Transforming Ambitions into Achievements with Simple Habit Shifts 185

Last week we unlocked a new way at achieving our goals by focusing on the habit. We can win every day. Today we look at why those bad habits are so easy to start but so damn hard to quit. I encourage you to start small, because if we start small we may not win them all, but you will be damn surprised how much of a difference it can make. Let me tell you something Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you. You have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. Challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be. What a deal, what a deal. Hot dick of the day. Your boy is so excited to be back with you. Oh, it's true, it's damn true. Welcome to the Loud, proud American Podcast. Precisely, beautifully, perfectly named, if you're asking me, absolutely perfectly named. Share the struggle, because everybody struggles. We know it to be true, baby, there's a struggle between me and you, but the truth is, because we all know, if we share that struggle, there is strength in that struggle and we shall all grow through that struggle. Man, am I feeling a little powerful today? I'm feeling a little energetic today. I'm feeling like I got a good, good old shot of optimism today. Yeah, two reasons, two reasons for the big old shot of optimism. I'm gonna say three reasons, three reasons, okay, three, three, three reasons. I take that back, america, here I am starting off on lies. I don't wanna build a house on a foundation of lies. I don't wanna build it one episode 185 on a foundation of lies. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Today, not in this house, I'll fire it up, right, okay, three reasons. I got some good news. We'll get to that another day, another wait, because I can't share that today, you understand. Number two I just had about 20 minutes in the driveway messing around with the tractor. It's been so damn cold my tractor wouldn't start. You wanna talk about subfustration? That's it for you. Right there, america. I feel rejuvenated and reconnected, re-divigurated, re-antigiased. By putting that tractor between my thighs, you know what I'm saying. Feels just like my man card just got re-laminated, it just got re-stamped. Oh, feels great, feels great. And number three I was listening back to last week's episode minus Folsom, shuffling his damn toes across the living room floor here. If you're a listener, you're a long-time listener, you're day one. Get your ones up All my day ones out there. You know, folsom's the English Bulldog, it's a real jackass interrupting our recording, and I'm gonna. I got something to share on that in a moment too here, but I don't wanna get too far off track. The point I'm trying to make here is I listened back to some of the audio and I wasn't real impressed with my sound quality. So I do apologize. I'm a little particular, just a little particular about the sound, and I always try to do the best I can to make things sound as good as I can for you. So I was listening back and I wasn't all that stoked about the way things were sounding. So today I went back and I pulled out my super sweet, super fancy fantasy microphone, my dream microphone. I'm coming to you today on the shore super 55. Look alive, baby. I love this thing. I don't use it all the time. It's one of those microphones where if I am recording with a guest, it's kind of hard to use because it picks up everything and it's tough when Folsom's shimmying and shuffling around. But I actually have a tattoo of the shore 55 on my arm. Got that tattoo a long time before I started podcasting and a long time before I ever realized I would own one. So pretty cool, man. Love to be back on my super 55. Maybe I'll post a picture up on social if you guys don't know what the heck I'm talking about here. But I feel fancy. I feel as all the kids are saying I feel bougie, mm-hmm, I feel. Oh so bougie, look at this thing. I'm telling you it's sexy, it's huh man, it's. This thing is bikini, seasoned with a reason. You know what I'm saying? Oh man, this thing is like Saturday night with twisted T's and plant B's. You know what I'm saying? Oh boy, I tell you this thing really nice. Anyways, I digress. Welcome to the podcast y'all. Welcome back. Boys and girls, chipmunks and squirrels. I appreciate you. Episode 185 and we're feeling oh so alive man. Can you guys believe it? I say it every damn week. I gotta stop saying it, I gotta stop repeating it, but I feel so damn good to say 185. Every week I'm just blown away by how many episodes we have in the old catalog. Said catalog you can find over on wwwShareTheStruckUpPodcastcom. If you wanna be a sponsor, reach out. If you wanna be on the show, let me know. Either way, help it blossom, help it grow, share the show with someone you know. Man, that sounded good. I feel like I'm rocking and rolling. It must be this rocking and rolling microphone that I'm strutting along here. But I hope all y'all's are doing good, hope your mentals are in check. I hope that you're feeling fantastic, because these are some of those dark days of winter. This is when depression can start to creep on in on some of the most optimistic folks that I