April 17, 2024 • 32 mins
Work-life balance is a modern epidemic that affects many people's happiness and fulfillment. The blurry boundaries between personal and professional life can lead to dissatisfaction in various areas, such as health, relationships, and career. It is important to prioritize what truly matters and establish boundaries to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Mentioned On Today's Show:
🤝 Work-life balance is crucial for happiness and fulfillment.
🤝Establishing boundaries and prioritizing personal time is essential.
🤝Starting a business can provide more control over one's schedule and finances.
🤝Comfort and security can hinder personal growth and lead to dissatisfaction.
🤝Taking responsibility for one's life and continuously seeking growth is important.
With host Lachlan Stuart
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't let work steal your life.
This is a modern epidemic andsomething that I have thought
about a lot.
I've spent the last two weeksreading a ton of articles on
work-life balance, on scheduling, on life fulfillment,
satisfaction, happiness, andthis is what I've come to the
(00:20):
conclusion on.
I believe it is an epidemicbecause so many of you are not
happy with your position in life, and I'm not saying necessarily
always as a whole, but you mayhave segments of your life your
health, for example, or yourrelationships, or even your
career where you're not livingup to your expectation, because
(00:44):
the balance between yourpersonal life and the balance
between your professional lifeare blurry.
And Stephen Covey has a reallyawesome quote where it is, the
key is not to prioritize what'son your schedule, but to
schedule what you want toprioritize.
And when you think about lifelike that, it's going to really
(01:08):
probably separate the audienceon this one.
There's going to be those ofyou who are self-employed, who
have more control over yourschedule and where your time
goes, and those who are employedwho don't have as much
flexibility and freedom withtheir schedule.
Now, I am going to dive into itfrom both angles today, because
(01:30):
I believe wholeheartedly thateveryone should start a business
in this environment if youtruly want to take
responsibility for your time,for your finances, for
everything.
You don't really want to leaveanything up to anyone else.
However, I do not believe thateveryone is ready for that yet.
(01:50):
There are steps that have tocome before being ready for that
, because I can imagine you maybe sitting there going dude.
I love my job.
It's safe, it's secure.
It's everything that I need,and if you're in that position,
awesome.
I have spoken to too many peoplewho have had that taken away
from them and have foundthemselves in a really
(02:11):
challenging position, and thelens that I like to look at life
through is if that were tohappen, how would I be able to
respond?
Would that put my life inabsolute disarray or would I be
able to build from that?
And majority of people, itwould throw their life into
disarray, and so, while comfortis a great thing to experience,
(02:35):
it is only going to harm you inthe long run, and I do truly
believe that it's why so manymen are overweight right,
they're puffy, fluffy and havelow energy.
Their libido is low.
They're not happy andcomfortable taking their shirt
off at the beach.
Their relationships suckbecause in the beginning, they
put all the effort in, but theyexpected the effort in the
(02:56):
beginning to carry them throughthe next 20, 30 years of their
life and their relationship ortheir career.
They worked hard to get towhere they wanted to and now, on
a daily basis, they're notcontinuing to grow and evolve
and they're at risk of losingtheir job or the satisfaction
and fulfillment has been takenaway from it.
So I want you to think about itlike this Everything requires
(03:20):
continued growth, and what Itruly believe and what we're
pushing at the man that Canproject is how can we give you
the power, the belief and theunderstanding to take
responsibility for more areas ofyour life, not needing to rely
on other people to get you towhere you want to go to and that
is different to delegation byoutsourcing and having help to
(03:43):
move towards a common goal, acommon goal that you're in
control of.
So think about it like this haveyou ever thought work is
stealing my life?
You're watching the years flyby and life has not changed.
For you, it's the same thing,day in, day out.
The years have been a mix ofexcitement clouded by stress and
burnout.
One of the most common reasonswhy men are joining the Men that
(04:06):
Can project whether it's ouracademy or getting involved in
our other programs is toestablish work-life balance.
Work has taken over for mostpeople.
If you're not in the office,you're now expected to answer
emails and work on projects athomes, thanks to our smartphones
, these little things that, ifyou're watching on YouTube,
(04:29):
they're so powerful and they'reso awesome, but they do come
with consequences, and if wearen't aware of that, they can
completely ruin all the thingsthat we want from our life.
It's eating into your personaltime.
Think about this how much timedid you spend with your family
today?
How much time did you spendwith your family over the last
(04:51):
week?
What about the last month?
Or when was your last vacation?
Do you have time for yourselfdaily?
Now?
You're either nodding your heador you're shaking it.
There's no in between or, ifyou don't know, you're probably
not in control of your time atall anyway, and if you're not in
(05:12):
control of your time, someonewill control your time.
Most people are missing livingtheir life because of their
career, and I do want toestablish that if you're in a
career that you love, that isrewarding and that is fulfilling
, awesome, but I want you tozoom out for a little bit and
(05:33):
look at this from a big picture.
When you're 10 years down thetrack, do you feel that you will
have missed some specialmoments that you could only do
now if you decided to prioritizedifferent things and to
establish boundaries, in whichwe're going to be talking about
in a moment?
Because if you're thinkingabout, I want to keep my job, I
(05:59):
understand that we all do.
We all need our career for,whether it's purpose, whether
it's community, whether it's ourpaycheck, we all do need that.
But there's more to it thanthat.
We all do.
We all need our career for,whether it's purpose, whether
it's community, whether it's ourpaycheck, we all do need that.
But there's more to it thanthat, and I want to help you
understand how work-life balancecan give you some tools and
strategies that you canimplement to live a little bit
more.
It doesn't need to be a lotmore, but a little bit more
(06:22):
would probably make the world ofdifference in your life, just
like an extra $500 a month wouldmake a difference in a lot of
people's lives as well.
It doesn't need to besignificant, but the changes
will seem significant.
The big problem has become theblurred lines between your
personal and your professionallife.
(06:42):
Whether you're an entrepreneuror whether you're the employee,
you now carry work in yourpocket.
As I was saying, with thesmartphones, the modern work
culture has these blurred lines,and the upside to that is more
of you will be able to workremotely.
It's one of the things that Ilove about what I do is being
able to work remotely.
