Chores

Transcript of a Sage Hill Live Fully Podcast conversation with Dr. Chip Dodd. Lightly edited for readability; speaker labels omitted.

You're listening to the Sage Hill podcast with Dr. Chip Dodd. Sage Hill is a social impact organization that helps people see who they're made to be so they can do what they're made to do. Hey, Chip. Hey, Stephen. Hey, man. Welcome back. Hey. Welcome back to YouTube. It's been a few weeks. It's been a while, haven't we? We tried to record a podcast. We had some technical difficulties. That's yes. Well, you you actually blame somebody. I did. And it wasn't technical. You're blaming somebody. Raged a bit. Yeah. A little bit. But, hey. You know what? We wanted to get it done. It just didn't happen. Yep. Actually, we did get it done, and it didn't record. It was one of the better podcasts we've got. Yeah. That's like the big fish. But,

yeah. Yeah. Well, we're back, and I'm glad. I'm glad too. Yeah. And we're gonna do the topic tonight that is, maybe on the front end sounds a little boring, but really when you listen to it, has a lot of depth of meaning. Well, you know what? That's that's interesting because when we're talking about doing a topic, podcast on chores, and that's what people spend their time trying to get out of the way so they can go do their lives. I know my kids do. Without a doubt. You know? Without a doubt. I don't wanna do this chore. I don't wanna do this chore. Yeah. And chore is like a chore is equated now with with sort of onerous burden, that which is, so mundane and obligated. I have to do it or There's nothing in the form of it. To do it. Yeah. And we spend our lives looking around for somebody else to do it. Did y'all on the on the farm growing up, did y'all have chores? On our farm? Yeah. Your farm. On the farm? The farm. The farm. By the way, you know what? Speaking of the farm, and we did have a, you know, it was cattle. Yeah. But, do you know How many head did y'all run?

That's all I know. I hear you. The Spurs jingle. I hear you, Spurs. Take off your cowboy hat. You're in the house. Yeah. You know, I do my people do come from West Indies. You're like that Verizon commercial. The guy have you seen it? Okay. Yeah. No. No. Seriously, how many how many head did y'all run? There were well, at one time, let's see, the most ever were 50 total. Wow. 50 Yeah. Maybe 55 when calving Okay. In the spring. Yeah. Calving in the spring. Just passed the first test. That's good. Actually, calving would be no The fall? Actually, we want it to be fall. Well, no. Actually, the spring is falling. Early spring. Early spring's yeah. But early spring, you don't want it summertime because it's too hot. Yeah. Don't want it in the cold, cold winter because it's too cold. But so really early spring usually. Y'all had a bull? Yes. We had a bull. You want me to answer that or just look at you? So Now what makes you say did we have a bull? I was thinking about Calves. Calves and bulls. I was doing the math in my head. Yeah. Where did you get the calves? Do you know what a heifer is? It's a female cow? Yes. It's a female cow that hasn't had a calf. Is I did not know that. What's a female cow that's had a calf? Cow. Believe it, it's called a cow. Yeah. A cow Wow. Is actually a female that, we're not probably gonna if we had the phone ends, we'd be basically like, you idiot. That's not right. But, I mean, yeah, a heifer hasn't had a calf. Well, on the farm growing up, what were some of the chores you you liked and didn't like? But, see, here here's the thing, Stephen. It's it's that's that's not the point. I know, but I wanna know the story. Well, the chores, you know, feeding the cattle, getting them up, worming, keeping the the doing the, the nets for keep the flies off the back. Should use a roller and put oil. It's like, I think we used diesel and something else. Oh, my gosh. So they rub. It's called rub, cow rubs. They rub and get the it's kind of a a repellent on them and, keep the flies off. And then, we would do, worming and, put them in a cattle cattle gate. How'd you worm them? Just you you squirt something in their mouths. Okay. Yeah. Then, of course, we there was a year that I took over, completely took over the herd for some reasons that we don't need to go in tonight, but but I remember I I had, I, created, I think I had 18 steers. You know what a steer is? A cow with horns? No. How many heads y'all were? Actually, you know what? You know, a a polled cow is one without horns. Pold, g o l l e d. Chop them off? Well, no. They don't have them. Oh, there's Yeah. Chopped off. I don't know what he called a cow that has horns and chopped them off. I don't know. So because, you know, one of the reasons why I'm asking you to be in the suburbs. I grew up in the suburbs. We didn't have chores. But you did. Well, we, yes. No. No. See, that's that's the big mistake. I mow the yard. I mowed the yard.