know. Some of the most positive people I know can get obsessed with the D. They can be overcome by the D, the big D. We ain't talking about what's in your dirty little minds and we ain't talking about devolos. We ain't talking about no George straight song here. I'm talking about depression. It can kick you in the pants right now, man. If you're not like, let's just say this If you're living in the Northeast, let's say, cause I know in the warmer states you might be enjoying yourself, which, if I'm looking at the old forecast across the country, I don't think anybody's really enjoying themselves with good weather. So maybe this is affecting all of y'all. But if you're in the Northeast, like me, and you're not a winter sports kid, you don't get out there and do those things. Your routines, the things that you love to do. They're probably taken from you. You're feeling a little robbed and deprived of the fun things that make you feel alive. All those cool things are kind of taken from you. You feel like everybody's kind of hunkering down, hibernating for the winter. Storms are starting to roll in fulsoms, starting to make a bunch of noise, and then you just want to just put them in the garage. Oh my God. The point I'm trying to make is this is the time of year where doubt creeps in. This is the time of year when we start to feel a little bit more alone with our thoughts. We start to feel a little more trapped in our lives. We start to feel a little more capped in our hopes and dreams. So I'm trying to carry on a little positive theme. Over the past couple of weeks. Last week's episode we looked at a whole new way at achieving our goals. We were discussing a book that I'm super into right now, that I've been real excited to be partaking in a little Craig Groschell which the heck is the name of this book. Again, man, I know what the name of it is. It's, I know it's Craig Groschell the Power to Change. That's right. So last week we discussed one key little ingredient, one awesome topic from Craig that really opened my eyes and made me look at my goals and how I'm structuring things and thinking about things totally different, because last week he discussed that if we focus on making good habits and then really concentrate on making Sure that we win that habit every single day, that eventually, if we're winning that habit, we're going to achieve that goal. So I really wanted to Continue that conversation today. I got some more cool things from Craig to share with y'all today, and the reason why I'm doing this is because, like I just mentioned, these are the dog days, baby. These are the tough days. This is, this is hard times, daddy. These are hard times. This is when doubt creeps in. This is when people start giving up on resolutions. It's early in 2024 and we're already looking for the door. This is when people start to really give up on hopes and dreams and aspirations, to realize Maybe I'm just destined to continue to live the way I've been living, that all those shots of Optimism and positive outlooks that I was getting as I was making my new year's resolutions and starting to forecast my 2024, that shit is out the door. I don't deserve it. I didn't earn it. It ain't for me. Maybe it ain't for me. Well, I'm here, baby. I'm here to say it is. I Just took y'all to the south and I don't even live in the south. Maybe I I feel like I got roots in the south. The point I'm making here, it's just critical. It's pivotal for you and me to stay positive, you see. So today I'm gonna further that lesson. We're gonna take a little deeper dive into some habits, both good and bad. We're gonna scratch the itch and we're gonna quit that bitch. You hear me? Loud proud American is a lifestyle brand Dedicated and determined to represent the American spirit, with an unrelenting commitment to provide made in the USA products. If you would like to join the 2% of Americans that buy American and support American, head on over to WWW loud, proud American dot shop. Together we can bring back American manufacturing. All right, all right, all right, welcome back y'all. Hey man, before I get rocking and rolling, how many of you listening out there are loyal, loud, proud Americans? How many of you support my brand and the task at hand to continue to grow American manufacturing? Just to show a hands, just, you know, put your hands up. Some of you I know a lot of you got your ones up because your day one listener, a day one supporter. So maybe you're on the treadmill, you're on the elliptical, maybe you're stuck in traffic, you're on the job site, you're in the office, you're driving to the office, you're sitting on the couch hitting your pants, whatever it is, get your hands up. I want to say thank you to each and every one of you with your hands up and I want to ask of you if you are a loud, proud American supporter, have you subscribed to the loud, proud American email? Just to, just to show a hands? You in the back don't want to play along. Hmm, Hmm, a, a run, a, a run. That's that joke old already. The point I'm trying to get to hear people is I have finally, finally, finally started utilizing the loud, proud American email system. I Just dropped a sweet little daddy of an