I think it's such an incrediblething, but it also comes with
(07:04):
the downsides of it's very hardto separate from work.
If you're watching this onYouTube, you can see right now I
am set up in my kitchen.
Okay, so in order for me totruly, I guess, establish a
boundary here, I have to pack upall this work here and hide it,
because if it's inside, I'mlike, oh, maybe I can just do a
(07:25):
few more emails, or maybe I cancheck how my podcast downloads
are going, or maybe I can checkif there's any more applications
or courses sold, and so it'svery hard to establish your
boundaries.
It's not impossible, but it isdefinitely challenging.
So it has led and I guess thischallenge of not being able to
(07:45):
separate for a lot of people.
It's led to people working alot longer hours, the increased
stress and that lack of feelingof work-life balance.
Because when you think about it, what does work-life balance
mean to you and maybe post it.
If you're watching on YouTubein the comments, or if you're
listening on podcasts, just doit in the review part there.
(08:06):
But I'd love to understand foryou what work-life balance looks
like, because what it means tome could be very different to
you.
I could say to you right now onthis episode, that right now,
my life feels balanced.
But if you were to look at howI'm spending my time, you might
go Lockie, that's not balanced.
I don't know what you're onabout.
(08:27):
And because it's subjective andit's not something where you
give eight hours to this, eighthours to that, eight hours to
that, that makes the balance.
It's what you gain from thethings that you're doing.
So it's the intention, theattention and the outcome of
where you're spending your time.
(08:47):
The key to really moving towardsa balance that you want, after
you have gone through a littlebit more self-awareness, really
working out who you want tobecome, what you want from your
life and where you want toposition yourself, is, you can
then start establishing thosethings that will allow you to do
that.
What are those priorities andwhat are the personal boundaries
(09:09):
that you need to establish tomake that happen, boundaries
that could allow you toprioritize your personal time.
They could allow you toprioritize your family time,
your happiness or your health.
It may seem selfish andactually it does seem selfish.
My experience is still, and youmay feel like you need to
continue proving yourself, butthere have been numerous studies
(09:31):
that have shown the negativeimpacts of lacking work-life
balance on your mental healthand also your physical health.
And keep in mind, work-lifebalance is different to everyone
.
I want to keep reiterating that, but what works for me will be
different to you, and this iswhere, putting the I guess, the
keys in your hand, you're incontrol.
You have to be the one to bediving deeper.
(09:54):
I continue to talk aboutbuilding our dream life and what
that looks like, and, as ofwhen this goes live, you'll
probably have access to theself-discovery program, which is
a three-hour program to helpyou get clear on who you are,
what you want from your life andwhere you want to position
yourself.
We go through so many thingslike creating the vision, the
(10:16):
goals in detail, objections,excuses, limiting beliefs so
many things that are going to befundamental to you creating
that life, because, as I said, Iwould love to see everyone take
more responsibility for theirlife, from their health to their
relationships and I put a postout yesterday actually, you can
probably go back to Instagramwhere I said one of the biggest
(10:37):
fears that I have in my liferight now is not being able to
truly provide for my family, isnot being able to truly provide
for my family.
I've accepted theresponsibility to do that.
I believe, as a man, getting ina relationship, choosing to
start a family, means I amaccepting the responsibilities
(10:59):
and the consequences of that,and Amy and I are very clear on
the kind of life we want to live, the experiences that we want
to have, what we want to be ableto afford and you can always
put a dollar figure on that andas the man who's accepting
responsibility for that, I thenneed to become the kind of
(11:19):
person and build the business toabsorb that.
When I posted that yesterday, alot of people said look, there's
more to a man than that.
And look, there definitely is.
I agree that I talk about thatall the time, but if I'm not
accepting and stepping up to myresponsibilities.
Am I failing or not?
And I personally believe I'mfailing because I believe that
(11:41):
every decision I make there isconsequences and I have to step
up to them.
I have to grow and I have tofigure out how to do that.
And look, you may be listeningto this and completely disagree,
and that's fine.
I have worked with too many menwho are not in control of their
finances, are not leading theirfamily, are not happy within
(12:01):
themselves and, quite frankly, Idon't see any other solution
apart from looking at theproblems that we have and
stepping up to become the manthat we need to be in order to
do that.
Now, I'm not saying harden thefuck up, and there's merit to
that.
However, we can do that in abetter way, where we can build
support crews, we can expressour challenges, we can do it in
(12:24):
a healthy way, and this has goneoff a little bit on a tangent,
but I believe that's important.
I think, tying it back into whyI believe so many.
I would love to see more peopletake control of their life, and
entrepreneurship, or sidehustle, is so much more readily
available to us with AI and morepeople having more problems
(12:46):
than ever before and you havingso much potential to solve those
problems, not only for yourselfbut for other people, is a
great position to be in.
One thing we're doing and we'reevolving into with our Strongman
of Value Academy members now isI understand that a lot more
men want to discover more aboutwho they are so they can feel
more confident, have life'spurpose and really start to
(13:08):
influence and lead in their life, and we're doing that.
Another area that we haven'tfocused on for a long time but
we're shifting into is how wecan help men like you earn an
extra $500,000 a month, andthat's where we've now got an
affiliate program, because thinkabout a member of ours posted
in the academy the other daybecause, unfortunately, another
(13:30):
person within our not in ourcommunity, but within his
community took their life, andhis question was how do we stop
this happening?
And that's a complex question.
As I'm thinking about thatright now, I believe that if we
can have more men feeling loved,more men feeling valued, more
(13:56):
men feeling like they havepurpose and have meaning in
their life purpose and havemeaning in their life they will
be able to navigate thechallenges potentially in a
better way, without putting afull stop to their story and for
our members.
And to my response to this, Iwas like, dude, whether it's the
(14:19):
Academy or the man that Canproject that, you see as the
pathway, but you've got so muchvalue from it.
But if you don't see that as apathway to invite people in your
life to continue growing and tocontinue leveling up, finding
purpose, being a part of areally supportive community,
find something that you can thenpass on as a tool and continue
(14:39):
elevating and influencing yournetwork.
And now we are starting tofinancially reward people for
that.
Why?
Because I know how much anextra $500 a month would change
people's lives.
You get your financial stressunder control.
