The Nick Bare Podcast - 187: If You Haven’t Achieved Your Goal Yet (And Your Frustrated), Keep Going

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

This episode is for those of you who are working toward something and you're frustrated because you're not there yet. I'm sharing what 12 years of showing up taught me, the difference between commitment and discipline, how to find your zone of genius, and why you just have to keep going.CHAPTERS:0:00 Intro0:57 The Valley Mindset2:29 What Consistency Actually Looks Like6:47 You Just Haven't Done It Long Enough Yet11:52 How Far Do You Have to See to Keep Going?15:21 Eating Disorder at 1418:50 Commitment vs. Discipline22:27 Why Big Life Transitions Create the Strongest Commitments27:06 What Is Your Track Record for Finishing Something?30:36 Imagine Where You'd Be If You Just Stayed33:17 Zone of Genius39:35 Keep GoingJOIN MY TRAINING APP:https://my.playbookapp.io/nick-bareORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutritionFOLLOW:IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitnessThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)MB01CJGDSCCQHMO

Before we dive into today's episode, I want to share some news with you guys. And if you are unaware or you don't know, we sell BPN products on Amazon. We actually do a lot of business on Amazon. It's a large part of our e-com business alongside our website at BPNSups.com. But we just launched a new product on Amazon exclusively. And that is a 100-6. serving Creepure creatine monohydrate. Now, on our website, you can get 30 and 60 servings of Creepure, creatine monohydrate.

But on Amazon, you can also get 100 servings. And 100 servings is the most cost efficient and effective. So if you're looking to buy BPN products, for one, you can go to BPNSups.com, our website, but you can also go to our Amazon storefront and support BPN, support me, and purchase all of our products. And another reminder, if you didn't know, all of our products, all of our supplements are enrolled in the NSF certified for sport testing program. So every product that we create goes through this program. If you are an NCAA athlete, professional athlete, military law enforcement, subject to frequent drug testing, you can have the confidence knowing that all of our products are tested by NSF

certified for sport. So, thank you guys. I appreciate you. Now let's get into the episode. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's title or topic of discussion is if you haven't achieved your goal yet, something you're working towards and you are frustrated, this episode is for you. to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep driving. I was just spending time with one of our team members, Simon Diaz, and we were talking about people who find themselves in a valley of life, a low point.

and some of the most dangerous people are people who, and I say dangerous in a good way, but could be bad, I guess. People who find themselves in a low point, a valley. And when they are there, they crawl, they climb themselves back out of that valley, that hole. When they are at the lowest of their low, they go into this dog mindset and they climb out. The flip side of that is someone who finds himself in a valley in a low point of their life. And they set up camp. They stay there. They feel bad for themselves. They make themselves the victim.

them and they stay in that low point and that let life just rain down on them and let that valley fill with water from all of the rain and they just soak and submerge in that puddle. People who when they're at their lowest climb back out, they crawl themselves, they claw themselves back out. Man, there's some dangerous dudes, some dangerous girls that are. are going to achieve absolute greatness in their life. They're going to achieve and accomplish whatever they want because they have the resiliency,

the adaptability, the grit to climb out. The reason I'm leaning into this topic is because I had this realization the other day after one of my runs. And I run six days a week. right now. Monday through Friday, it's six easy miles every morning. Saturday is my long run, eight plus miles. And I'm doing two high rock sessions per week and I'm logging some miles at higher intensity intervals during these workouts. And this one particular morning,

I was filming a YouTube video. And I have been filming YouTube videos since two, 2014. And I started BPN in 2012. And I told my dad, I've told this story a million times, but I told my dad we were going to make a million dollars that first year. And we didn't. He said, Nick, if it was that easy, everyone would do it. We did $20,000 in revenue year one. We did $20,000 in revenue year two. We did $20,000 in revenue year three. And then I decided I got to change something because this ain't working. And I didn't want my dad to be right. Nick, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

So in 2014, I spent the last $500 on name on a camera and I started documenting my life on YouTube, filming everything. I filmed my workouts. I filmed my diet, what I was eating, behind the scenes of building a business,

what it was like being an infantry platoon leader in the army. And from that moment, Up until today, present day, I have been consistently filming, documenting, publishing, publishing, sharing my life on YouTube. So this one particular day last week, I knew I was filming a YouTube video like I've been doing for the last, you know, 12 years. And on days where I film YouTube videos, I wake up extra early to get the shot. that I need to get all of the camera gear prepped.

