Below the knee. Below the knee. So, I mean,
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not to say that's an advantage, but of course that's, that's better than being above the knee,
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right? Cause you, you're able to flex that. Absolutely. Amputees that I've met that are
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above the knee. I mean, there's some badasses out there, but it's very difficult for them to do simple
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functions that are easy for me, like standing up out of a chair or going upstairs and for a bilateral
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above knee amputee. That's a very, very difficult thing for them to do.
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Yeah. I imagine. So, so you have the procedure done and you talked about being in the hospital.
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And at this point, thinking to yourself that you made these decisions to do some of these
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physically demanding and challenging tasks. Walk me through that a little bit, because I think,
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I think most people would be pretty discouraged at that point. And I'm sure there was some elements
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of that too, but it seems like you decided to take a different path, which is, it's inspired me.
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And it certainly inspired a lot of other people that, that I know who know you as well. So walk
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me through that thought process. It definitely was a new feeling to me. I mean, it's, you gotta think
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my entire life I've dealt with pain and frustration and, and almost to the point where I didn't think
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that life was going to get any better. You know, in fact, it just was getting worse. And then with the
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stress of a job and a family, you know, as selfish as it sounds, it felt like, you know, suicide or
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harming myself in a way was the best solution. Even though you hear all these sad stories of people
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that do that, it just doesn't make sense, but it does make sense at the moment for some odd reason.
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But for me, amputation actually, I don't know for sure, but it may have saved my life because it
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brought me down a path that gave me almost a second chance to do the things I loved.
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The fact that when it got to that time and getting out of the hospital into the hospital,
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it helped me realize that I can't take advantage of what I've been given.
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This is God's way of saying, Hey, here's your chance to do these things. Don't throw them away.
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For example, if you were given a pair of wings, you know, you'd more likely want to fly everywhere
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you want to go. And for me, I was given a pair of legs and that's kind of where things stem from.
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The decision to do triathlons, although it sounds crazy, actually came in the hospital when I was
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watching television and it was on TV. And I just was super impressed and motivated that that's what
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I wanted to do and train for. It just kind of stemmed from there.
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How long between you being in the hospital in the recovery process to now I'm going to run,
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and I imagine it didn't start with a triathlon, but you running your first race in your new,
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what they call blades. Is that what they're called?
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They're called blades. I first started with, my first race was with a 5k and it was with my
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walking legs, not to get into insurance politics. Insurance don't technically like to give out
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running legs. They don't find it in necessity. Got the running legs a little bit
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later through an organization called Amputee Blade Runners. But to answer your question,
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because running is so difficult on the limb itself and for your body to adjust to that,
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I started off with swimming as soon as the stitches were out, which was about six weeks.
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And then we moved to the bike and then we moved to the run.
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No, that's a funny, that's a common question. I wish, I mean, it'd be sweet to have like a
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That's what I was saying. You can just create all kinds of different stuff to help you out a little
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bit. I'm sure people sometimes would say maybe there's an advantage, whether it's blades or a
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The guidelines for the triathlon and Ironman is no prosthetics in the water. So,
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just a wetsuit, I actually had to retrain myself, get a coach that specializes in disabled or
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challenged athletes to pretty much learn how to swim again.
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Yeah, because you don't have the foot that you're able to articulate that will help you
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When I first got in the water, I kind of sank to the bottom and I wasn't for sure what I was doing.
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And I swam in high school and a little bit in college, so it wasn't too bad to try to figure out,
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but ultimately, to get to the speed where I was, I had to get a new coach to learn how to
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almost pull in the water, where to balance my hips and so forth.
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Yeah, I imagine. Well, you said something interesting and I did want to ask you this,
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and I try to be sensitive about this, but maybe I shouldn't. I mean, you're so accustomed to it
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and you're willing to talk about it. You said disabled and then you said challenged athlete.
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What do you consider yourself? I mean, do you even use those terms at all and just say athlete
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or do you use those terms? That's a good question. When I use the word disabled,
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it's only on the reason for people to understand.
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Yeah, in context. Or if I'm talking to somebody that I know well, I won't use that word disabled
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because really the only thing about me and just some of the things that I've accomplished and
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I've learned about myself is this ability really wasn't in my legs. It wasn't what was holding me
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back. I mean, there's a lot of people that are able-bodied that I'm able to beat in races and
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do things that they're not willing to do. What was the disability was actually in that fear process
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as I went through a process of fear was I was afraid to move on with my life and whether I'm
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going to be in the hospital for the rest of my life. Am I going to have all these medical bills?