I, would wash a car every now and then. I would, mow the yard. Right. But chores chores are really, chores are work. That's what that's what chores are. The things we do to get to what we, or do the work for. And it's not just to take time off. I mean, chores, like, look, I'm the first generation which is so wild and it's it's you know, we've talked a lot about me getting older but I'm not supposed to You've talked a lot about you. I know because it's such a strange thing to me but it's still but I'm the first generation to not walk behind or grow up behind what's called a double shovel plow Yep. And a mule. Mules. I mean, that is That's really amazing. That is a strange Yeah. Thing these days. And it's not it doesn't document my age. It actually documents my How much past, how much heritage. Well, yeah. And and, how really where my own my own people, my own father came from, a place where they they did not get a tractor until, he was out of college. Wow. And then they they had to have a tractor at that point. The the sons were gone. The sons went to college. The ones who did the plow. Plowing were gone. And he he talks about remembering, dreaming, the plowing and dreaming about how he was never gonna plow again in terms of what he was gonna do. Yeah. But, anyway, so talking about chores, I just wrote a blog on chores, and they do three things for us. One is that they they test our willingness, to do whatever it takes to get something completed. Like, if you got a mission, you gotta do a lot of chores to get it done. And two, they really kinda they're like heart checks. They test whether or not we're, willing to do, you know, whatever it takes to get there. And then three, there's there's checks on our stamina and the ability to persevere in the face of inevitable

obstacles. That that first one? Like, say the first one again. This willingness to, to see if you're willing to do what it takes to do what you need to do to get to Michigan Police. Like maintenance. Maintenance. I'll tell you, you know, as as you know, a few years ago, we stepped into starting this business, H. Hill Counseling. And it you know, I run my own small businesses, and we run projects. And you've talked about, you know, CPE, a lot of business. But, like, it's opened my eyes how much of business is just doing the small things. Yeah. It's just small thing. Yeah. It's nothing grand. Willingness to do it. Yeah. It's it's like the, you know, from from the return the phone call to balance the checkbook Yeah. To to take the garbage out, make the garbage out. Clean, making sure the place is presentable, moving the furniture where it needs to go, keeping up with what it looks like, making sure there's paper in the machine, paper there. And it's not just that the person who runs it has to do it all, but they're there to also make sure someone does it and that everything's in working order so that the mission can be completed. Well So chores are not really actually made to be onerous. In fact, I think chores are the things we get to do as we move towards a vision we hunger to complete. And if you don't have a vision, chores are honorous burdens. If you have a vision, chores are the steps you take to get to where you want to go. Mhmm. So it it they're they're not but but they're hard. I mean, they're the things we have to do. Like, when when I was on the I was on the wheat harvest in in, years ago and, every morning at 05:30 we, got up. First thing we did, we we maintenanced all the combines and we maintenanced the trucks. And then we would combine wheat all day long. In fact, it was the the year I did it, the summer I did it, we, it was the year of the drought. There was no rain. So we we worked seven days a week, sixteen hours a day for weeks and weeks. Started at Red Oak, Texas, at the bottom of The United States kinda, and went up to a small town in South Dakota, just straight to so we followed the harvest. We followed the ripening of the grains. And so that's a long journey. We had a mission. We had, like, a picture of where we're gonna get to. But the maintenance allowed us to get there. The daily attending to the things that need to be done so that things work for us to finish a mission. So they're they're not