You know, if I'm filming a morning run and the preparation for that run, it is setting up the camera and getting the white balance set properly and the exposure set properly. And I'm setting up the tripod in certain locations to get certain angles and shots and I'm locking in manual focus. And if you're watching these YouTube videos or you watch these videos over the year, it might seem like these cameras just live in my house

and they live in my garage and the shots just get themselves. But it requires a lot of planning and preparation and time to set up these scenes and these shots to capture it. So what might be a normal, normal five minute routine in the morning ends up being 20 minutes because of setting everything up and capturing it to then share it with you guys online. And I've been doing this for 12 years now. So it's a second nature. It is a habit.

It's something that I've just been doing for so long. I don't think much of it. But this one particular morning, last week, after I finished my run and I filmed all of these scenes, now I ran for 45 minutes, but the whole process of capturing and documenting and sharing and talking, it was about two hours from the time I picked up the camera to the time I finished the run and said the last thing I wanted to say. and this was all done by 6.15 a.m. Like I said, I've been doing this for 12 years now. And for a long time when I first got started, I saw no growth.

Saw very little momentum. It didn't impact the business overnight. These platforms and the exposure and the audience and the community wasn't built in a matter of days, weeks, months, it was years. And now it is 12 years later that I've been doing this day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, over a decade now. And I share that to say that if you are working towards a goal, if you're on mission, if there's something you want to accomplish and succeed in,

and you haven't gotten there yet, and you are frustrated, you're mad, you're angry, you're disappointed, stop and don't be. Because the truth is, the reality, you may not have been doing it long enough yet. It's not that you won't get there, you won't succeed, you won't win, you won't accomplish, It's just that you haven't yet.

You have to keep going. Yeah, but I've been working on this thing for a few months. I've been working on this thing for over a year. Maybe it's just not your time yet. Keep going. It might take two years. It may take five years. It might take 10 years.

It might take one decade. Are you willing to keep going to keep working, to keep building, to keep showing up every single day for over 10 years. And if not, you might not care about it that much. It might not be for you. But if you keep going, your time will come. So maybe you haven't accomplished what you want to. But it doesn't mean you're not going to.

You just haven't yet. That is go one more. Go one more is a mindset. So many people think go on more is an action. People think that go on more is one more rep. It's this concept that you apply in the gym. I'm tired. I want to go another minute on this run.

I want to pump out one more rep. I want to do one more set, one more exercise. That's part of it. That's a small part of it. Someone sent me a DM on Instagram the other day. And they said Goin More has saved their life, literally. They sent me a voice message.

And they said that for a long time, they were considering taking their life. I didn't think they were worthy, valuable. Every day they woke up and thought about, the idea of taking their life, they told themselves, go one more, just one more day.

Just, just stay alive for one more day. And rethink this heavy decision tomorrow. And this individual said they went one more day,

and then one more day, and one more day, and one more day, until eventually they got help and I got better. And they clawed themselves out of that low point, out of that valley. Like I said in the beginning, so many people find themselves in this valley, in this low point. And it doesn't look like there's an option to escape, to get out. but the only way to do so

is to climb and claw and crawl back out one step at a time one more the question is how far do you have to be able to see into the future to keep going

this is where a lot of people become disappointed When I start something, I want to know what does the finish line look like? Where is it? When will I get there? That brings us a lot of comfort. You know, when I start a fitness prep, I'm entering this prep. When does it end? When is the finish line? Where is the finish line?

What does that look like? Okay, I know. how hard, how far, how uncomfortable this is going to be for an extended period of time. But what if you don't know when it's going to end? What if you don't know when you're going to achieve or accomplish? That scares a lot of people. How far do you have to see into the future to keep going? The answer is just enough.

I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast a few weeks ago. and what I'm about to share was all around the context of writing a book. The guest was an author, and she was talking about the painful process of book writing. And she used an analogy. And she said that writing a book is like driving at night with the headlights on. You can only see a little bit in front of you. But the truth is, you can make the entire journey that way. That's life. We're not always going to see the finish line. We're not always going to know when we're going to accomplish the thing, if we're going to accomplish the thing that we want to. But all we got to be able to see is enough. when you're driving at night and you have your headlights on,

all you can see is 100 feet in front of you. But if you keep following that light, and you focus on what's in front of you right now in that moment, and you stay on the path, you stay on course, you stay on mission, you will eventually get to where you want to be. If I get my truck at night tonight in central Texas, and I put into my maps

Palmire, Pennsylvania, where I grew up. And I start driving. And my maps are taking me from Texas to Pennsylvania. When I'm in Texas, I can't see Tennessee. I can't see Virginia. I can't see Pennsylvania. I can see what's right in front of me. But if I keep following that light,

then I'm on course. I'm following the directions. I will eventually get there. How far do you see in the future to keep going? Just enough. I shared this story on Instagram this past week. But when I was 14 years old, I had a severe eating disorder. I mean, it got pretty out of hand.

