The Things We Notice — The Wrong Turn

When we came home from Portugal, we said it wasn’t one of our favorite trips. Four years later, Teresa and I were laughing about it before we could even finish telling the story.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, I take you to Portugal’s Douro Valley, where a dead GPS left us retracing our route and a search for a vineyard ended with a tense turnaround on a narrow mountain road. We never made it to that vineyard. Somehow, it’s still one of our favorite stories from the trip.

Sometimes the parts we wish had gone differently are the ones we’re glad we remember.

This Week’s Consideration

What’s a trip or ordinary day that didn’t go according to plan but has become a story you love to tell? Consider calling someone who was there and asking, “Do you remember when…?”

Connect with Me

• Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com

• YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast

• LinkedIn: Dave Gast

Stay curious. Live intentionally. Take the next step.

Life changes outside the walls.

Ten years after leaving a company, I was on a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons when a conversation in a hotel lobby opened the door to going back. A former client had remembered our work together and mentioned my name. That unexpected recommendation led to nearly eight more years with the company, right up to retirement.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, we consider what we pick up along the way when life takes a turn we didn’t plan. Sometimes we only recognize what a detour gave us when we get a chance to use what we learned or reconnect with someone who remembers us.

In this episode, we’ll consider:

• Why the way we leave a chapter matters, even if we never return

• What we bring back to a familiar place after time away

• How our priorities can help us decide whether it’s time to change direction

This Week’s Consideration

Think about an unexpected turn in your own life. What did you learn, who did you meet, or what do you still carry today because you went that way?

Connect with Me

• Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com

• YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast

• LinkedIn: Dave Gast

Life changes outside the walls.

Sometimes, a relationship grows quietly for years before a small moment helps us notice what it has become.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, Dave Gast shares how coffee shop conversations through Big Brothers Big Sisters and visits with sponsored children in Guatemala through Unbound became opportunities for connection, laughter, and learning.

From a nervous first meeting to an unexpected offer to pick up the lunch bill, these stories explore what can grow when we make room for someone—and remain open to what they can teach us.

Three things to consider:

• We have something to learn from each other. Different experiences can help us see life from another perspective.

• Ordinary moments matter. Coffee, letters, games, and conversations become the history of a relationship.

• Relationships can keep growing as life changes. A connection that begins during high school can become a lasting source of trust.

A question for reflection:
Is there someone you could make a little room for—and what first step could you realistically sustain?

Part of The Things We Notice, a chapter of Outside the Walls about the people, experiences, and ordinary moments that shape our lives.

Visit OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com.

Stay curious. Live intentionally. Take the next step.

Life changes outside the walls.

More than 20 years after receiving a collection of handwritten notes from two company leaders, Marc Winchester and Eric Sellers, I rediscovered them while cleaning out my office after retirement.

The sales months, goals, awards, and President’s Club trips had become memories—but their words were still doing their work.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, we consider how a few honest words of encouragement can outlive the moment in which they were written. We may not realize which words another person will carry for years, but we can choose to notice their effort, recognize their character, and tell them what we see.

In This Episode

• Why words connected to one moment can remain meaningful decades later

• How encouragement can become more valuable with time

• The difference between recognizing someone’s results and recognizing the qualities behind them

• Why we shouldn’t assume people know what their words have meant to us

• How each of us is leaving words behind through our notes, conversations, and relationships

This Week’s Consideration

Who has encouraged you in a way that stayed with you longer than they probably know?

Don’t assume they know. Tell them.

Then consider one more question: Who might need a few honest words of encouragement from you today?

Featured Quote

“The note may take five minutes to write. But the words may stay for a lifetime.”

Connect with Me

Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com
YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast
LinkedIn: Dave Gast

The last practice was over. It was dark. Before we headed home, my son wanted to walk around the football field one more time—by himself.

Years later, I still remember watching him.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, I reflect on four years of coaching my son and his grade-school teammates in football and track. There were championships and exciting plays, but there were also moments whose meaning has stayed with me: encouraging teammates from the sideline, contributing wherever the team needed help, and jogging around a track together while singing a song.

Those boys are grown men now. Some of their friendships—and my connections with them—continue today.

Sometimes we say yes to an opportunity without knowing how much it will give us. For me, coaching brought memories, relationships, and the chance to watch those boys grow.

In this episode, we explore:

• How saying yes can open our lives to unexpected experiences.

• Why every person’s contribution matters to a team.

• The friendships and connections that continue after a season ends.

Something to consider

Think about a group you were once part of—a team, a neighborhood, or a circle of friends.

Who from that chapter is still part of your life? Who comes to mind that you’d like to reconnect with?

Consider reaching out to them this week.

Connect with Me

• Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com

• YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast

• LinkedIn: Dave Gast

If this episode brings someone to mind, consider sharing it with them.

Stay curious. Live intentionally. Take the next step.

And remember… Life changes outside the walls.

The Things We Notice — The Person Who Showed Up

Sometimes the people who shape our lives aren't the ones who make the biggest speeches or offer the perfect advice.

They're simply the ones who keep showing up.

In this episode of Outside the Walls, Dave reflects on his relationship with his older brother—from tagging along with the older kids and watching him play baseball, to Friday night football games, fraternity memories, weddings, career changes, and a cup of coffee that came at exactly the right time.

After their father passed away during Dave's junior year of high school, his brother attended every football game of Dave's senior season—home and away—and brought their mom with him.

At the time, it simply felt like his older brother being his older brother.

Years later, Dave sees it differently.

Because one of the things we begin to understand as we get older is that showing up often costs something: time, changed plans, an extra drive, or simply making room in a busy life when someone we love needs us.

And sometimes we don't fully recognize those sacrifices until years later.