You're able to then startsolving other problems in your
life, and I understand that andI'm like well, that's a win-win
(15:00):
for people because they're goingto be elevating their own
community and influencing themto be better, to find their
purpose, etc.
And they're going to berewarded for that.
And I've built this wholebusiness, from men's circles to
retreats, to workshops, toonline academies, always being
what's the next problem I cansolve for the people that I'm
spending the most time around,and that's just the natural
(15:23):
progression that we've gone from.
And so, whether you're in theacademy now or you decide that
in the future it's something youwant to be a part of, that will
be available to, and you'll getto learn how to do that when
you do that.
But coming back to this wholeself-employed thing, that is a
potential path for you.
Affiliate marketing is a veryreal solution for you
(15:46):
potentially, if you need thatand you need the support, you
need the growth, because youwill grow into a different
version of yourself.
You will become so much moreconfident, you will have purpose
, you will learn sales, you willlearn marketing, you will feel
rewarded because you are helpingpeople change their life.
But if you find yourself inthat position, it's going to be
extremely important for you toset boundaries and to prioritize
(16:09):
your self-care so that youmaintain a healthy work-life
balance.
You got to consider things likesetting specific work hours,
taking breaks throughout the day, making time for personal
activities and yourrelationships right, really
living to your values, and Iwant to give you an example.
So we'll start with settingspecific work hours.
So let's use John as aself-employed lawyer, he sets
(16:31):
his work hours from nine tillfive, monday to Friday.
He makes sure to communicatethese hours to his clients and
sticks to them as much aspossible.
Now, if you're a lawyer, you'llprobably listen to this and go
no, mate, that's no chance,because a lot of the lawyers
that I work with always say that.
But we've also helped somebecome more efficient with what
I'll talk about shortly aroundAI and delegation and leverage.
(16:53):
The second thing with thatexample is taking breaks
throughout the day.
So John takes a 15-minute breakevery two hours to stretch, to
rest his eyes and to recharge soyou can do more focused and
efficient work right.
And he also takes an hour-longlunch break to eat and relax.
And you've got to make thatpersonal time.
(17:14):
So John makes sure to scheduletime for his hobbies.
He makes time to scheduleschedules time for his interests
, such as playing guitar andrunning it's almost like I wrote
that about myself and such ashaving dinner with his wife
every night and going on weekendtrips with his friends once a
month.
That's fucking amazing.
So when I first set the goal toearn a million dollars, I felt
(17:36):
like every waking second had tobe spent working.
I was building something fromthe ground up.
I had to work hard because Ididn't have the leverage, I
didn't have the skills, I didn'thave the know-how and, as a
result, my health suffered, myrelationship suffered and I
couldn't relate to my friendsanymore.
I literally stopped watchingsport.
(17:57):
People were like did you seethe game on the weekend?
I was like, which game was that, I don't know, and the
realization from that was thatthere has to be some form of
balance.
Just like day is to night, hotis to cold.
You've got to find this balance.
You know many people, and youmay be listening to this dream
(18:19):
of being self-employed andrunning their own business.
They imagine having the freedomto set their own schedule,
choose their own projects andcontrol their income.
I know I did, but being, youknow, self-employed is the
ultimate way to achievework-life balance and personal
fulfillment, and I truly believethat, but I do not believe
everyone is ready for it.
However, being self-employedalso comes with its own
(18:42):
challenges and risks.
One of the biggest challengesthat I've faced is a lack of
boundaries between that work andpersonal life.
Without the clear separation,as I mentioned, I would often
end up working longer hours,taking more stress, neglecting
my health and relationships.
I call it the self-employmenttrap Working hard to create
(19:05):
freedom but losing it in theprocess.
So I want to say that again,working hard to create freedom
but losing it in the process.
I want to flip that on its headnow.
So, in contrast, being anemployee may seem like a safer
and an easier option.
I definitely feel safer and Idefinitely feel like it's easier
(19:27):
.
I tried that for a while.
I had a fixed salary.
I had a stable schedule and avery clear role of what I needed
to do.
I didn't have to worry aboutfinding clients.
I didn't have to worry aboutfinding clients.
I didn't have to worry aboutmanaging finances or dealing
with the legal issues.
I could clock out at the end ofthe day and I would enjoy my
(19:48):
free time.
However, because of that, ithad its own drawbacks.
I had to follow someone else'srules, deadlines and
expectations.
I had limited autonomy,creativity and growth potential,
and because of that, I wasfucking bored, I was frustrated
and I was so unfulfilled.
And can you imagine like, whenyou're living like that, your
(20:11):
energy levels they are so low,right, your frequency in which
you're excited about life are sodifferent.
Think about this.
I want you to close your eyesright now and I want you to
think about something that trulyexcites you.
Like if you could be doinganything right now.
What would that be?
And I want you to really focusin on that.
(20:31):
I want you to think what wouldyou be smelling?
What would you be hearing?
What would you be thinking?
What would you be wearing?
And would you be hearing, whatwould you be thinking?
What would you be wearing?
And start getting that feelingaround that I'm getting excited
by that right now, and then goto the flip side.
If you're bored, frustrated andunfulfilled, you're in a very
(20:55):
different state of mind and Ipersonally would rather live my
life in this state of mind whereI'm excited, I'm fulfilled, my
energy is high.
So to think about this, you maybe in a workplace where you
have to deal with the politicsand the toxic culture.
I was, I was trading my freedomfor security, but what was the
(21:17):
cost?
And I want you to ask yourselfthat what is the cost that you
have for freedom?
You may be going yeah, lockie,it's easy for you or it's easy
for some.
The next question I would saywell, if you do feel you're
trading your freedom forsecurity, where could you start
to start working towardschanging that over the next
three to five years?
(21:38):
You don't need to change it nowand I don't believe that you
should ever quit your job and goall in on something until you
have replaced your income, atleast.
But what would that look likeIf we were to create a vision
and we do do this in theself-discovery program if we
were to create that vision andthen start building some goals
around who you need to become,what skills you need to learn,
(22:01):
what you need to be setting upto create that life?
Those are the next steps, andthey're going to bring up a lot
more questions self-reflectionthat you can leverage to build a
better life for yourself,creating that life that gives
you both freedom and stability,both challenge and ease, both
passion and peace.