And everyone asked the question all the time, what do you think sparked it? Why? To this day, I don't know. if I had to take a guess and make a hypothesis, it's that I wanted some sort of control in my life at 14 years old. And for me, at that time, the ability to control food and consumption and my weight,

my body composition was something that I gravitated towards. And it started with me just reducing my food intake a little bit and exercising a little bit more. and it got pretty on a hand pretty fast. To the point where my parents recognized that I was getting thin and weak and frail and I didn't have much energy or much appetite. So they started taking me a doctor's appointments for over a year. I was getting pulled out of school, taken to and from the hospital to do routine checks and doctor's appointments. They were trying to figure out what was going on.

At one point, they thought I had a take. from a recent family vacation to Mexico. At another point, they thought I had celiacs disease, and they put me on a gluten-free diet. I knew the entire time what was going on. I was starving myself. I was choosing not to eat, not to consume food. And after going through these motions and doctor's appointments for over a year, one day my parents took me out of school and we drove to the Hershey Medical Center for another routine appointment. But this day we pulled into the eating disorder clinic.

And I knew as soon as we pulled into this clinic and I saw the sign, eating disorder clinic out front, I knew in that moment I was caught. And my parents confronted me, the doctors confronted me, and I made a commitment right there and then to them. I was going to get better. I promised them. I was going to focus on getting healthier and stronger and better.

So I left that doctor's appointment and I came home knowing that I had to start eating more food again. And I opened up the pantry and I pulled out a box of Pop-Tarts. And I'll never forget this. And I flipped over that box of Pop-Tarts and I read the nutrition facts panel. and I realized that there were almost 400 calories in two Pop-Tart pastries. And at that point in my life, that was probably more calories than I was consuming in a day. And I was mind-blown. And I forced myself to eat those two Pop-Tarts, which was to this day one of the hardest things

I've ever had to do. And that's such a crazy statement for me to say. But I made a commitment. I was going to get better. I was going to become healthier and stronger. And if I'm being honest, nothing changed overnight. And it was a long road to recovery of rebuilding healthy relationships with food.

But eventually, after months and years, I got better. And if I'm being honest, I still, to this day, still struggle with healthy relationships with food from time to time. It doesn't control me like it did when I was 14 years old, but it's one of those things that will always be part of my life. And when I made that commitment to get healthier, to be stronger, to view food as fuel, and not to punish myself for consuming food, that commitment was something that I had to wake up every morning and recommit to. And I didn't know how long it was going to take it to get better. I didn't know what the journey was going to look like, but I was on mission.

And I just had to take one day at a time. I had to go one more. I had to keep going. There were so many moments and opportunities where I could have quit. and given up and went back to my old ways, which were more comfortable for me. But I made the commitment, and I showed up every day to recommit,

and I just kept going, knowing that eventually, having confidence, knowing that eventually I was going to rebuild healthy relationships with food. And that led me to finding the gym and falling in love with fitness and bodybuilding, and strength training and working out and building my body back up

as opposed to breaking it down and viewing food as fuel and nutrition and nourishment as opposed to something that was bad or negative for me and that then became my life's work in mission and eventually led me to starting BPN

and studying nutrition in college. and pursuing these competitions and races and training and documenting, that whole experience ended up being a blessing in disguise. And it transformed and changed my life. And I had no clue what that journey was going to look like. When I got back from that doctor's appointment when I was 14 years old and forced myself to eat two Pop-Tarts, but I just kept showing up. I kept going day after day.

and it's turned my life into something absolutely amazing and great from what was once me sitting in the bottom of a valley, soaking wet, not knowing how to crawl out. But I did. It was a decision. It was a commitment. You know, there's a difference between discipline and a commitment. And I don't want to overcomplicate these two things, but I think just the perspective might be beneficial for people just to think about and implement into their life,

a reframing of the way we show up for our commitments and build disciplines within our daily life. Now, a commitment is the why. It's the inner decision behind your goal. It removes an internal debate or battle. It's the initial reason of why you got started. The commitment I made when I was 14 years old, when I got home from that doctor's appointment

and forced myself to eat those two Pop-Tarts, I was committed to getting healthier, to becoming stronger, to building healthy, relationships with food again. That was the commitment. That was the reason I got started. It was an inner decision with a goal.

