The Nick Bare Podcast - 048: How To Show Up and Crush 2024

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

In this solo podcast episode, I share my top six actionable tips for crushing 2024. I'll be breaking down the why, what, and how of reading more, controlling what you consume, taking ownership and accountability of the process and outcome, exploring your curiosities, not confusing movement with progress, and adopting a "no bad days" mindset. Let's take action and crush our goals in 2024. Enjoy! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 1:33 Welcome 2:33 2023 was a challenging year 7:24 Read more  22:27 Control what you consume  26:52 Take ownership and accountability of the process and the outcome 34:31 Explore your curiosities 39:25 Don’t confuse movement with progress 45:36 The no bad days mindset

In this episode, I'm going to discuss how to show up and crush 2024. And I share with you six things you can take action and implement right now, which is to read more books, control what you consume, take ownership and accountability of the outcome, explore your curiosities, don't confuse movement with progress, and a no bad days mindset. And as much as I curate this list and this content to share with you,

it is just as much a reminder to myself how to put in the work, show up and execute on 2024. For a lot of people, 2003 was a hard year. It was a challenging year for myself. I think every year, and does have hardship and challenge. It's what forges us to grow. But just because you're going through hardship and challenge or even loss,

it doesn't mean you have to stop showing up and executing. You can keep winning. You can keep breaking PRs and accomplishing goals even through tough times. And that's what I want to share with you in today's episode. So thanks for tuning in and let's dive into it. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the podcast, the first episode of 2024. And I thought it was fitting to talk about how to crush 2004. So I listed out, I followed these things on a morning run over the last couple days. I have six things I'm going

to talk about in this episode. Six actionable things, steps, items that you can implement right now to crush 2024. And over this next year, I'm going to be creating a lot of content around this topic of what was 2023 for me because I feel like I need to share it. So I'm going to give you some information right now without a lot of context, which may be confusing, but I'm going to discuss this further in this next year. 2023 was arguably the most challenging year of my life personally and professionally.

And from the outside looking in, there was no way to see or understand that because a lot of great things happen. Moved my family to Nashville, Tennessee and solidified a small satellite team here from BPN, and we'll be expanding that going to this next year, hiring more employees, bringing more team members out here, grabbing more office space, building on a gym, which has been a long time goal of mine and my families. and it happened this past year. We successfully grew BPN, the organization,

we launched new products. The team is more effective and more efficient than ever before. I trained forward, dieted down, competed in a bodybuilding show, the last man standing ultramarathon, and I p-rred my marathon at CIM with a 239 marathon just about a month ago. So there's a lot of great things that happened. But it was a really hard year.

And I share that with you to say and encourage you that you can go through some really tough shit. I mean, you can be in the suck for a long time. Weeks, months, and even years. But that doesn't mean that life stops. It doesn't mean you stop working. It doesn't mean you stop pursuing greatness and achieving your goals and working your ass off to get it done.

Because in 2023, I accomplished a lot of my goals. I made progress. I pushed forward. And I'm proud of the year as I wrapped it up, but it was a hard year. And I learned so much. I learned so much about myself, other people, business as a whole. I became a completely different entrepreneur. I learned a whole new side of business that I didn't,

know or understand before 2023. And I'm going to share that journey over the course of the next couple of months and over the course of 2024. And why am I going to share that? Why I feel like what I learned and experience in 2023 will help so many other founders of businesses, entrepreneurs, people in general. and I grew so much as a business owner, as a professional, as a human being in this past year, and it just would not be right of me to keep everything that I've learned through the experience

and not share that with the world. And that's what I'm going to be doing this next year, sharing what I learned in 2023 because it was so transformative, so transformative. and it provided me so much clarity in awakening. It solidified and confirmed my passions in the business as a father, as a husband. It really solidified and grew the foundation of my faith. So it was a great year in that sense, but it was challenging. But I wanted to share that little piece to let you know what I'm going to

going to be talking about and sharing in 2024, just like high level overview. And I also wanted to share that to say that you can go through a really tough time. 2024 might be extremely challenging. 2024 might kick your ass. It might. I mean, we're only a few days in. We don't know what the year is going to bring us. But just because you're getting your ass kicked, just because you're hitting obstacle

after obstacle headwind after headwind. wind challenge after challenge where you're like, gosh, dang, let me just come up to breathe for a second. Let me get a break for one second. Just because all that's happening doesn't mean you can't chase down your dreams, aspirations and goals, and finish the year strong. Finish the race. Finish what you started no matter what you have to go through together. That's what I wanted to share. And do it with you. the smile on your face. So it's dive into

six ways to crush 2024. Number one, read more. When I was younger, I hated reading. Hated reading. I would avoid reading at all costs. I actually remember,

so I grew up in central Pennsylvania in a town called Palmira right next to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where they have the big amusement park and it's where they started making Hershey's chocolate. I think that's now outsourced somewhere else, but that's where it all started in Hershey, PA.