(22:21):
That was a journey that Iembarked on, and not everyone is
ready to start their ownbusiness.
This is why I just created theself-discovery program to help
you get clear on who you are,what you want and your place in
the world.
A lot of people don't feel likethey belong, so from there, you
can create a side hustle, youcan grow it into a full-time gig
(22:42):
if that's what you want, or youmight just go look, dude, I'm
really happy with where I'm at.
It does everything for me,which, in that case, awesome,
right, perfect.
You'll be one of the very few.
But another key point that ishugely valuable around not
letting work steal your life isperpetual availability.
(23:06):
So it's the state of beingalways reachable, always
responsive to work-relatedrequests, regardless of time.
Those who've worked with me, oreven friends, you'll know that
I always have my phone on.
Do not disturb Always, becausethroughout the hours of the
workday I don't want to bedisturbed.
I have tasks, I haveappointments with myself or
(23:29):
appointments with other peoplethat I want to value and I want
to give my best to.
There are certain times whereI'll check my text messages,
I'll check my emails, I'll checkmy phone calls, but because I
guard my time, I'm a lot moreefficient and I'm in the right
frame of mind because when youare managing your time well, you
probably are doing chunks oftime, meaning you might be
(23:51):
focusing on a marketing oroutreach or sales or coaching or
whatever you know, relate thatto your own field, but you don't
have to keep wearing multiplehats.
Within the space of an hour,you could say right, this first
two hours of today, I'm focusingon this.
This is the mindset that I needto have in order to do that
well, and that's what a lot ofpeople overlook Once again, and
(24:11):
because of this, they're not asefficient, their work runs over
and they don't get things done.
So my I guess belief is thatyou don't need to always be
available to everyone.
Everyone used to have access tome.
My productivity was shocking.
I would always get interruptedand I understand it wasn't
(24:35):
always done intentionally, butit showed me.
It slowed me down, sorry, and Iwonder why I always had more
work left at the end of the day,even though I had scheduled
time to complete things, when Iwasn't getting things done in
their allocated time.
It was then taking time from myfamily, taking time from my
hobbies, taking time from theother things that I would have
loved to have been doing.
I'm sure you can probablyrelate to that.
(24:56):
I went to a workshop a fewyears ago and that's when I
first was told hey, dude, lucky,you don't need to be readily
available, you've got to setboundaries.
Focus time, as it's been called.
I've heard it before, but itdidn't make sense up until I
heard it like that, so I hope itlands for you.
Every time you're allowingsomeone to steal your focus,
(25:18):
they're robbing you of time.
In the future, it could be time, as I mentioned, exercising
with your partner, hobbies, etc.
Keep in mind, it just isn't thephysical interruptions, but
emails, texts, phone calls Allof that is a disruption.
I promise you that if you startguarding your time there, you
will feel more productive, lessoverwhelmed and have more time
(25:40):
at the end of the day.
One final thing and we're reallydiving more into this is
implementing AI into my day tohelp me save time.
Ai is obviously the buzzword atthe moment, and a mentor of
mine is helping me use it, andI'm going to share more about
this over the coming weeks,because it truly is saving me
(26:02):
time and giving me so much morefocus back on other areas.
But imagine having a personalassistant that can take care of
all the tasks that consume yourprecious time and attention
tasks like scheduling meetings,sorting emails, creating reports
or researching information.
Ai can do all of that for you.
I had a catch up with Troyabout six weeks ago and he's
(26:24):
using it in his companies, andif he can do it for that, I can
do it from my everyday life, andwe're constantly bombarded with
information, with requests,with deadlines, and it can be
really really hard to keep upwith it all and still have time
for ourselves.
So that's why I decided toexplore the possibilities of it
and see how it can work in mylife, and I've managed to save
(26:47):
time, as I mentioned, and becomemore efficient.
But one of the first ways that Istarted utilizing AI was to
help me with my emails, was tohelp me with my scheduling, was
to provide focused time.
I really managed my calendar.
I was amazed by how much Icould, I guess, save time.
And look, there's so many AIs.
There's ChatGPT, there's all ofthat sort of stuff.
(27:09):
I personally am using Microsoftsystem because it just all
integrates with itself, whichhelps me with all those tasks.
So it is sorting my emails bypriority, suggesting responses,
scheduling meetings, and themore I use it, the more it
learns my priorities and myhabits and adapts to my needs.
(27:29):
So I'm reclaiming no joke.
I'm getting more done in fourhours than I would in a full
workday.
And if you're a business ownerlistening, I'm going to be
teaching more people how I'mimplementing it, especially
within our academy, just sopeople can be more efficient.
Because I want to give you yourtime back.
I want to give you your timeback.
I want to give you the tools.
Sorry to give you your timeback, but, to wrap it up, don't
(27:52):
continue letting work to stealyour life.
Work-life balance is a crucialaspect of our overall wellbeing.
It's important to establishthose personal boundaries, to
prioritize our personal time andto use tools like AI or
delegate with staff, et cetera,to increase your productivity.
Whether you're self-employed oryou're an employee, you all
(28:12):
have access to that.
Finding the right balancebetween work and your personal
life is going to be challengingI promise you that, but it is
essential for your overallhappiness, your mental health
and your physical health.
So I want to encourage you now.
If you're ready to take thenext step in finding out who you
truly are, what you want fromyour life and where you fit in,
(28:33):
join the self-discovery program.
Head over to the websitethemanthatcanprojectcom and
you'll scroll down just a littlebit and you'll see the
self-discovery program there inone of the three ways that we
can help you.
It's under three hours and youwill be able to move through, so
it doesn't need to be complex.
Listen to the videos, gothrough the worksheets and allow
(28:56):
yourself to unpack and use theexperiences of your past to tell
you what you don't want, whatyou do want, what goals you need
to set to get more of what youwant in your life.
Don't let work steal your life.
Take control and join today.
I hope you guys have gainedvalue from today's episode.
It was a little bit longer thanI expected.
I went off on a few tangents,but I hope I know that it's
(29:17):
going to be valuable.
It's going to get you thinking,as always.
If you got value from thisepisode, please leave a rating.
Please leave a review.
Discuss in.