email, if I do say so myself, with an exclusive coupon For this week, and this week only if you're listening on the regular rotation of the show. If you're listening in a week, I apologize, you missed out. Okay, but if you happen to be listening to this on the release date, wednesday January 24th, you still have a few days to cash in that sweet little daddy of a coupon. So if you subscribe to the email, please go ahead and check your inbox, take advantage of that coupon. I encourage you to do so. Maybe I'm in your spam filter. Give that a look. And if you're listening and you say to yourself huh, I don't know if I have subscribed or maybe I have it, maybe I didn't, maybe I should, you damn right, you should get on over to WWW loud, proud American dot shop. There's a pop-up that'll ask go down to your email. There's also a page there to stay connected. I am going to do my best to keep everybody informed of to all the what's news and whose happens through my email and Release new products, exclusive deals and opportunities. So go ahead and give that a shout, give it a try. Appreciate you. If you have already seen the email should be messes. Let me know what you think was my first one. So if you think it stinks, plain eyes, be easy, perch easy. Anyways, back to the show. Y'all, let's get this Thing rocking and a rolling. Let me just start this conversation with Placing my left hand on the Cabela's catalog, put my eye to the sky and giving you a true confessional from this guy. I Personally or I, keith Liberty Obsess over a goal. Okay, here it is putting out the tier I Obsess over a goal. So the reason why last week's show was so revolutionary to me? Because the message that hit me about focusing on the habit, not the goal. It has Created a whole new lane for me, opened up my eyes to a whole new possibility. Because I'm always so hyper focused on the goal which some of you listening might say, hey, man, that's pretty cool, that's great, I'm glad you're, you know, driving for your goals there. Why would you change that? Well, the reason why I think I should adopt this new policy, or at least give it a home team try, is because focusing on the goal sets you up for great disappointment. Because what's the old adage say, it's not the, it's not the. It's not the destination, it's the, it's the journey. Well, the journey can suck. Okay, cinderella, the journey can certainly suck. But if I focus on those habits on the journey, if I focus on the little things upon the journey to get to the big thing, and I continued to win those things, eventually I'm gonna stack up enough of those that I'm going to achieve the goal. So some of the downfalls of me obsessing over a goal is when I focus on that goal so much I get discouraged about not reaching that goal. I get so Just depressed. There's the D. We're gonna drop some D on you right here. I'm just gonna drop the D right on your forehead here. Depression Center man, that was over the top. The point I'm trying to make here is if you really obsess about a goal much like I do and If that goal takes 12 months to attain or it takes 24 or 240 months to attain I know that's exaggeration. The point is, if all you do is hyper focus on that end, there's a lot of opportunity in the middle there to be depressed. There's a lot of opportunity in the middle there for that letdown. And over these past couple episodes in this book that I'm partaking. I've came to a little self. Really, it's self self little conclusion. So for what is it? What do you call those things? What is a Revelation? So the self revelation I Gave to a revelation about myself. I Don't know what it is with all the accents and voices today, but I'm just here to exercise the daemons so as I would, ah, professionally get back on track here. I came to a real Realization, a real, real see squirrel, that's what happens. That's what you shouldn't have. This much caffeine, this is it. There's enough caffeine to kill an elephant and Elephants they, they're important. Okay, like I see on TV, people are killing them for their tusk and that's just. That's just wrong, man. No elephants have been harmed in the recording of episode 185 of Shadows Rocko podcast. So don't get it twisted, america. What I came to realize about myself is that I obsess about goals, and One of the reasons why I've become so at peace with not working in a dealership anymore is because that realization about myself and that goal has Shown to me one of the reasons why I was so unhappy in In the dealership setting in my last, you know, final run in dealerships. So let me try to explain this to you If you have ever worked in a high-pressure sale situation aka a Harley-Davidson dealership, a car dealership, stocks, bonds, any type of sale situation where you are commissioned based you get so hyper focused on that goal and that goal just changes every month, right? So in the world of sales, if you come in with a super sweet, super high, awesome goal that you're trying to attain for the month of July, let's say you work your ass off to get to that goal, maybe you finish. If your sales consultant, you, you end up being top dog, right, you get a top consultant award. Or you know, you, you're a manager for that