And grew up in a small town next to it, and in Hershey, we had a Pizza Hut. We didn't have a Pizza Hut in Palmire growing up, but we had a pizza hut in Hershey. And when I was in elementary school, maybe some of you guys remember this. It was called, it might have been called Book It,

or just like Book Club. and essentially when you would read a book you get a ticket or like a token and you could take it to Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut would give you a free personal pan pizza

they were probably like these pizzas that were six to eight inches in diameter and my family would go it felt like every week but it probably wasn't we'd go

get our personal pan pizzas we would eat at the salad bar back when pizza it had the epic salad bar and you drank out of the red cups and the jukebox and the stained glass lights that hung over the tables just iconic nostalgic but i share that story because we would have to read a book to get the token to exchange for a pizza we were incentivized to read books to eat pizza essentially and i would make my way through these books. Sometimes, I might have skipped a few pages here and there or chapters, but I would push myself through that reading or parts of it to get the token to get the pizza.

That's what it took for me to read when I was younger. I hated reading. I saw other people that were reading fiction and nonfiction growing up through middle school, high school, college when I was in my 20s, even my late 20s. And I was like, I don't have any passion for that. I have no desire to read any of that stuff. I'd rather be doing something. And I looked down upon it. I was like, it's a waste of time.

I don't have time to read. That was my first mistake. Because the moment I actually started reading, powerful content, it changed my life. It provided me more perspective and creativity and ideas. I could hold better, more thoughtful conversations. I could articulate my words more effectively. I became a better storytelling through content that I was creating online. I became a better business owner, entrepreneur, leader.

Reading more changed my life. And what sparked my interest to read more actually, was when I started training for my second Ironman because I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time on the bike and especially the stationary bike. I was spending hours a week on my stationary trainer in my garage, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night. There were times where I was on a bike for six hours straight

doing big workouts in preparation for that Iron Man. And I quickly realized, I can sit here and ride this bike and just drift off. Or I can watch a movie, which just doesn't feel right. Like I'm working out and watching a movie or TV. I just felt like counterintuitive, counterproductive. Or I can listen to audiobooks and podcasts. So that's what I started doing.

I guess it was 2020. I started listening to audiobooks while I was, on my stationary trainer in my garage early in the morning for hours. And a lot of the books I started reading were entrepreneur focused, business focused, leadership focused. And I really didn't know where to start. I'd go on websites and I'd search for what are the best business books to be reading. I'd read blogs and articles of people summarizing the best books at certain parts of your

career or if you're going through this life transition or, you know, you're trying to solve for X, Y, and Z. Here is a list of books that might serve you well. So I would read all these articles and blogs and I would ask for recommendations. And I'd go onto my audible account and I'd download the book and I'd start listening to it while I was on the bike. And there were certain books that found me at the right time, in the right place that helped me solve a problem that I was experiencing for months. and like no lie, no exaggeration, there are certain books that change the trajectory of my life.

It helped me solve issues upon issues, problems upon problems. I remember this one book specifically, the hard things about hard things. That book helped me make the decision to let an employee go, who was a really close friend, which was one of the hardest things I've done in my life,

but it was best for them, it was best for the business, it was best for myself. And as hard as that conversation was, which I was able to do after reading this book, the hard thing about hard things, everyone was better in the end of it.

It shifted the way I thought, the way I practiced, the way I approached things in life. Not just this one book, but many books since that moment that I've read in my lifetime. And I attribute a lot of my growth personally, professionally, financially. It's a lot of the books that I've read.