The discipline is the how. It's the systems, the routines, and the rules that we use to execute the work, even when we feel uninspired. Discipline keeps you moving onward on days when the motivation begins to fade. Discipline is the day-to-day hand-to-hand combat

that you need that builds upon that commitment. The commitment was to get healthier, in my case. The commitment was to get stronger to build healthy relationships with food again. The disciplines that I had to put into my life were around how I was going to eat,

what I was going to eat, when I was going to eat. how much I was going to eat. Going to the gym, training, building my body back up, surrounding myself with people, a support system, an environment that helped me get towards my goal and honor my commitment. This is the reason that people oftentimes make huge lifestyle changes

once they have a life transition. They have kids, they get married, they start a family. In terms of fitness, It's the why to be healthier. It's rooted in something much larger than themselves. The commitment has a connection, and the daily disciplines keep them showing up the habits, the systems, and the routines they build.

I've met a lot of people who didn't care about their health, didn't care about their fitness. They just went through the motions of life, graduated college, got a job, sat in an office, As soon as they got off of work for the day, they went to grab dinner with some friends, had a few drinks, came home, watched Netflix, went to bed.

Same thing, day and day out. Eventually, they decided to start a family. They get married. They have kids and they realize, well, this lifestyle that I'm living doesn't really produce the results that I want for this next chapter of life. the why is stronger.

The commitment is more purposeful. It's to be healthier for their family, to be a leader, to be a support, to be a foundation. And then the disciplines they build reinforce and support the goals they have because of that commitment.

It's a way to reframe. disciplines on their own can be beneficial, but they're a lot weaker and easier to break without a commitment, a strong, connected commitment. You know, a lot of people have commitment problems. My question is,

what is your track record for finishing something? In that same Tim Ferriss podcast that I referenced earlier, there was one of Tim's podcast where he'll have a topic and then he'll pull sections of podcasts he's done from over the years that are applicable to that topic. So another guest that he pulled in in segment of a previous podcast for this one, her name is Elizabeth Gilbert. And she said, so sometimes people will say to me, I'm working on a book and I'm having to halfway through it. But I've got this other idea that I think is way better. In this book that I'm currently working on feels stale, and it doesn't have any life in it. And I always say, okay, well, I give you permission to quit working on that first project, but only if you have a

proven track record of ever being able to finish a thing. What is your track record for finishing something. A lot of times we we see this golden, shiny, flashy opportunity. We start pursuing that opportunity. And then the honeymoon phase of that opportunity or project fades a little bit. And then a new flashy, golden, shiny

opportunity is presented to us. So we abandon the first opportunity in project our mission and we start pursuing the second. And the same thing happens with the second and we start pursuing a third. And the same thing happens with the third. We start pursuing a fourth and this becomes habitual or routine. Or we start something and we stop and we start something and we stop. You don't have permission to quit and pivot or change your idea and start something new.

lest you have a proven track record of finishing something. Like for me personally, there have been new projects or missions that I have started. And I quickly realize once I start it, I don't think this is going to produce the results that I wanted. Or I don't feel like pursuing this any longer. And sometimes I abandon that, goal or that mission or that project and I pivot to something different. But in my honest

opinion and assessment, I can do that because I have a proven track record of finishing things, of achieving and accomplishing. But if you are someone who starts and stops and restarts and stops and pivots and restarts and stops and you've never finished a significant amount of things. You don't have permission to quit. You have to prove yourself. You have to stack wins. Stack proven success

to show that you can finish something. Imagine where you would be if you didn't have to keep restarting over and over again. And instead, you stayed committed. Ask yourself that question. Imagine. One of the things I've seen over the last couple years

that's a popular caption to post on a photo or a video is we're so back. We're so back. And it's oftentimes, you know, someone starts training and eating healthier and then they fall off. And they start training again and eating healthier. And they post a photo of themselves running or in the gym. And the caption is, we're so back. Well, where'd you go? Why'd you stop?

I get it. Things happen in life. And sometimes you got to take a break. You got to take a tactical pause to handle your business, to show up for your responsibilities. But in other times, that's just an excuse. You just quit because you gave up. You didn't honor your commitments. You weren't disciplined enough.