department and you're just, you know, seeing and believing and achieving these tremendous results for the month of July and you get a super sweet, super fat bonus check. And you're just asking yourself how could this get any better than this? How could this get any better? Well, I could tell you August 1st, yeah, cuz, when you wrap up the month of July, you feel fantastic. And then August 1st shows up and kicks you right in the dick. There's another D for you. There's another shot, the D this time. This time the D was actually for dick, it wasn't for depression, so I gotta keep you guessing. It's gonna be one of them episodes. The point is, you're only as good as your last day and in the world of sales, the positive is you could be having an awful month and you want to put it behind you. You could be having an awful week and you need the opportunity to rebound, but it just sucks that it's the never-ending cycle, that every single month there's a new goal, there's a new number, and it doesn't matter how much you destroyed that number in July. If you get your ass handed to you in August, your boss is gonna be asking you why? Why are you still employed here? So that never-ending vicious cycle of goals it started to eat me up. It didn't allow me to enjoy myself, my job, my career, my family, my friends, my co-workers, my people didn't allow me to enjoy everybody the way that I would like to, because we spend all this time hyper focused on goals and that sales dog eat dog situation. It just ate me up. Let's just say, right, that never-ending vicious cycle of chasing your tail around Sucks, quite frankly, it sucks. So I came to this realization that the way I'm wired, the fact that I am so focused on goals, is one of the reasons why a I was so successful in sales, because it's how I look at things, but be why I dealt with so much of the D. I did it again. I said the D again. But it's true, you get depressed. You get depressed in sales when you are riding the ebbs and flows, when you're riding that snake To Valhalla, those ups and downs, the peaks in the valleys. It's a mountainous terrain that I don't care to travel on anymore. What that said, I obviously I have these goals for my own business and I do the same thing. I do the same thing where you know every month, feel like shit. Last year you were at this number, at this event, you were here, and oftentimes I'm coming to that realization that when I focus on those things it beats me up, it eats me up, and then I don't have as successful of an event as I should because I'm constantly spending my time compare and contrast, compare myself to last year and kind of look at those situations. So I'm trying to change the way I look at things. I'm trying to just put out good habits, focus on those habits and if I continue to do those habits the right way, the best way, every day, I should begin to win more of my days. So that's really where I'm headed, but I just wanted to share that little self self-revelation with y'all. So, man, I'm really starting to Take some of Craig's advice and look at some things because, as we just mentioned, this time of year we get overwhelmed, right. You're stuck inside, you're trapped with your, your own inner thoughts and emotions and you seem to be like it feels almost like you go into a quarantine mode for many of us this time of year. And I Just start thinking about these big, lofty goals and expectations I have for myself and the fact that I'm so far away from attaining those things. What do I have to do? How do I go ahead and do those things? There's an old sales analogy that says how do you eat an elephant? Why is this episode, man? Do I have something against elephants? What I Was just advocating for saving them, now I'm trying to eat them. Okay, left hand Cabela's catalog out of the sky. Truth from this guy. I love elephants, man. No elephants have been harmed in the recording podcast, share the struggle, episode 185. But how do you need an elephant? You eat an elephant one bite at a time. I should come up with a different analogy, but I didn't make that. That came from some old crotchety salespeople. I should come up with a much better one. I understand, but the point is that analogy is basically one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. And I often say to you positive movement, purposeful movement, doing the right thing, even if it's a little thing, just getting things going. But listening to Craig and his philosophy on good habits and achieving goals, he says you can't control the outcome, just the inputs. So for me, if I start thinking about some of these events, like last year, I reflect on what turns out to be a successful season. But in actuality many times it's a horrible season for a lot of factors that are just outside of my control. Right, I lost a lot of days to rain. So if I'm just using that as an example here, you can't control the outcome, just the inputs. I can't control the weather, I can't control the crowd that showed up, but I can control my inputs, I can control my attitude, I can control what inventory I have on the shelves, I can control how prepared I am for each one of those situations. So as we start to think about our