Some have given me really good information that I can go and apply. Some have allowed me to just navigate thoughts in my mind, which have helped me find solutions to problems. But also some books have just taught me and shown me, that I'm not alone in the process of something that I'm currently going through or experiencing with the loss of my mom, for example, or navigating marriage, having a kid, building a business, leading a team, growing a team. Reading more has changed my life. And I often hear people say, I don't have time to read. I don't know if you have time not to read because of what it can do for your future,

if you're reading the right things. Now, the top books that I personally read in 2023. One, this is a short read. I read this one 10 minutes at a time before my morning runs, just in my kitchen. Short read, easy read, very powerful called Show Your Work by Austin Cleon. Highly recommend. Second book, Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. I referenced that book, A Fewer.

times on this podcast over the last couple weeks. Can't recommend that one enough. It's actually interesting. A little story about that one. We were at this restaurant in East Nashville a few weeks ago called Noco. And as we were sitting down and ordering our appetizers and our foods, I was just wrapping up this book, not during that dinner, but that morning. I was finishing the book that morning.

And as we're sitting at the table, the service was great, the hospitality was great. But the owner of the restaurant came over and just checked in on us, told us what his favorite items on the menu were at the moment, told us a little bit about the restaurant and their philosophies behind food and service. And I stopped him. I was like, hey man, I got to tell you, right now I'm reading Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. And his book is all about the hospitality, food industry.

how to take care of people and build a business behind trust and hospitality. Now, as I'm reading this book right now and watching you do what you're doing at your restaurant for the guests to the tables and the food, I just want to acknowledge it and say, like, you're doing exactly what like the great stew to build the most amazing restaurants and businesses. And he was obviously familiar with the book being in the restaurant industry. But you see why some of these restaurants and some of these businesses become the best of the best, why some of these people become the greatest of all time.

Part of it is skill and talent, but a lot of it is character. It's trust, it's service, selfless service, it's hospitality. That's what's setting the table with Danny Myers all about. Powerful. third book Do Hard Things by Steve Magnus. This book essentially redefines what toughness is

and how we've gotten toughness wrong and why doing hard things will encourage a tougher mindset and mentality but it's not a toughness that we all think is toughness. It's something else.

And the fourth book that I cannot recommend enough that I'm wrapping up right now. I've posted this on my social media accounts, like multiple times. The book's called Trust by Henry Cloud. A lot of these books show up in my life at the right time, right place. Like I said, it's typically when I'm going through something tough. I'm trying to find solutions to a problem that I'm experiencing.

and all of a sudden this book comes out in front of me I order it on audible I start listening to it, start reading it and it's like wow I needed this Trust by Henry Cloud is one of those books

one of the things I think you can do it's pretty powerful and it's going to sound cheesy I promise you it's not start a book club that sounds like I know it sounds probably like a elementary school side project intermural requirement.

Starting a book club doesn't have to be like this public announcement. I'm starting a book club. Everyone sign up and here's your books for the month or whatever you think it might look like. But I think there's a really powerful opportunity to get people in your circle, whether that's your business, professional life or your personal life. get people in your circle, reading the same material at the same time, and then bringing those people together, whether it's actually in person or on Zoom or just a text message thread, in discussing the book.

Because a lot of these things in the books that I read, they spark ideas. It sparks perspective. And oftentimes what I find myself doing is meeting people, going to dinner with them, spending time with them and describing them the books that I'm reading and how powerful it is in my life in hopes that they read it themselves. So one of the things we do at BPN, for example, is if I'm reading a really good book and it left impact and it was super powerful, we will recommend it to the team. Sometimes we'll even buy that book for the entire team. We just bought Set in the Table by Danny Meyer for everyone on the BPN team so they can read it because we are in the hospitality,

service business, service industry. It's a great gift you can give people too. Group of friends. Hey guys. Here's this book that I just read. Changed my life. Change my thought process and perspective. I would love for you to experience that same thing.

I bought the five of you a book. Like I will reread it again. Let's read it. Let's discuss it and let's talk about it. There's a lot of power behind that. It's one thing to read. But there's another thing to read, digest, analyze, discuss. There's so much power in that that that's why I listed it as number one, how to crush

2024. Read more. Whether that's a physical book or an audiobook. book. And actually the last thing I want to talk about in regards to reading, because I do often hear the response, I don't have time to read. I also don't just sit down in the morning or at night on a chair and read for 30 minutes, an hour, hour and a half. I like to read or listen to audiobooks while I'm doing something, I guess more so audiobooks. So when I am reading a really good book or listening to a really good book, I will listen to it while I'm running. So I run four to six days a week

between an hour, hour and a half each time. If I'm listening to an audio book on those runs, it's a great way to make progress in a book. I can finish a book in a week or two weeks based off the length of that audio book. Also, when I'm getting in my truck and driving to and from work or I'm going to the grocery store or just commuting back and forth from one place to another, I'll play the audiobook. So I'm finding these small parts of my day that could be wasted just by listening to music or sitting in silence or making a phone call or catching up on work. I'm using these moments to listen to an audio book. That way I can finish a book and say one week, two weeks, three weeks max.