they're really very, very important. Man, the people being The person I know that does the best job of that is Heather, my wife. Yeah. I mean, just her just tended to the daily care of our families. Yes. And it it just made total sense when I never thought about it. She lives with such a passion and a mission for our families. That that stuff is Right. And then when she when when you or she or we or Sonya or I, when we lose sight of what it's for in terms of or we're we're not recognized for being a part of it, we're seen as in the backroom like a machine doing something instead of there's a person who's applying themselves to care, then chores do become what we think of as onerous rather than a a way of expressing value to the the the people, the mission. And so it's all about heart. I mean, it's it's it's it's amazing. I'm bringing my heart to it. The chore then has greater meaning and greater purpose. If I'm not, then almost a chore dehumanizes me. I just become this robot going through the motions of my life. Yeah. And and do you do you think about, now this is I know this is a bit trite, but or maybe people think it's trite, but if you go into, in fact, if you go to Disney World and you go into a restroom at Disney World, there's almost always an attendant nearby or in there. And they're they're where they're a character. I mean, there are no such thing as employees at Disney where they are characters, and they're there to keep things presentable, to keep the vision alive. Yep. And the bathrooms are usually clean. And there are thousands of people who go through there, but they're being attended to all the time. And I always I mean, I always make sure I speak to the guy, and I'm grateful that that he keeps up the or she, what's the he in the classroom? In the men's room. That would be weird if it was a she. I was trying to make sure I was gender appropriate. Yeah. But I mean Do you go to the gender neutral church? No. I don't well, I guess I don't know. I don't know if they have them yet, but I'm sure they will. But but the the somebody is attending to making sure that the thing runs, and that person's very valuable. And if they become invisible, then it becomes what we think of as a chore. What what the what people who I think are arrogant or shallow or immature refer to as chores. And they see people who have to do chores as somehow wasting their time when actually a person's willingness to do chores is actually expressing something,

you know, that want something to work. We just had dinner a few minutes ago and I told you this story and it comes back to me. I was getting my car from, Eurofix this week, getting some work done on it. And I went went to pick my car or dropped my car off. It was early in the morning and they let me in and I got all the paperwork done and I was waiting for my ride to come get me. And this guy walked in and at first I thought he was another customer. Right? Because he's wearing a tie and a coat and looks like a business guy. And then he started turning the lights on, the lamps and the coffee maker and the TV. He got all the lounge going. Yeah. When Phil calls opening the shop Opening the shop. So many times, he said, I like to get there early to open the shop so that it is ready to go. Yeah.

And so I said to the guy, I said, so you work here? He's like, yeah. I said, what do you do? He goes, I just take the trash out. That's my job. And I'm thinking, this guy looks too nice to take the trash out. But maybe that's what he does. This place is so cool. It's Ritz Carlton with car tires. Maybe. And the more I talked to him, I found out a few minutes in the conversation, he was the general manager of the of the store. And he started out taking the trash out. Like, he got out of auto digital college, and he couldn't get a job as a service tech anywhere. But the only job he could get was taking the trash out at Eurofix and then he was waiting tables at night. Right? And he did that until the he was waiting for a service tech job opening, but the front desk op job opened first, and he saw it and he told me, well, I'm good with people. I guess I could, you know, I guess I could work at the front desk. Mhmm. Took that job. A few years later, he's general manager of the store, but he was still telling me, I still take the trash out. See, that that's a guy who has a a a picture

of a future of wanting Yep. More. So he has a mission. Yep. And then he says, what am I I'm willing to do all things to get there. Yep. Because he finds all things valuable as expressions and stepping stones to to to the mission. And finds joy even in the in taking the trash out and turning the lights on. Yeah. You know, a second thing that, make chores really, a word, that has great value is chores really do test, whether you're you really have your heart in a vision or you just had a good idea that you're not really willing to stay with. You know, like, I mean, you know, I've written well, by the time we have, the giraffe's book or the parenting book out, I've written or cowritten five books. And I have a work that's separate from writing. Mhmm. And I'm not saying I'm a great writer by any means, or saying that, you know, we neither one of us have produced, what we call a bestseller in terms of known to the public. Right? Well, I mean, I'm not sure if the Sugar Lake Beach have a book that's known to the public. But but either are Yeah. The New York Times bestseller. Yes. It's like yeah. And and but the point is that both of us have been willing to do the chore of honoring the thing in our hearts. Like, you know, my mission in life is to help people see who they're made to be so they can do what they're made to do. And I've always turned towards the writing as a way to not have to be there to say, you know, we can have this. But writing, you know, outside of work Laborious. And it's one word at a time. It is one word at a time. One page at a time, one chore at a time. I mean, and so you you have to let go of the outcome. The the process takes actually, you start to write a book and through the end of the book, it's it's like, you know, when people start advertising movies and talk shows, they had finished that movie a year before. They're talking about like it's brand new. So, you know, the chore of writing is really heart check. It's to see if your heart's true to the I was speaking the other night