goals, we start to think about the inputs, what goes into those goals, what are those positive habits that we can implement towards that goal? So if I'm changing my way, I'm trying to rewire the way that I've been wired idiot. Instead of envying outcomes, these glamorous, fantastic, barely achievable glorious goals Glorious Sorry, there was a cheap wrestling joke there for any wrestling fans out there Instead of me being so hyper-focused and obsessed with these glamorous, glorious outcomes, my efforts would be better utilized if I actually just obsessed over the little, tiny inputs. So I really need to do a better job of worrying less about the outcome, because I can't control that outcome, and focus more, put my efforts more into the little inputs, the little steps that go to achieve that outcome. So that's what I'm encouraging all of us to do this year. Y'all, maybe you already do this and if you do, then share it with me and let me know how it works for you. But for me, I'm the just pie in the sky guy. That's me. I'm the pie in the sky guy. I want these fantastic things. I want to write the check that pays off the mortgage. You understand, I want to achieve the dream when in actuality, I should be focusing on the little things, the inputs to achieve the outcome. So instead of envying these big outcomes, I'm going to find a way to get more hyper-focused on those inputs. I heard this great line in the Power to Change from Craig Rochelle where he said more earth is moved by erosion every day than landslides, but nobody noticed erosion. Man, that hits different. More earth is moved by erosion every day than landslides, but nobody noticed erosion. Without erosion there is no landslide Right, we're not covering erosion on the news every week when a major landslide happens. That gets talked about, that gets attention, that gets noticed. That's that big outcome. But it's the little things that went into the big outcome. It's the erosion that leads to the landslide. Our choices are no different. What we choose for ourselves, the habits we create for ourselves, the little inputs that we put in towards our goals, that's the erosion. More earth is moved every day by erosion than landslides. You're making more headway on your goals every day by your habits, by your choices, not by big actions and big movements. You understand these little inputs are making a bigger difference than we could possibly imagine. So as we start to get hyper-focused on the little things, on the small inputs, we start to identify those positive habits. Last week we talked about coming up with that habit, that new habit that you're going to start and that if you focus on just achieving that habit every day, you're going to win. You're going to win the big goals for yourself, you're going to feel those big achievements for yourself. So, as we're starting to identify these small habits that we can do for ourselves, that we can focus on winning for ourselves, craig shared some more secrets to starting to get starting good habits and building the confidence that comes from achieving those habits, and he said one of the big keys is to make a two-minute habit. Yeah, two-minute habit. And I'm oh man, wow, all the conversation about the D. I have so many jokes right here, so many Lois. You're funny, I'm going to leave them all. I'm going to leave them all and you guys make up your own Two-minute habit. Make it easy. Make it easy. There's less friction there. There's less. I didn't need to add friction to that conversation. Oh my God, I'm an idiot, see. You see I'm doing the best I can. I'm trying to leave that dirty joke there. I'm having a hard time. I'm having a real hard time. Make a two-minute habit. It's easier to achieve, to attain, to continue to make that habit happen. Start a two-minute habit. You are cutting the obstacles, you are taking out the friction. You are making this easy to attain A two-minute habit. You're telling me you can't spare two minutes. There's 1,440 minutes in a day. You can't make time for two freaking minutes. Alexa, don't you question me right now. I'm not sure You're going to be sure You're going to be sure. 1,440 minutes in a day. I'm pretty sure you can take two and put them out the way for you to attain your habit. Now, if you're listening right now, you might be saying how is a two-minute habit going to make a damn bit of difference? If you start by making it a two-minute habit, you get in the repetition of a two-minute habit. Eventually you're going to build on that two-minute habit. It won't be long before that two minutes is five minutes. Before that, five minutes is 55 minutes. Start with a two-minute habit, because if you can start with at least a two-minute habit, those two minutes a day, it's better than none, right? Even two minutes dedicated to your habit, to your goals, is better than dedicating none. It is far better to do less than you are hoping for than to do nothing at all. So if you started this saying I want to work out for two hours, it's a heck of a lot better to do sit-ups for two minutes than to do nothing at all. Zachariah 410 says do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. Just get started, just hyper-focused on those