The Variety Pack is back—and somehow, you keep raising the bar. In this episode, we answer your most honest (and hilarious) questions about fitness, fatherhood, faith, productivity, and mental health—with no prep and no filter.
This week:
- Our Top 10 Exercises for life
- Can being too nice hurt your kids later in life?
- What should the next 10 years of your marriage look like?
- How do you balance early morning workouts with family life?
- How to protect your mental health when life won’t slow down
- Mark Wahlberg’s 4AM grind... worth it?
- and MORE!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In that first ten years, you're going to have learned something
about your spouse that you didn't know.
And I think in that next 10 years, take what you learned
about your spouse and don't try to correct them or force them to
change for you. Try to adjust and be flexible
for them. If you both do that, if you
(00:20):
focus on each other's strengths and not weaknesses, I think
that's a healthy married goal. All right, everybody, welcome to
(00:44):
Running Free. We are back with another Variety
pack episode and I'm here with my very dear, very red faced
tomato looking Justin Mazars. How you doing?
How you doing Justin? I am sun kissed today and
insanely hot and sunny and the wonderful East Coast.
(01:04):
But that being said it is summerand I'm excited still.
It's almost over it feels like, which is insane, but here we
are. Did I make you blush?
I literally couldn't tell if I made you blush because how do
you want to redo the intro? Are you embarrassed that I
called you tomato? Or no, I want to get redder by
the time this is over, so let's keep going.
All right, cool. Well, we're going to do it.
For those that don't know now, you know, once a month, the last
(01:26):
week of every month here runningfree, we do our variety pack
episode, which is where you can ask us literally anything and
that's what we typically get. We get a a mixed bag of
questions. We got a ton of questions this
time and we tried to choose a variety of questions across
things like mental health, fitness, family, culture and
everything in between. And we are going to dive into
(01:47):
it. Not a lot of prep work on
purpose. We like to just kind of hit
these head on and just react to them and react to each other.
And we're going to dive in now with our first question coming
at us from Jonathan in Massachusetts.
Great question here. Justin, you're going to go
first. All right, let's do this.
It is How has your relationship to the trifecta, which is,
(02:10):
according to Jonathan, food, body image and movement or
fitness changed over time? Again, how has your relationship
to food, body image and fitness or movement changed over time?
That's a really good question, Jonathan.
I mean, I think it's definitely,you know, evolved over time.
(02:33):
At least I'll speak for myself. So I over the years, like it
evolved from just doing it because I felt like I had to
into like this is this is awesome.
This is making me feel great. Like what more can I learn and
what more can I apply? But I will say, you know, coming
with that, you know, body dysmorphia is something that I
would definitely think is very apparent in a a lot of what we
(02:54):
do and I'll. Yeah, but every time I look in
the mirror, I'm smaller than theday I was before.
I you know, I always say like the day that I picked up a
weight is the day that I have I was, I will forever be small to
myself. And yeah, and it's definitely a
struggle. And throw on top of that, you
know, dumb decisions that I madein the past, abusing steroids
(03:16):
and really seeing holy shit, this is how big I can get now
knowing I'll never touch that again.
Kind of a a mental struggle there as well.
But, you know, going, this is meant to be something that, you
know, helps us, not something that hurts us.
So, you know, viewing all these three things as a as a trifecta
like you were saying, and understanding that one doesn't
(03:38):
outweigh the other, that these all three go together.
And the sooner that we understand that, the sooner that
the results that you want to sayyou're going to come as well as
many other benefits. Yeah, yeah, man, well said and
relatable. I could care less about any of
those up until I was about 19 years old because I'm I was
never taught to care about them.I just didn't ate whatever the
hell I wanted. I didn't care about moving and I
(04:00):
didn't care about how I look. But I can remember Justin, there
was just one time back in the day, way back in the day,
because we're, you know, 40 ish pictures weren't around as much.
So I didn't see a lot of pictures of me, and I
specifically didn't see a lot ofpictures of me with my shirt off
until there was this one time myself and two of my friends,
Chuck and Timmy, we're at poolside.
We're all about to jump into a pool.
I don't know who the hell took the picture, but the picture got
(04:21):
back to me and I looked at Timmyand I looked at Chuck and they
were fit and they were ripped. And I looked at me and I had
this little pouch. I had no definition.
And for the first time in my life, body image just kind of
like hit me and went holy crap. Like, I hate how that looks.
And that was like a turning point for me.
And I think that pushed me like very quickly to start caring
(04:42):
about the other ones, which is fitness and food.
So that, that said, since 1920 when I joined the Marines and
fitness was a big culture, big part of that, obviously that
family, that culture, food and body image hasn't changed for me
in terms of how much I care about it.
I've been dialed in. I've been caring about how I
(05:03):
look consistently now, just likeyou mentioned, there's times
when I care more to look bigger and train bigger or to get
leaner. Like that'll fluctuate.
But it seems to be consistent for me and continue to change
his movement or fit because I'vehit a point and this is just one
way I'll say it and we'll move on.
But like I've I've sort of accepted that I wasn't born
(05:25):
genetically gifted to be a monster.