If you got value from thisepisode, please leave a rating.
Please leave a review, discussin the comments below and share
it on your social media.
Share this with someone thatyou know needs to hear this and
will get value Until Monday,where we have Sam Webb, the
(29:39):
co-founder of Livin, a mentalhealth organization in Australia
.
I'll look forward to sharingthat episode with you this
coming Monday.
Don't let work steal your life.
This is a modern epidemic andsomething that I have thought
about a lot.
I've spent the last two weeksreading a ton of articles on
work-life balance, on scheduling, on life fulfillment,
satisfaction, happiness, andthis is what I've come to the
(00:20):
conclusion on.
I believe it is an epidemicbecause so many of you are not
happy with your position in life, and I'm not saying necessarily
always as a whole, but you mayhave segments of your life your
health, for example, or yourrelationships, or even your
career where you're not livingup to your expectation, because
(00:44):
the balance between yourpersonal life and the balance
between your professional lifeare blurry.
And Stephen Covey has a reallyawesome quote where it is, the
key is not to prioritize what'son your schedule, but to
schedule what you want toprioritize.
And when you think about lifelike that, it's going to really
(01:08):
probably separate the audienceon this one.
There's going to be those ofyou who are self-employed, who
have more control over yourschedule and where your time
goes, and those who are employedwho don't have as much
flexibility and freedom withtheir schedule.
Now, I am going to dive into itfrom both angles today, because
(01:30):
I believe wholeheartedly thateveryone should start a business
in this environment if youtruly want to take
responsibility for your time,for your finances, for
everything.
You don't really want to leaveanything up to anyone else.
However, I do not believe thateveryone is ready for that yet.
(01:50):
There are steps that have tocome before being ready for that
, because I can imagine you maybe sitting there going dude.
I love my job.
It's safe, it's secure.
It's everything that I need,and if you're in that position,
awesome.
I have spoken to too many peoplewho have had that taken away
from them and have foundthemselves in a really
(02:11):
challenging position, and thelens that I like to look at life
through is if that were tohappen, how would I be able to
respond?
Would that put my life inabsolute disarray or would I be
able to build from that?
And majority of people, itwould throw their life into
disarray, and so, while comfortis a great thing to experience,
(02:35):
it is only going to harm you inthe long run, and I do truly
believe that it's why so manymen are overweight right,
they're puffy, fluffy and havelow energy.
Their libido is low.
They're not happy andcomfortable taking their shirt
off at the beach.
Their relationships suckbecause in the beginning, they
put all the effort in, but theyexpected the effort in the
(02:56):
beginning to carry them throughthe next 20, 30 years of their
life and their relationship ortheir career.
They worked hard to get towhere they wanted to and now, on
a daily basis, they're notcontinuing to grow and evolve
and they're at risk of losingtheir job or the satisfaction
and fulfillment has been takenaway from it.
So I want you to think about itlike this Everything requires
(03:20):
continued growth, and what Itruly believe and what we're
pushing at the man that Canproject is how can we give you
the power, the belief and theunderstanding to take
responsibility for more areas ofyour life, not needing to rely
on other people to get you towhere you want to go to and that
is different to delegation byoutsourcing and having help to
(03:43):
move towards a common goal, acommon goal that you're in
control of.
So think about it like this haveyou ever thought work is
stealing my life?
You're watching the years flyby and life has not changed.
For you, it's the same thing,day in, day out.
The years have been a mix ofexcitement clouded by stress and
burnout.
One of the most common reasonswhy men are joining the Men that
(04:06):
Can project whether it's ouracademy or getting involved in
our other programs is toestablish work-life balance.
Work has taken over for mostpeople.
If you're not in the office,you're now expected to answer
emails and work on projects athomes, thanks to our smartphones
, these little things that, ifyou're watching on YouTube,
(04:29):
they're so powerful and they'reso awesome, but they do come
with consequences, and if wearen't aware of that, they can
completely ruin all the thingsthat we want from our life.
It's eating into your personaltime.
Think about this how much timedid you spend with your family
today?
How much time did you spendwith your family over the last
(04:51):
week?
What about the last month?
Or when was your last vacation?
Do you have time for yourselfdaily?
Now?
You're either nodding your heador you're shaking it.
There's no in between or, ifyou don't know, you're probably
not in control of your time atall anyway, and if you're not in
(05:12):
control of your time, someonewill control your time.
Most people are missing livingtheir life because of their
career, and I do want toestablish that if you're in a
career that you love, that isrewarding and that is fulfilling
, awesome, but I want you tozoom out for a little bit and
(05:33):
look at this from a big picture.
When you're 10 years down thetrack, do you feel that you will
have missed some specialmoments that you could only do
now if you decided to prioritizedifferent things and to
establish boundaries, in whichwe're going to be talking about
in a moment?
Because if you're thinkingabout, I want to keep my job, I
(05:59):
understand that we all do.
We all need our career for,whether it's purpose, whether
it's community, whether it's ourpaycheck, we all do need that.
But there's more to it thanthat.
We all do.
We all need our career for,whether it's purpose, whether
it's community, whether it's ourpaycheck, we all do need that.
But there's more to it thanthat, and I want to help you
understand how work-life balancecan give you some tools and
strategies that you canimplement to live a little bit
more.
It doesn't need to be a lotmore, but a little bit more
(06:22):
would probably make the world ofdifference in your life, just
like an extra $500 a month wouldmake a difference in a lot of
people's lives as well.
It doesn't need to besignificant, but the changes
will seem significant.
The big problem has become theblurred lines between your
personal and your professionallife.
(06:42):
Whether you're an entrepreneuror whether you're the employee,
you now carry work in yourpocket.
As I was saying, with thesmartphones, the modern work
culture has these blurred lines,and the upside to that is more
of you will be able to workremotely.
It's one of the things that Ilove about what I do is being
able to work remotely.
I think it's such an incrediblething, but it also comes with
(07:04):
the downsides of it's very hardto separate from work.
If you're watching this onYouTube, you can see right now I
am set up in my kitchen.
Okay, so in order for me totruly, I guess, establish a
boundary here, I have to pack upall this work here and hide it,
because if it's inside, I'mlike, oh, maybe I can just do a
(07:25):
few more emails, or maybe I cancheck how my podcast downloads
are going, or maybe I can checkif there's any more applications
or courses sold, and so it'svery hard to establish your
boundaries.