That's the best way that I like to approach it and I highly recommend. Tip number two on how to crush 2004 is to control what you consume. Now, I listed this one after read more intentionally. Because when I say control what you consume, I like to think of it this way. the inputs will create the outputs. What we put in is what we will receive. Food, for example, if I eat unhealthy food, if I have a poor diet, the output will be low energy, poor body composition,

lack of performance, horrible sleep, bad mood. but if I put good, nutritious, whole natural food sources into my body, the output will be completely different. I'll have energy. I'll be in a great mood. I'll have good workouts. I'll sleep well. I'll recover well.

My body composition will shift, evolve, and change into something beautiful. The inputs create the outputs. If we put negativity in, we can expect negativity to come out. if we're surrounding ourselves with negative people, what's going to happen is that enthusiasm around negativity becomes contagious and we then become negative. We start spreading negativity.

It's like a virus. What we allow to come in will come out the other side. It's really hard to get around that or avoid that. So we have to actively control what we consume. And what makes it hard is we can't always control our exposure to everything. Going on social media, for example, you can curate what you look at, who you follow, what you follow, but you're still going to be exposed to negativity, bad things. Like social media can be really good, but it can also be really bad.

When we allow bad things to come in, we can expect. that there is something bad that comes out on the other side. TV, documentaries, films can be good, but they can also be bad, has the same effect on us. People around us can be good, they can be bad, it's kind of the same effect on us. A book that we read, a book can be good or bad, and can have the same impact on us.

So we have to actively control what we consume, and we have to be intentional with it. It has to be an active, approach and mindset. You can't just passively say, well, I'm only going to consume good things. Because if you just passively approach it that way, you have no boundaries in place. There's no guardrails set up where the bad is going to come in. And for me, one of the things I've always said with social media, for example, is I am more of a creator than a consumer. I'm listening to these audiobooks. I'm listening to podcasts.

to have positive influence and impact on me as a creator so the things that I'm creating, the ways that I'm showing up as a leader, a business owner, a dad to Charlie, a husband to Steph, the things that I'm consuming, I'm being very intentional and deliberate with so that when it comes out, it has really positive impact as opposed to the negative impact that it can. But you have to curate that. You have to set boundaries. You have to control what you consume. I've always been more of a fan, like I said, of creating more, consuming less.

Don't use these platforms, TV, Netflix, podcast, audiobooks to consume trash, because trash is going to come out the other side. Use it to consume something great and powerful so that you can use it as fuel and do something good with it. That's number two. Control what you consume. Has to be active. It is by no means a passive state. Tip number three. How to crush 2024.

Take ownership and accountability of the process and the outcome. If you haven't read extreme ownership by Jocko, Willink, and Leif Babin yet, that's where you should start. That's the first book you should read after listening this podcast. buy it, download it, read it, listen to it. Because what we accomplish, where we end up, the legacy that we create and that we leave, it all depends on the actions, the commitments, the preparation, the execution, all of it. All of it matters to put us where we want to be in this life.

and there's no one that we can hold accountable. There's no one we can blame. There's no one we can point a finger at to say, you're the reason. That's the reason I'm not where I was supposed to be. The only reason you're not where you're supposed to be or you're not going where you want to be, you find out by turning that finger

in the opposite direction of pointing at someone else, you pointed at you, because you have to be accountable, you have to be responsible, and you have to take ownership for where you're at and where you're going. You have to stop making excuses and finding every reason why you didn't

and why you can't or why you couldn't. I have a story with this because I like sharing stories to paint a picture of what I'm talking about because with this, for example, you're not where you are heading or you're not going to get what you want based off of not taking ownership or accountability.

You might think, man, yeah, I'm not that CEO of that business that I dreamed of being one day. Or I don't live in the $10 million house that I thought I was going to live in. But it can be these small things. The small actionable commitments that we don't take ownership for compound over time.