and someone was asking me about writing books and stuff and I said the difference between an author and a not author is an author wrote wrote every day, spent the time putting words on a page. Yeah. And pretty much anybody, if they're literate, could write a book. Yeah. But not many people will take the time to go word after word after word. And do you know that most you you may not remember this, but, I heard as I was finishing up graduate school that, eighty eight percent of people who, do not complete their PhDs are what's called all but dissertation. They've done all the classwork, everything up to the point in which it's time for the chores Yeah. And which is at the heart check to see are you gonna finish. So the difference between a PhD and all but dissertation and all those years of work people are doing is a dissertation Yeah. Which is that one step at a time, one day at a time, you know, just the and but if you got a vision and you you got the heart for it, then chores are what you do to for that vision to come true. So chores are not menial things, you know. They're But you have to remind yourself of the heart vision to step into them, frankly. You have to start with the heart vision, not the chore. Which is an internal motivation Yep. Versus an external reward focus. I mean, you know what I'm saying? You have to have an internal motivation to be chore oriented. Because there's no payoff in chores. No. No. And and and then, you know, a third thing that, I was thinking about related to the benefit of chores is that it it really is a stamina check because a person who has a vision, they gotta be willing to stay on chore, to stay on task. It's a it's a perseverance check. And for example, like, in in Middle Tennessee, this is just kind of one of these, like, you know, you use some of this mock farm boy on me, but, you know, but, but, I mean, it's like, but, you know, I I I come from a lot of different places, so, yeah, there's some farming. But, in Middle Tennessee, if you're going to dig something, plant something, make a ditch, you're going to hit a rock. You're going to hit a rock. And and there are rock fences all over Rutherford County, and and and where where sorghum and alfalfa and corn and soybeans are flourishing. Mhmm. They move the rocks. I mean, I remember, you know, being hired just moving rocks. And that's where the rock fences came from. They're not always, you know, antebellum fences. They they're people piled rocks. Yep. And and what's amazing is that that willingness to pile rocks is is kind of a test of perseverance, and they're built by sweat, and they're built by strength with an eye on a prize.

You know? So chores Wait. So you said that. I thought chores are a purification process. They purify our hearts. Yes. And they're noble. Even to the point that they're they're noble, if you have a vision for a future and it takes faith to take the next step. And people who do chores well with this is fascinating to me. People who do chores well, they're sure of what they hope for and they're certain of what they do not see. You talked about Heather attending to the family Oh, it's amazing. With what we think of as the menial task. It is a noble act of consistent faith. Yep. She's sure of what she hopes for for her children and her husband and herself and her place and her and she's she's certain of what she does not see. I mean, the woman's walking in faith. Yep. You know? And and so people who do chores and are willing to do chores, they're not proving that they're willing to do whatever it takes. Not some kind of false humility.

Something that's an act of nobility. It's an act of nobility. It makes that makes me think of, you know, some of my time I spent as a counselor. Right? And we a lot of times we call counseling, like, doing your work. You know? And Sure. It's a chore. And the difference between somebody who has an inside awakening versus somebody who does their work to heal and grow and mature is who you are with yourself. What's your character after the inside? Are you going to stay in it? Are you going to keep showing up? You know, feel your feelings, tell the truth, trust press the process, trust God in the process. Are you willing, patient, work and time? Like, are you doing the thing? Yeah. You know, and it's like, I'm going, oh, my gosh. Like, that's the chore of therapy is showing up in the in your own therapy

to attend to the small things so that big changes can be made in the long term. Wow. Yeah. Man, this is a great podcast. But you know what too? It's it's good. I'm making all kinds of connections. Yeah. It's it's awesome. I mean, I didn't think of that too, but, the this they're they're doing their work. And I was thinking that, there there's sort of two groups of people who escape the purpose and benefit and blessings of chores. There's the there's a group of people who are arrogant and beyond chores in terms that they've worked themselves into a position in which they, can, look down on Mhmm. People who do chores. Mhmm. And then there are people who are so discouraged they don't see any purpose in them. Yeah. So, you know, they're they're too the the arrogant and the the the discouraged. But I mean, it's a chore to plant flowers. It's a simple menial task, but my gosh, the Oh, the gifting. Yeah. Sitting on the porch and looking at a hard work's day done is Yeah. Oh. Yeah. And zinnias, I remember when I was a kid, zen I think zinnias are beautiful. Yeah. And there's a bunch of zinnias in the backyard. Mhmm. Pretty. Yeah.

Gorgeous flowers. People who do chores are creative people. Makes you know what their chores are about. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you, Steve.