In This Episode

• What an old photograph of two brothers in a crib revealed decades later

• The impact of an older brother who made room for his younger sibling

• Why showing up mattered even more after the loss of their father

• A memorable high school football night—and the photographs that remain priceless today

• The significance of being best men in each other's weddings

• The cup of coffee Dave's brother shared with him the morning after a career setback

• Watching that same generosity and guidance extend to the next generation

• Why getting older can help us recognize sacrifices we couldn't see at the time

Something to Consider

Who has been showing up in your life for so long that maybe you've stopped noticing they're doing it?

A parent.
A sibling.
A spouse.
A friend.
A mentor.

Maybe someone has quietly been in the stands for you again and again.

If someone comes to mind, tell them.

You don't need a Hall of Fame induction.
You don't need a special occasion.

Maybe you just need a cup of coffee.

Connect with Outside the Walls

If this episode brings someone to mind, consider sharing it with them—and maybe take a moment to tell them what their presence has meant to you.

Stay curious.
Live intentionally.
Take the next step.

And remember: Life changes outside the walls.

#OutsideTheWalls #TheThingsWeNotice #ShowingUp #Relationships #Family #Brothers #Gratitude #LifeLessons #PersonalGrowth #Legacy

Outside the Walls Podcast
The Things We Notice — Sunday at Grandma’s
October 1, 2026 | Episode 25
Host: Dave Gast

Episode Description

What ordinary moment from your childhood doesn’t seem so ordinary anymore? For me, it starts with the sound of fried chicken sizzling in Grandma’s cast-iron skillet.

In this episode, I begin a new chapter of Outside the Walls: The Things We Notice. After exploring what holds us back, we’re turning toward the people, experiences, and everyday moments that shape our lives.

Through memories of Sunday dinners, family laughter, and my grandmother Maggie, I explore how routines become treasured memories. Join me around the table—and consider what’s worth noticing in your own life today.

Featured Story

Almost every Sunday, my mom, dad, brother, and I went to Grandma’s for dinner. We called her Maggie, and she even signed our birthday cards that way. She managed the William Small Memorial Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, but to me, it was simply where Grandma—and the fried chicken—could be found.

There were mashed potatoes and gravy, great rolls, and enough laughter to stay with me for decades. Maggie had a way of finding humor in ordinary life, including the chicken crumbs she claimed she was saving for later. Back then, it was just Sunday. Looking back, I see how much those afternoons gave us.

Important Points

• Ordinary traditions can become our most meaningful memories, even when nothing about them feels special at the time.
• What we inherit includes humor, habits, and ways of caring that we learn by spending time with the people we love.
• We can notice the people and moments shaping our lives today without turning every gathering into a grand occasion.

Memorable Quotes

• “Most of the ordinary traditions in our lives don’t announce when they’re ending.”
• “Until eventually...without realizing it...a routine becomes a memory.”
• “Sometimes the things that shape our lives don’t look particularly important while they’re happening. Sometimes...they just look like Sunday.”

Dave’s Three-Step Approach

1. Remember an ordinary moment from your life: a Sunday dinner, a porch conversation, or a car ride with someone you loved.
2. Consider what you notice now that you missed then—the care, laughter, or sense of belonging within that familiar routine.
3. Bring that awareness into a moment this week. Pay attention to the people, sounds, and conversations while you’re there.

Something to Consider

What ordinary moment from your own life doesn’t seem so ordinary anymore? What do you notice about it now that you didn’t notice then?

A New Chapter: The Things We Notice

The Ten Walls explored what can quietly hold us back. This next chapter explores what we discover once we’re outside them—the people, experiences, unexpected turns, and ordinary moments that deserve our attention.

Connect with Me

• Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com
• YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast
• LinkedIn: Dave Gast

If this episode brought someone to mind, consider sharing it with them. Follow Outside the Walls for a new conversation each week.

Stay curious. Live intentionally. Take the next step. And remember... Life changes outside the walls.

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#OutsideTheWalls #TheThingsWeNotice #SundayAtGrandmas #FamilyMemories #LifeLessons #IntentionalLiving #StayCurious

What if the problem isn't looking back—but how long we stay there?

In this episode of Outside the Walls, we explore the tenth and final wall in the Ten Walls series: The Wall of Regret.

The rearview mirror serves an important purpose. It shows us where we've been and helps us understand what's behind us. But it was never designed to show us where we're going.

Regret can work the same way.

We revisit decisions we would make differently today. We wonder about opportunities we didn't take, words we wish we'd said—or hadn't said—and roads we chose not to travel.

And hindsight can make those choices seem much more obvious today than they actually were at the time.

In this episode, we explore how to use the past without allowing ourselves to live there:

Look back.
Acknowledge what happened and recognize what you might do differently today.

Learn from it.
Instead of only asking, “Why did I do that?” consider asking, “What did that teach me?”

Look forward.
We can't make yesterday's decisions with today's wisdom—but we can decide what we do with today's wisdom.

Because the problem comes when reflection becomes residence.

As we close the Ten Walls series—Comfort, Fear, Approval, Busyness, Perfection, Waiting, Comparison, Success, Certainty, and Regret—we're left with a different question:

What's waiting for us outside?

And that's where we're going next.

Something to Consider

What's something in your rearview mirror that you've been looking at for too long?

Not something you need to forget or pretend didn't happen.

Something you can learn from—and then allow yourself to look forward.

The rearview mirror has a purpose. It just wasn't designed to show us where we're going.

Connect with Me

Website: OutsideTheWallsPodcast.com
YouTube: Outside the Walls with Dave Gast
LinkedIn: Dave Gast

Hashtags

#OutsideTheWalls #WallOfRegret #Regret #PersonalGrowth #LifeLessons #LookForward #IntentionalLiving #SelfReflection #StayCurious