It's like a snowball. As it compounds, it builds and builds and builds. And after decades of blaming other people and other things of why you're not where you're supposed to be or where you want to be, that becomes habitual. And you turn yourself into a victim where everyone is to blame but yourself.

So you have to smash it at the smallest ounce of lack of ownership and start taking ownership for everything. It failed because of me. I didn't get my race PR because I didn't follow a nutrition strategy or I didn't put enough work into the process.

My business failed because I wasn't willing to endure the hardship required to get to the next level. I wasn't willing to have the hard conversations required to restore trust in the team. This story actually goes back to the California International Marathon that I ran a month ago. And as I've discussed, what's so unique about that race, it's a point-to-point race. So we had to wake up pretty early for the start of that race, get on buses, and then get

shuttled out to the starting line, which was 26.2 miles away. So the race started at one point, and then it goes the entire distance into downtown Sacramento, where you finish. Point to point. There's no loops. There's no recourse point to point. So it was like a 30-minute bus shuttle to the starting line. And for these 30 minutes, I'm just in the zone. I'm dialed in.

I'm focused. I'm thinking about all the preparation leading up to this moment. about my nutrition strategy, when I'm going to take my gels, when I'm going to consume my water and electrolytes, the pacing I'm going to go on on, what I'm going to be thinking about, like saying calm, collected, ready to just fucking rip and execute. I was in the zone. But I can hear people around me talking. I'm just listening to conversations.

It's dark. It's early still. You hear some people just talking about things complete other than the race. which is absolutely fine. Not everyone takes it as serious as I was taking it. People were talking about their families and where they're going for

for Christmas and all these different things. But I could hear this conversation. It was behind me off of my left shoulder, these two gentlemen talking, I could hear them talking about their preparation for CIM and the race itself. And the one guy's

talking about how he wanted to come to CIM, but he doesn't think this is going to be the race that he's going to PR because life got busy, work got busy, his kids had all these things going on, he missed workouts, he decided not do his speed workouts. He didn't get in the mileage that he wanted. So based off of life and all these things happening, he's not going to PR. He already knows it going to the race. It's going to be a bad day on the course. And I'm just a just hearing all of this negative self-talk, but more importantly, excuses, excuses of why already before going into the race, before even entering the crow of the starting line, already creating excuses of why he's not going to execute on this performance.

And it was all these reasons except for him. was his job, his wife, his kids, life happens, all these reasons why he can't take ownership and accountability of his performance. He set a goal when he started the prep. And I know some people don't take these races as serious as other people do. I think these race is pretty serious because the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. But he set a goal. in beginning the prep of the time he wanted to hit

and he didn't hit it because everyone else got in the way but it's not his fault. It's everyone else's fault. That is lack of ownership and lack of accountability. If you want to crush 2024,

you have to have very hard and honest conversations with yourself. You might need to find someone who holds you accountable, whether it's a mental, a coach, a friend, a family member, but they have to be willing to be hard on you, not be a yes man,

and tell you the truth about what it is you're doing or not doing. But if you want to crush 2024, you have to take ownership and be accountability of the outcomes that you achieve come December 31st, 20204. Tip number four on how to crush 2024. explore your curiosities. This one's a little lighter.

It's a little bit more fun. And as I was talking to Chris Williamson earlier this year on the podcast, and we're talking about people who have achieved greatness, who have become successful in the way that they define it, who have built businesses

and made a lot of money and created financial freedom for themselves and their family. One of the things that all these people have in common is that they took a risk and they were willing to explore their greatest curiosities. People who start businesses start a business because they are curious. People who sign up for a race sign up for that race because they are curious. People who do anything in life pursue that thing because they have at least a spark of curiosity of what,

what it can do for them, what they can learn through that journey and process, and what it can turn into at some point. I started my business because I was very curious about the supplement industry and entrepreneurship and deciding whether or not I can actually do this. I'm curious, can I do this?

Can I build a business with no money, no support, no help out of my college department in Western Pennsylvania? Can I do this? Can I run a sub three hour marathon? Can I run a sub 250 marathon? Can I run a sub 245 marathon? The only way you find out if you can or cannot do these things is by actually taking action and exploring the curiosities.