It's not impossible, but it isdefinitely challenging.
So it has led and I guess thischallenge of not being able to
(07:45):
separate for a lot of people.
It's led to people working alot longer hours, the increased
stress and that lack of feelingof work-life balance.
Because when you think about it, what does work-life balance
mean to you and maybe post it.
If you're watching on YouTubein the comments, or if you're
listening on podcasts, just doit in the review part there.
(08:06):
But I'd love to understand foryou what work-life balance looks
like, because what it means tome could be very different to
you.
I could say to you right now onthis episode, that right now,
my life feels balanced.
But if you were to look at howI'm spending my time, you might
go Lockie, that's not balanced.
I don't know what you're onabout.
(08:27):
And because it's subjective andit's not something where you
give eight hours to this, eighthours to that, eight hours to
that, that makes the balance.
It's what you gain from thethings that you're doing.
So it's the intention, theattention and the outcome of
where you're spending your time.
(08:47):
The key to really moving towardsa balance that you want, after
you have gone through a littlebit more self-awareness, really
working out who you want tobecome, what you want from your
life and where you want toposition yourself, is, you can
then start establishing thosethings that will allow you to do
that.
What are those priorities andwhat are the personal boundaries
(09:09):
that you need to establish tomake that happen, boundaries
that could allow you toprioritize your personal time.
They could allow you toprioritize your family time,
your happiness or your health.
It may seem selfish andactually it does seem selfish.
My experience is still, and youmay feel like you need to
continue proving yourself, butthere have been numerous studies
(09:31):
that have shown the negativeimpacts of lacking work-life
balance on your mental healthand also your physical health.
And keep in mind, work-lifebalance is different to everyone
.
I want to keep reiterating that, but what works for me will be
different to you, and this iswhere, putting the I guess, the
keys in your hand, you're incontrol.
You have to be the one to bediving deeper.
(09:54):
I continue to talk aboutbuilding our dream life and what
that looks like, and, as ofwhen this goes live, you'll
probably have access to theself-discovery program, which is
a three-hour program to helpyou get clear on who you are,
what you want from your life andwhere you want to position
yourself.
We go through so many thingslike creating the vision, the
(10:16):
goals in detail, objections,excuses, limiting beliefs so
many things that are going to befundamental to you creating
that life, because, as I said, Iwould love to see everyone take
more responsibility for theirlife, from their health to their
relationships and I put a postout yesterday actually, you can
probably go back to Instagramwhere I said one of the biggest
(10:37):
fears that I have in my liferight now is not being able to
truly provide for my family, isnot being able to truly provide
for my family.
I've accepted theresponsibility to do that.
I believe, as a man, getting ina relationship, choosing to
start a family, means I amaccepting the responsibilities
(10:59):
and the consequences of that,and Amy and I are very clear on
the kind of life we want to live, the experiences that we want
to have, what we want to be ableto afford and you can always
put a dollar figure on that andas the man who's accepting
responsibility for that, I thenneed to become the kind of
(11:19):
person and build the business toabsorb that.
When I posted that yesterday, alot of people said look, there's
more to a man than that.
And look, there definitely is.
I agree that I talk about thatall the time, but if I'm not
accepting and stepping up to myresponsibilities.
Am I failing or not?
And I personally believe I'mfailing because I believe that
(11:41):
every decision I make there isconsequences and I have to step
up to them.
I have to grow and I have tofigure out how to do that.
And look, you may be listeningto this and completely disagree,
and that's fine.
I have worked with too many menwho are not in control of their
finances, are not leading theirfamily, are not happy within
(12:01):
themselves and, quite frankly, Idon't see any other solution
apart from looking at theproblems that we have and
stepping up to become the manthat we need to be in order to
do that.
Now, I'm not saying harden thefuck up, and there's merit to
that.
However, we can do that in abetter way, where we can build
support crews, we can expressour challenges, we can do it in
(12:24):
a healthy way, and this has goneoff a little bit on a tangent,
but I believe that's important.
I think, tying it back into whyI believe so many.
I would love to see more peopletake control of their life, and
entrepreneurship, or sidehustle, is so much more readily
available to us with AI and morepeople having more problems
(12:46):
than ever before and you havingso much potential to solve those
problems, not only for yourselfbut for other people, is a
great position to be in.
One thing we're doing and we'reevolving into with our Strongman
of Value Academy members now isI understand that a lot more
men want to discover more aboutwho they are so they can feel
more confident, have life'spurpose and really start to
(13:08):
influence and lead in their life, and we're doing that.
Another area that we haven'tfocused on for a long time but
we're shifting into is how wecan help men like you earn an
extra $500,000 a month, andthat's where we've now got an
affiliate program, because thinkabout a member of ours posted
in the academy the other daybecause, unfortunately, another
(13:30):
person within our not in ourcommunity, but within his
community took their life, andhis question was how do we stop
this happening?
And that's a complex question.
As I'm thinking about thatright now, I believe that if we
can have more men feeling loved,more men feeling valued, more
(13:56):
men feeling like they havepurpose and have meaning in
their life purpose and havemeaning in their life they will
be able to navigate thechallenges potentially in a
better way, without putting afull stop to their story and for
our members.
And to my response to this, Iwas like, dude, whether it's the
(14:19):
Academy or the man that Canproject that, you see as the
pathway, but you've got so muchvalue from it.
But if you don't see that as apathway to invite people in your
life to continue growing and tocontinue leveling up, finding
purpose, being a part of areally supportive community,
find something that you can thenpass on as a tool and continue
(14:39):
elevating and influencing yournetwork.
And now we are starting tofinancially reward people for
that.
Why?
Because I know how much anextra $500 a month would change
people's lives.
You get your financial stressunder control.
You're able to then startsolving other problems in your
life, and I understand that andI'm like well, that's a win-win
(15:00):
for people because they're goingto be elevating their own
community and influencing themto be better, to find their
purpose, etc.
And they're going to berewarded for that.
And I've built this wholebusiness, from men's circles to
retreats, to workshops, toonline academies, always being
what's the next problem I cansolve for the people that I'm
spending the most time around,and that's just the natural
(15:23):
progression that we've gone from.