small inputs, on those little habits, and just start to implement them in your day. Now, if we're going to start pulling these positive habits in, we're going to have to start taking some negative habits out. So we need to think about what is one habit that you need to stop? We need to figure out what's that one big habit for you that you need to quit. If it's late night snacking, if it's too much time on your phone, if it's being the gossip girl at the office, if it's just any of that drama-filled nonsense or time consuming lack of sense, what is it for you? What is that one bad habit that you know that you have that you need to stop? The first thing you got to do is figure out that habit. We have to define that habit, because you cannot defeat what you cannot define. So if you don't think about what that habit is for you, you can never defeat that habit. For you. Hey, man, in the words of AA, step one is acknowledging you have the problem. So we all have a problem. We all have these habits. I know I spend way too much time on my phone. Think about how much more productive I could be if I eliminated those things One of the things that Hexy Craig talks about in his book too. You guys have Apple phones, if you're listening, maybe like Samsung Android, they might do the same thing, but Apple, every week, sends you this message about how much time you spend on your phone. Every time I see that I want to throw up, because you think about how much time you're wasting during the day, during the week. I mean, granted, a lot of that time you might actually be working, but even still, it's crazy, man. So think about that one habit that you need to cut back on that you need to make the decision, aka the incision, to cut off that habit, define it and defeat it. That's the steps, man. We have to do it. Good habits are difficult to start because the pain comes now and the gain comes in the future. You hear me again, I'm just going to slow it down for you. Good habits are difficult to start, because the pain comes now. The gain comes in the future. So if you want to lose weight and you start going on that diet and you're missing all those stops at the fast food restaurants, you're missing Uber Eats and Door Dash, the late night rides to McDonald's, if you're missing all the just tabletop memories at the restaurant, all those things. If you're giving up on those things to get in shape, you're spending all this time in the gym these good habits. The pain comes now. You're embracing the pain. You are accepting the pain. It doesn't sound like fun, does it? The gain is in the future. You're handling the pain now for gain later. That bad habit it has an immediate perceived benefit. So let's look at this If I am trying to achieve weight loss, this is the easiest way to look at it. We all struggle with that in some ways, shape or form. Some of y'all even struggle with gaining weight. You need to gain some weight. Lower out mercy. This is a great example. It's an easy example to make. If you struggle with your weight and you're starting to implement these good habits, we are doing small things like buying a healthier breakfast option. Maybe it's like a protein shake and let's just say maybe you have one of those little breakfast shake packets. Well, every morning or every night, before you go to bed, put your shake packet out on the table, put your cup, your shaker cup, next to it on the table, get everything lined up. Maybe that's a good start at a two minute habit, because you can get all your stuff lined up for your shake. At night. I mean, I wouldn't put the milk out on the table, but you get your protein, all your stuff lined up. So in the morning it's right there for you. There's a new habit for you that's created. That stuff is laid out for you, ready to go. So you come out, pour your milk in it. Whatever you do, you water your shake it up. You have your protein shake. That's a good habit. Right, that is a good habit. So that's one of the good habits you're trying to implement. We got to think about a bad habit that we need to remove. For me, one of those bad habits is that late night snack. I can eat dinner, even if I eat dinner at a timely fashion. As soon as I'm done, I want some sweets y'all. I have this sweet tooth in me. Boy, you think I'd be a Southern Belle. I'm so sweet I can eat. I don't know, man, I could be full to the gills. I could be clapping my pants, undoing my belt so that I can actually catch my breath. 