That's what I would encourage you to do in this next year. If you have a curiosity, if you have something you want to explore, explore, discover, see if you can or cannot accomplish or achieve it, explore it, take action, do it, try it. What's the worst that's going to happen if it doesn't work out? You end up exactly where you started. But at least you explore that curiosity. I mean, what is the reason of life?

Why are we here on this? is pretty small and short amount of time if we're not going to explore what we're actually curious and interested in. You might as well just live in this room that's about 15 feet by 15 feet and sit here and eat and work on your computer and make just enough money to do the bare minimum because you're not willing to take action on your curiosities, whether they're small or large. I will reference another book here that I read in this past year that's really good that I think might help a lot of people take action on exploring their curiosities.

And it's called Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I highly recommend this book because what holds people back significantly from exploring their curiosities is a fear of loss of security, whether that's physical or financial, feeling the need to save and hoard all their money, not spend any of it on life or experiences. And a lot of people, they work so hard to save money, to put it into an account so that when they die, it's all still there. Maybe it's passed on to generations and kids and family members, but live your life as if you're spending your money on experiences to explore your curiosities and die with zero. Now, that's a very brief overview of what that book kind of is about and

explains. And I would encourage you to listen or read it because it provides some great perspective and insight into that philosophy. But if you're going to do one thing in 2024, explore your curiosities, your curiosities. Not the curiosities that your mom and dad have for you or friends and family members have for you or your boss has for you. What are you actually curious about? And go do it.

Tip number five, don't confuse movement with progress. I got two quotes here. First for my man, Denzel Washington. Just because you're doing a lot more, it doesn't mean you're getting more done. Don't confuse movement with progress. And the second is from James Clear, you're more likely to unlock a big leap in performance

by trying differently than by trying harder. You might be able to work 10% harder, but a different approach might work 10 times better. Persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. Don't merely try harder, try differently. I love the concept of these two quotes. And I think, I don't think I know, I used to confuse movement with progress. I thought just because I was doing something, whether it was intentional or not, that busyness made me think and feel like I was progressing in life. But really, I was just spinning my wheels. I used the analogy a few weeks ago on the podcast, but imagine this person being you

and you're putting in work. But this work lacks focus and it lacks intentionality. It's just busy work. And when you're just doing busy work, you're just blocking and tackling tasks. Your feet are suspended off the floor or off the ground. So your feet are spinning and moving really fast.

You can be sprinting, but there's no traction under you, so you're staying in one spot. But then, You refine your focus, and the things that you're working on are intentional, but you're not working on as much. Like, you're working on much less than you were previously, but there's more focus around it. And now your feet are on the ground.

And with every step you take, your body actually starts moving forward. You're making progress. Where I've seen people make this mistake is actually with fitness. And again, I've been here. this. I've made this mistake. We have to put parts of our lives in compartments. And yes, there is bleed over and they contribute to other parts and compartments of our life. But think of it this way. Compartment one is fitness goals. Compartment two is our professional goals. Compartment three is our family goals. So we'll have three compartments. Fitness, work,

family. Sometimes when we are working really hard on our fitness goals, we're training more, say we're training for a marathon, for example, we're hitting our workouts, on top of our nutrition, we're fueling properly, we're getting faster, we're getting closer to that marathon, all of that work that we're doing in compartment one, we subconsciously think that we should be rewarded in these other compartments for the work that's done in our fitness compartment. So because we're working so hard towards our fitness goal that subconsciously, we think we're doing really well at our job and we should be rewarded for that job. And sometimes when we're doing really amazing at our job, we just got a promotion,

we subconsciously think that that bleeds over into our family life and we don't have to show up as the father or husband that we want or need to be because we're winning in this one compartment. That bleedover doesn't necessarily exist where just because we're crushing it in our fitness goals,

we still got to show up with that same effort professionally, that same effort with our family. We don't get rewarded in these other compartments. for the work that we're doing in one. Don't confuse the movement in one compartment for progress in your entire life.

You're just progressing in that one compartment. So we can't keep them siloed. It's a very powerful and hard concept to put into practice often because we can't measure, we can't always measure the work that we're doing with an experience. return on investment, an R-O-Y, that we don't know sometimes the work we're putting in

is going to even turn into something else. We have to hope. We have to have faith. That's part of the journey. It's part of the challenge. It's why it's so enticing. It's like the dopamine release of you're putting in the work for something. It's similar to like a slot machine where you're pulling down that slot, hoping that the money we put in, the work, the effort, is going to result in this big payout, but we don't know. That's what makes it so inviting and interesting. But just because you're moving does not mean you're progressing. Don't confuse the two.