Imagine where you would be if you didn't have to keep restarting over and over again. and instead you stayed committed to that thing. That's why if you haven't achieved your goal yet and you are frustrated, there's multiple reasons you might be frustrated. One of those reasons is that you just haven't been doing it long enough yet and you're still in pursuit of that achievement. Another reason is that you are shooting yourself in the foot. You're not giving yourself a chance

because you don't stay committed long enough to one thing. you start and stop and pivot and start and stop and pivot and start and stop and pivot and start and stop. Stop doing that. Keep going on that one thing until you have a proven track record of accomplishing. One of the ways you set yourself up for success with the greatest chances of achieving is by operating out of your appropriate zone. So there's this book. I highly recommend. I read it for my first time a few years ago. It's recommended to me by a friend, Jimmy DeSico.

And it's called The Fifteen Commitments of Conscious Leadership. It's by Jim Dethmer, Deanna Chapman, and Kaylee Warner-Clemp. I've read this every year for the last couple years. And every time I reread it, it's a great reminder. And the 15 commitments of conscious leadership is built off this foundational principle of leading from above the line. So if we draw a line, you're either above the line or below the line in terms of leadership. The book states that at any point, a leader is either above the line or below the line. If you are above it, you are leading consciously, and if you are below it, you are not.

When leaders are below the line, they are closed and defensive, and when they are above the line, they are open and curious. Further, we reveal that when leaders are below the line, their primary commitment is to being right. And when they are above the line, their primary commitment is to learning. The first mark of conscious leaders is self-awareness and the ability to tell themselves the truth. distortion and denial are cornerstone traits of unconscious leaders. So why is it important to be above the line? Because when we operate above the line, we experience creativity, innovation, and collaboration.

So why is this applicable? If you haven't achieved your goal yet and you are frustrated, and I tell you to keep going, and people say, stay on path. Stay on mission, stay focused. You have to make sure you are operating out of the appropriate zone to succeed. So commitment number eight is called excelling in your zone of genius. And in this book, there's 15 commitments.

And excelling in your zone of genius states that I commit to expressing my full magnificence and to supporting and inspiring others to fully express their creativity and live in their zone of genius. There's four zones. Think about this. In terms of your work that is propelling you towards your goals of achievement, what zone are you operating out of right now?

Zone one is incompetent. Here you spend time doing things that you don't enjoy and don't do well. This is the worst zone to be in. The zone of competent is where you spend time doing things you can do just fine, but others can do them just as well and usually with more efficiency, improved quality and more enjoyment. The next zone, this is the trickiest zone, this is excellent,

this is where the majority of successful people get stuck. Here you are good at what you do. better than most. You often receive accolades, prestige, and a good paycheck, but it's comfortable. It's known. The problem is that it costs you energy.

The passion dies along with your creativity and potential if you stay there too long. Too many people stay in a zone of excellent. The zone you want to stay in and reach is the zone of genius. This is the ultimate zone. Here you spend time doing what you love, what you're uniquely gifted to do, and all sense of time disappears when you're working here. The goal is to find your zone of genius. When you're operating

out of your zone of genius, it's what you love to do and what you're uniquely gifted to do. This is where you can excel. It almost makes working towards your goals and achievement like running downhill. Genius equals juice, as the book goes on to say. The more we live and work in our genius, the more the juice of life is flowing through us into the world.

As many have said, it is not our failure that we are most afraid of, but rather our magnificence. Conscious leaders face the fear of stepping fully into their magnificence. They embrace their magnificence. Live and work in their genius in gift, give their gift to the world.

So how do we set ourselves up for success with the greatest chances of achieving? One of the ways is to identify our zone of genius and find out how do we get here? How do we operate in this ultimate zone where we spend time doing what we love and what we're uniquely gifted to do? We definitely don't want to be in a zone of incompetent

or competent. And like the book states, where most people find themselves is the zone of excellent. But when you can identify and unlock your zone of genius, it makes working towards our goals and achieving easier,

more enjoyable, more fulfilling. So if you haven't achieved your goal yet and you've been working at it for a long period of time, it might not have been long enough yet. And my advice to you is to keep going. Apply the go one more mindset. It might take a year,

five years, 10 years. But I look back now after having started BPN 14 years ago. And if it feels like a few years, it doesn't feel like a decade and a half. It feels like a few years.

And I can confidently say I've been operating out of my zone of genius for many of those years, not all of the years. I have found myself operating out of a zone of excellent for many of those years. And at some periods of time, a zone of incompetent and competent. But what I'm proud of is that I have a track record of finishing things. honoring my commitments and showing up for them day in and day out. So keep going. And as always, go in more.