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And my wife's still going to find me attractive. Am I going to play with my kids? All those things
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that piled up really was when I look at disability, that was the disability, not so much the legs.
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How did you overcome that? And maybe you haven't fully, maybe there's probably still some of that
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in your life. How do you, how do you deal with those questions?
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There's some days when you get to your comfort zone that sometimes those things will sneak up
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on you, but not very often do I have a day where I get frustrated or I get the woe is me attitude.
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For me, it's just a couple of things, serving others, not thinking about yourself, focusing on
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things that you have. Like I have a great job. I have a great family. I still have my hands. I still
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have my health, my hair, sort of. Well, you got a good beard coming in. You need to grow that a
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little longer, but... I was going to say, you've been an inspiration for me because I don't think I've
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chased since I've seen you. Is that right? Okay. That's cool. That's good to know.
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I don't know for sure. My wife hates it. It's usually around hunting season.
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I've just lived on the motto of you just kind of focus on the things that you have,
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you'll end up forgetting the things that you don't.
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I don't know how to say this. I guess a lot of the times it takes situations like yours
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probably to wake up. And I imagine that there's a lot of things that you may have taken for granted
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that have been restored a little bit to you. I don't want to put words in your mouth. I'm just
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trying to think about it from your perspective, what that would actually feel like.
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No, that's exactly right. Yeah. Taking things for granted. And that's probably why I've been
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living life a little bit more extreme, such as putting my prosthetics to the limit, putting my
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body to the limit. It's just because I didn't have it when I was younger and I realized what I have
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and where I am in my age. Someone once said, you'll run out of health before you run out of
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money. When I was struggling to find someone that motivated me was important. It makes me happy to
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see that I can motivate others. So me doing those things, not necessarily for them, but to share my
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experience with them, if it motivates them, I mean, that's just icing on the cake. Mountain Ops,
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they did a story, kind of a backstory of my scenario. And I can't tell you how many people
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had messaged me about, you know, going through similar destructive thoughts and how it just kind
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of changed and helped them realize, you know, Hey, if Sydney is able to do all these things,
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I don't know what my excuse is. And it's just changed their mindset to the point where they're
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making better decisions. Yeah. I mean, isn't it amazing when we start to turn our challenges outward
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and use it as a tool to assist and help other people, how some of those problems that we thought
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were there seem to melt away or, or just not be as significant as they once were.
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Yeah, no, definitely. And I look at challenges differently now. I mean, at the moment that it
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happens, it's really hard to have this mindset, but I look at my challenges. It's, it's been more
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of a blessing to the point where if I had the opportunity to live a different life, you know,
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I don't think I would pick it differently because, or, or even given a wish to take all the pain that
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I've ever had away. I don't think I'd ever want that just because of the, the things that I've
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developed as a person, as a human, better at my job, I've had more patients at home, better as a
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father. And it's just because of these challenges has been a blessing that it has been a curse.
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And what do you consider your, your greatest challenges in your life now?
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A lot of this has come pretty fast as far as trying to cope with it. Sometimes it's, you know,
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I, I find myself wanting to make everybody happy. And, and, um, sometimes it's hard with hunting and
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races. It's right now I find both of them. It sounds bad. It almost like they're almost a selfish
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activity because it does take away time from the family. And as much as I try to balance that, I,
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I find that sometimes as a challenge to try to get that balance with all these activities I want
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to do. You know, I can't forget the most important thing in my life. And that is my family. I see so
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many people out there and, and a lot of it's the perspective of social media, but you'll never be
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able to keep up with everybody. I mean, you can't be number one without letting something fall on the
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wayside. And so to answer your question, I say that that's a challenge is just to try to find that
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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
00:22:01.240
from our conversation real quick and tell you about our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council. Now this
00:22:05.720
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00:22:10.780
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00:22:17.500
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00:22:22.320
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00:22:26.080
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There's 400 plus men in there. And we have all committed to, and are working towards making
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00:22:59.060
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00:23:09.340
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You can get signed up. You can reserve your spot at the table. Again, order of man.com slash iron
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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
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.
00:37:01.560
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
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.