You oftentimes have to refine that focus and do more with less. Be more intentional with what you're working on in this next year. And you will experience progress. But don't reward yourself by just being busy. with just movement. And tip number six, Steph and I are calling this the no bad days mindset. There's a story behind it.

But the whole no bad days mindset is something that Steph and I are applying to our life in 2024. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, 2003, while I experienced a lot of greatness and some really big wins, it was the most challenging year of my life, personally and professionally. And I'll be very honest to say that there were certain days that I had horrible, bad days. I showed up with low energy, bad attitude.

I brought that around my family. My family felt that. It became contagious. and the energy, the attitude, the vibe was just off. It turned into a bad day. But we can control our attitudes. We can control our energy. We can control the way we approach situations.

So we're having this whole mindset shift going to 2024. We don't have bad days. We might have some tough times. We might have some really tough times. But we have to take it with a grain of salt and have perspective. Do we still have a roof over our head? Do we still have food in our fridge? Or we all still here?

Do we all love each other still? Okay. It can't be that bad of a day. It's a good day. We're going through some bad times, maybe, but it's a good day. It's a mindset shift. That's something that we actively can control. It's the way we think about it.

It's what we approach it. that energy, that role enthusiasm is contagious. It's not faking it until you make it, but it's the perspective to realize that it's not really a bad day. It's just something hard that we're going through, but it's actually a good day. And this actually happened for Steph and I, we came up with this literally New Year's Eve,

and we were in a not really good mood, No one was speaking to each other in the house. Attitudes were high. Energy was low and off. And a lot of it was just around the holiday season. We felt lonely. We were in a new city. A lot of our friends are still in Texas.

A lot of our friends here in Nashville or with their families or traveling to their families. We decided to stay in Nashville for Christmas this year. Steph's family was coming in the day after Christmas. My dad was with my brother this year. And it was just a lonely holiday. And something we want in our life as we get older and as we have more kids and we build our family,

we want a full house. We want kids running everywhere. At some point, we want our kids, kids, our grandkids, on our property, at our house, using our land. Just absolute madness. Food everywhere. Drinks everywhere. Just fun.

That's what we envisioned for our future. But right now we don't have that. During this holiday, this Christmas, it was in New Year's, me, Steph and Charlie, which is great. Like, so grateful that I have my family. We have our health. But we felt lonely. And me and Steph just like, we were in a funk.

We weren't talking for the first part of that day. And I went in my office, I started working. I was like, we got to, we got to stop this right now. We're going into a new year tomorrow. This is the opportunity to shift this vibe, shift these feelings. I went out, I said, Steph, new rule. No bad days. 2004, no bad days.

There's going to be some tough things that happen. We're going to have challenges. There's going to be tough moments, but we're not going to have any bad days. That's our mindset. That's our approach. That's our perspective. Steph was like, heck yeah. So me, of course, I'm the type of person's like, we got to write it everywhere.

Put it on the walls, write it on the doors, get the sharpies. I'm going to get a tattoo. No bad days, NBD. Steph's like, no, that's no big deal. No, it's no bad days, NBD. So she talked me off the cliff there. I didn't write it anywhere. I didn't get it tattooed.

But I'm a visual person. I like seeing things everywhere. So I have going more tattooed on my arm right next to my watch. when I'm all in, I'm all in. But that's our approach for 2024. No bad days. That's the mindset. Again, it's not us saying that bad things aren't going to happen.

They will. Most definitely. Maybe more times than we want or need. But is that mindset of no bad days. That sets the energy. that sets the atmosphere, the environment, the attitude. That's what I want my daughter to see. That's what I want my family to see.

It's what I want my business to see. That's what I want them to feel. So that's our approach. No bad days mindset. Those are my six ways to crush 2024. And as much as I think about these and write these down and share these with you,

it is just as much my way of planning for my 2024. These are six things that I'm going to be focused on to crush this next year. Truly. So I hope you guys enjoy this one. Thanks for all the love and support.

Implement these right away. Go read the books. Go start listening or reading some type of book. It's going to make a difference in your life. your family, and your business, and everything. So we'll see you guys in the next episode.