And so, whether you're in theacademy now or you decide that
in the future it's something youwant to be a part of, that will
be available to, and you'll getto learn how to do that when
you do that.
But coming back to this wholeself-employed thing, that is a
potential path for you.
Affiliate marketing is a veryreal solution for you
(15:46):
potentially, if you need thatand you need the support, you
need the growth, because youwill grow into a different
version of yourself.
You will become so much moreconfident, you will have purpose
, you will learn sales, you willlearn marketing, you will feel
rewarded because you are helpingpeople change their life.
But if you find yourself inthat position, it's going to be
extremely important for you toset boundaries and to prioritize
(16:09):
your self-care so that youmaintain a healthy work-life
balance.
You got to consider things likesetting specific work hours,
taking breaks throughout the day, making time for personal
activities and yourrelationships right, really
living to your values, and Iwant to give you an example.
So we'll start with settingspecific work hours.
So let's use John as aself-employed lawyer, he sets
(16:31):
his work hours from nine tillfive, monday to Friday.
He makes sure to communicatethese hours to his clients and
sticks to them as much aspossible.
Now, if you're a lawyer, you'llprobably listen to this and go
no, mate, that's no chance,because a lot of the lawyers
that I work with always say that.
But we've also helped somebecome more efficient with what
I'll talk about shortly aroundAI and delegation and leverage.
(16:53):
The second thing with thatexample is taking breaks
throughout the day.
So John takes a 15-minute breakevery two hours to stretch, to
rest his eyes and to recharge soyou can do more focused and
efficient work right.
And he also takes an hour-longlunch break to eat and relax.
And you've got to make thatpersonal time.
(17:14):
So John makes sure to scheduletime for his hobbies.
He makes time to scheduleschedules time for his interests
, such as playing guitar andrunning it's almost like I wrote
that about myself and such ashaving dinner with his wife
every night and going on weekendtrips with his friends once a
month.
That's fucking amazing.
So when I first set the goal toearn a million dollars, I felt
(17:36):
like every waking second had tobe spent working.
I was building something fromthe ground up.
I had to work hard because Ididn't have the leverage, I
didn't have the skills, I didn'thave the know-how and, as a
result, my health suffered, myrelationship suffered and I
couldn't relate to my friendsanymore.
I literally stopped watchingsport.
(17:57):
People were like did you seethe game on the weekend?
I was like, which game was that, I don't know, and the
realization from that was thatthere has to be some form of
balance.
Just like day is to night, hotis to cold.
You've got to find this balance.
You know many people, and youmay be listening to this dream
(18:19):
of being self-employed andrunning their own business.
They imagine having the freedomto set their own schedule,
choose their own projects andcontrol their income.
I know I did, but being, youknow, self-employed is the
ultimate way to achievework-life balance and personal
fulfillment, and I truly believethat, but I do not believe
everyone is ready for it.
However, being self-employedalso comes with its own
(18:42):
challenges and risks.
One of the biggest challengesthat I've faced is a lack of
boundaries between that work andpersonal life.
Without the clear separation,as I mentioned, I would often
end up working longer hours,taking more stress, neglecting
my health and relationships.
I call it the self-employmenttrap Working hard to create
(19:05):
freedom but losing it in theprocess.
So I want to say that again,working hard to create freedom
but losing it in the process.
I want to flip that on its headnow.
So, in contrast, being anemployee may seem like a safer
and an easier option.
I definitely feel safer and Idefinitely feel like it's easier
(19:27):
.
I tried that for a while.
I had a fixed salary.
I had a stable schedule and avery clear role of what I needed
to do.
I didn't have to worry aboutfinding clients.
I didn't have to worry aboutfinding clients.
I didn't have to worry aboutmanaging finances or dealing
with the legal issues.
I could clock out at the end ofthe day and I would enjoy my
(19:48):
free time.
However, because of that, ithad its own drawbacks.
I had to follow someone else'srules, deadlines and
expectations.
I had limited autonomy,creativity and growth potential,
and because of that, I wasfucking bored, I was frustrated
and I was so unfulfilled.
And can you imagine like, whenyou're living like that, your
(20:11):
energy levels they are so low,right, your frequency in which
you're excited about life are sodifferent.
Think about this.
I want you to close your eyesright now and I want you to
think about something that trulyexcites you.
Like if you could be doinganything right now.
What would that be?
And I want you to really focusin on that.
(20:31):
I want you to think what wouldyou be smelling?
What would you be hearing?
What would you be thinking?
What would you be wearing?
And would you be hearing, whatwould you be thinking?
What would you be wearing?
And start getting that feelingaround that I'm getting excited
by that right now, and then goto the flip side.
If you're bored, frustrated andunfulfilled, you're in a very
(20:55):
different state of mind and Ipersonally would rather live my
life in this state of mind whereI'm excited, I'm fulfilled, my
energy is high.
So to think about this, you maybe in a workplace where you
have to deal with the politicsand the toxic culture.
I was, I was trading my freedomfor security, but what was the
(21:17):
cost?
And I want you to ask yourselfthat what is the cost that you
have for freedom?
You may be going yeah, lockie,it's easy for you or it's easy
for some.
The next question I would saywell, if you do feel you're
trading your freedom forsecurity, where could you start
to start working towardschanging that over the next
three to five years?
(21:38):
You don't need to change it nowand I don't believe that you
should ever quit your job and goall in on something until you
have replaced your income, atleast.
But what would that look likeIf we were to create a vision
and we do do this in theself-discovery program if we
were to create that vision andthen start building some goals
around who you need to become,what skills you need to learn,
(22:01):
what you need to be setting upto create that life?
Those are the next steps, andthey're going to bring up a lot
more questions self-reflectionthat you can leverage to build a
better life for yourself,creating that life that gives
you both freedom and stability,both challenge and ease, both
passion and peace.
(22:21):
That was a journey that Iembarked on, and not everyone is
ready to start their ownbusiness.
This is why I just created theself-discovery program to help
you get clear on who you are,what you want and your place in
the world.