28 seconds later I'm gonna say, boy, you got some baked goods in this. Motherfucker, got some chocolate up in here. Any ice cream around here that's the bad habit. There is an immediate perceived benefit to that bad habit. I'm gonna feel oh so good when I eat that funny bone, when I eat a sleeve of thin mints, when I put down a thing of Ben and Jerry I don't even own Ben and Jerry's. Who am I kidding? I'm a basic bitch. I'm a cheap ice cream motherfucker. I mean, I'll go Dairy Queen, I'll catch you with Blizzard. Bad habit, bad down boy. Bad habits is immediate perceived benefit. You get that shot of dopamine. You get that feel good satisfaction of that sweet tooth interaction. But that is your perceived benefit. But that's gonna do the reverse effect and that's gonna create pain in the future Making those poor decisions. Having that sweet treat after dinner, late night snack that's an perceived, immediate benefit. That's gonna create a future pain. So you need to get comfortable with pain. You wanna take pain now to have comfort tomorrow If you are implementing these good habits. They're difficult to do because the pain comes now. The reward is in for now, it's for the future. Last week we talked about running a 5K or a marathon. Me running today. That's pain. Today, right now, we're fortunate, I think, it's like 30 degrees outside. But if I went outside right now and I started running down my road, I can't tell you how far I would get before I'd start cramping up, my back would start getting tight, all my shit would start to hurt. That's pain, motherfucker. And then tomorrow I'm gonna be in even more pain when I get out of bed and try to do it all over again. That's pain. If I still can't run that 5K, I can't do that marathon. I'm feeling like this pain is for no reason Because that gain is down the road. It's in the future, whether it's a month away or two months away, that's when you're gonna reap the benefits of the pain that you suffered. Today. When you're looking at a bad habit, there's an immediate perceived benefit to that bad habit. So the key for you and me to overcome these bad habits and to implement these new habits is to recognize pain, to make a deal with pain, to acknowledge pain. Am I gonna take pain now for a good reason, for a strong, beautiful gain in the future? Or am I gonna take that perceived benefit now? Am I gonna take that comfort creature, beautiful, sweet treat of a snack right now for the disappointment in myself in an hour from now? Because how many times have you made that choice? You've gone to the cupboard, you moseyed on over to the fridge and you made that bad choice, that poor decision, and an hour later you're sitting on the couch going. Man, I feel like shit. And when I got up at five this morning and I brought my ass to the gym, I dragged my just regretful ass to the gym and I got on the treadmill, I got on the elliptical and I put all that hard time in. I put in that pain for a future gain and right now I gave up that future gain for what I thought was a perceived gain. Right now, think about it. Y'all you worked your ass off. That's a double negative on pain. Right there, you drag yourself out of bed. You go to the gym. There's that pain, you're embracing it. You're eating a pain sandwich. You're embracing the suck to start your day Because you know about that big, beautiful gain coming your way, even at night. You make that bad choice. You need that sweet treat Even after you had a full plate of meat. I gotta stop making things rhyme. You make that poor decision at night because you feel like a sweet benefit man. You feel like all I want right now is just that creature comfort, goodness. And you do it. And before you know it you're sitting on that couch shitting your pants with regret and realizing here's a double pain. I dragged my ass to the gym, embraced the pain and here I am now living in pain because I realize I crossed out all my hard work with another bad habit. Today's episode is all about acknowledging those habits, defining those habits. You got to define them if you want to defeat them and you got to define them if you want to create them and you want to achieve them. And you need to realize this all comes down to your pain tolerance. What is your level of pain tolerance? Are you willing to accept pain today for gain tomorrow? Or are you going to take that perceived benefit tonight and push that gain out the damn door and accept more pain when you realize you're living the same way, not achieving those same goals that you put on your new year's resolution, that you put in your journal, that you put in your dream book every damn time you look, you understand your relationship with pain is going to dictate your 2024. And if you're like me, I'm hoping for a hell of a lot more in 2024 than I had last year. This year, embrace the pain, develop a strong relationship with pain, and the more you embrace it and the more you're willing to take, the more you're going to gain. Ho ho, ho, ho. Man, I feel powerful about today's show, I feel motivated about today's show and I got to let you know. I thank you for supporting my American dream. Never wash your fucking hands and build these avocates. That's it and that's all Biggie Smalls Music. If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, find me on YouTube and Facebook at Loud Proud American Put the face page, as my mama calls it. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, you want to find me on Instagram, or all the kids by tickety-talking on the tick-tock. You can find me on both of those at Loud Underscore Proud Underscore American Music A big old. Thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to this year's podcast. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, you can track down the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers. Give them motherfuckers. A like, too, music. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy, savage Music.