A lot of people don't feel likethey belong, so from there, you
can create a side hustle, youcan grow it into a full-time gig
(22:42):
if that's what you want, or youmight just go look, dude, I'm
really happy with where I'm at.
It does everything for me,which, in that case, awesome,
right, perfect.
You'll be one of the very few.
But another key point that ishugely valuable around not
letting work steal your life isperpetual availability.
(23:06):
So it's the state of beingalways reachable, always
responsive to work-relatedrequests, regardless of time.
Those who've worked with me, oreven friends, you'll know that
I always have my phone on.
Do not disturb Always, becausethroughout the hours of the
workday I don't want to bedisturbed.
I have tasks, I haveappointments with myself or
(23:29):
appointments with other peoplethat I want to value and I want
to give my best to.
There are certain times whereI'll check my text messages,
I'll check my emails, I'll checkmy phone calls, but because I
guard my time, I'm a lot moreefficient and I'm in the right
frame of mind because when youare managing your time well, you
probably are doing chunks oftime, meaning you might be
(23:51):
focusing on a marketing oroutreach or sales or coaching or
whatever you know, relate thatto your own field, but you don't
have to keep wearing multiplehats.
Within the space of an hour,you could say right, this first
two hours of today, I'm focusingon this.
This is the mindset that I needto have in order to do that
well, and that's what a lot ofpeople overlook Once again, and
(24:11):
because of this, they're not asefficient, their work runs over
and they don't get things done.
So my I guess belief is thatyou don't need to always be
available to everyone.
Everyone used to have access tome.
My productivity was shocking.
I would always get interruptedand I understand it wasn't
(24:35):
always done intentionally, butit showed me.
It slowed me down, sorry, and Iwonder why I always had more
work left at the end of the day,even though I had scheduled
time to complete things, when Iwasn't getting things done in
their allocated time.
It was then taking time from myfamily, taking time from my
hobbies, taking time from theother things that I would have
loved to have been doing.
I'm sure you can probablyrelate to that.
(24:56):
I went to a workshop a fewyears ago and that's when I
first was told hey, dude, lucky,you don't need to be readily
available, you've got to setboundaries.
Focus time, as it's been called.
I've heard it before, but itdidn't make sense up until I
heard it like that, so I hope itlands for you.
Every time you're allowingsomeone to steal your focus,
(25:18):
they're robbing you of time.
In the future, it could be time, as I mentioned, exercising
with your partner, hobbies, etc.
Keep in mind, it just isn't thephysical interruptions, but
emails, texts, phone calls Allof that is a disruption.
I promise you that if you startguarding your time there, you
will feel more productive, lessoverwhelmed and have more time
(25:40):
at the end of the day.
One final thing and we're reallydiving more into this is
implementing AI into my day tohelp me save time.
Ai is obviously the buzzword atthe moment, and a mentor of
mine is helping me use it, andI'm going to share more about
this over the coming weeks,because it truly is saving me
(26:02):
time and giving me so much morefocus back on other areas.
But imagine having a personalassistant that can take care of
all the tasks that consume yourprecious time and attention
tasks like scheduling meetings,sorting emails, creating reports
or researching information.
Ai can do all of that for you.
I had a catch up with Troyabout six weeks ago and he's
(26:24):
using it in his companies, andif he can do it for that, I can
do it from my everyday life, andwe're constantly bombarded with
information, with requests,with deadlines, and it can be
really really hard to keep upwith it all and still have time
for ourselves.
So that's why I decided toexplore the possibilities of it
and see how it can work in mylife, and I've managed to save
(26:47):
time, as I mentioned, and becomemore efficient.
But one of the first ways that Istarted utilizing AI was to
help me with my emails, was tohelp me with my scheduling, was
to provide focused time.
I really managed my calendar.
I was amazed by how much Icould, I guess, save time.
And look, there's so many AIs.
There's ChatGPT, there's all ofthat sort of stuff.
(27:09):
I personally am using Microsoftsystem because it just all
integrates with itself, whichhelps me with all those tasks.
So it is sorting my emails bypriority, suggesting responses,
scheduling meetings, and themore I use it, the more it
learns my priorities and myhabits and adapts to my needs.
(27:29):
So I'm reclaiming no joke.
I'm getting more done in fourhours than I would in a full
workday.
And if you're a business ownerlistening, I'm going to be
teaching more people how I'mimplementing it, especially
within our academy, just sopeople can be more efficient.
Because I want to give you yourtime back.
I want to give you your timeback.
I want to give you the tools.
Sorry to give you your timeback, but, to wrap it up, don't
(27:52):
continue letting work to stealyour life.
Work-life balance is a crucialaspect of our overall wellbeing.
It's important to establishthose personal boundaries, to
prioritize our personal time andto use tools like AI or
delegate with staff, et cetera,to increase your productivity.
Whether you're self-employed oryou're an employee, you all
(28:12):
have access to that.
Finding the right balancebetween work and your personal
life is going to be challengingI promise you that, but it is
essential for your overallhappiness, your mental health
and your physical health.
So I want to encourage you now.
If you're ready to take thenext step in finding out who you
truly are, what you want fromyour life and where you fit in,
(28:33):
join the self-discovery program.
Head over to the websitethemanthatcanprojectcom and
you'll scroll down just a littlebit and you'll see the
self-discovery program there inone of the three ways that we
can help you.
It's under three hours and youwill be able to move through, so
it doesn't need to be complex.
Listen to the videos, gothrough the worksheets and allow
(28:56):
yourself to unpack and use theexperiences of your past to tell
you what you don't want, whatyou do want, what goals you need
to set to get more of what youwant in your life.
Don't let work steal your life.
Take control and join today.
I hope you guys have gainedvalue from today's episode.
It was a little bit longer thanI expected.
I went off on a few tangents,but I hope I know that it's
(29:17):
going to be valuable.
It's going to get you thinking,as always.
If you got value from thisepisode, please leave a rating.
Please leave a review.
Discuss in.
If you got value from thisepisode, please leave a rating.
Please leave a review, discussin the comments below and share
it on your social media.
Share this with someone thatyou know needs to hear this and
will get value Until Monday,where we have Sam Webb, the
(29:39):
co-founder of Livin, a mentalhealth organization in Australia
.
I'll look forward to sharingthat episode with you this
coming Monday.
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