I think every guy that lifts like wants to be bigger and they
want to be stronger. They want to put on AT shirt and
look like they lift. But I just think I'd like I I
don't have bad genetics. I don't have great ones for
muscle growth And for a long time with movement, I would just
like push my body and lift heavier weights and I'd always
get injured and it, it was just like I wasn't learning from
(05:46):
that. So where I am now, and I guess
it's body image too. It's like I'm kind of happy with
my strength. I'm stronger than most people,
but I'll never be the strongest.I don't look perfect, but I
think I look pretty damn good for you know what I'm what I'm
doing. So on movement, I'm just now
starting to be like, OK, I'm going to choose moves that are
effective but that are safe and I'm not going to like overload
(06:09):
the bar. So I hurt myself, which is
counter counterintuitive, but the way that all three go
together, I I've been focused onlike that whole picture for a
while, Two of them pretty static.
But the movement part, I'm finally, I think for the better
man trying like transitioning towhere like, OK, I'm going to do
movements that are effective butare safe.
And that's where I'm at with it.So.
It's a good place to be, man. I think so.
(06:30):
I think so. All right.
Staying in the realm of fitness,this one from Michael in
Colorado. This is great.
This is great. If you could only do 10 weight
lifting exercises for the rest of your life, only 10, what
would you do? What would you choose?
(06:51):
Oh man, there's something to choose from.
You're going first, so I get to benefit to write my down.
Damn it. All right, fine.
Well, for 10, I obviously got toinclude the big three, so we're
going to go squat, bench, dead. OK.
And I need 7 more. That's unfortunate.
Let's go with, I'm going to, I'mgoing to split it up by body
(07:13):
part. So we're going to start with
back. We're going to do pull ups.
OK. We're also going to do some
barbell rows. OK.
How many am I at 12345? That's 5.
That's 5. We are going to do reverse grip
chin UPS. OK, so pull ups and chin UPS.
Yeah, more so for biceps, but also incorporating some upper
(07:35):
back. OK.
And then we are going to do hat squat.
OK. Three more, three more, three
more. We are going to do the military
press. OK, barbell or dumbbell?
Dumbbell. OK.
(07:55):
Is that for shoulder safety? Yes, for shoulder safety.
I'm so glad you asked. I'm at, I'm at 2:00 left.
We're going to do some dumbbell lateral raises and then we're
going to be doing what's the last one, wild card.
We're going to do some skull crushers.
Skull crushers. OK, All right.
Final answers. Yeah, don't ask me the same all
(08:16):
again 'cause. Whatever, we'll we'll we'll re
listen to it later. All right, all right, I'm going
to go. I tried to group them here as
you're talking. So for lower body, unlike you,
I'm going to keep that barbell off of my spine and keep
heavyweight off of it because remember, this is forever.
You, I don't know. For sure.
Just pressure check that list when you're 80, Justin.
(08:37):
Lower body. I'm going to go Bulgarian split
squats. OK.
And I am going to go with a Romanian deadlift and I would do
those with with dumbbells as well.
All right, on the kind of upper push motions, I'm going to go
with a dumbbell bench press for shoulder safety cable fly.
I just love it. The contraction in my chest
(08:58):
that's that one is the I feel that the most, which means I
know it's working the muscle andthen dips.
I'm going to go with dips. Dips the upper body squat.
I like it. Yeah, yeah.
So at 12345 on the the pulling, the upper pulling motion, I'm
not going to do the pull ups. I've got a lot of trap issues,
probably my form, but I am goingto do lat pull downs, neutral
(09:19):
grip on those and inverted row would be my my other one.
You like that. So that's 6-7.
I got three more probably focus on the arms here.
So I like hammer curls specifically for grip strength
and also for the bicep. I don't know that I would do a
(09:40):
tricep 1. I might have to think of a
different move here back to the lower body.
Sorry. Glute ham raise for my glutes.
I mean like most men and and probably women too, under active
glutes, right? Overactive hand strength.
So glute ham raise. So I got one more just thinking
through this and it's weightlifting exercises, man.
(10:04):
Probably you know what, dumbbellclean.
That's going to be 1 for me. Dumbbell clean.
All right. I see.
I see. You see?
What I do the? Listeners, if you, if you've
been paying attention, if you can't tell, I think the
approaches that we're taking here were meathead approach by
yours truly, science backed approach by Mr. Karjat.
So no surprises at all. Mindful of the lifespan, my
(10:29):
friend, that's where I'm but I am a couple years older than
you, so maybe you'll get there. I don't know.
All right, this is fun. We're going to switch to more of
a a lifestyle and. Even I like those.
Family One. This is a great one.
Is this the same? Yeah.
This is also from Michael in Colorado.
(10:50):
Shout out to Mike. I know he's going to listen.
All right? Mike asks.
This is fantastic. Many people our age.
How old you talking, Michael? Many people our age.
Assuming my if I'm 40, Justin. Mid 20s.
Yeah, OK, sure. Many people are hitting their 10
(11:11):
year anniversary in their marriages.
Question. Here's the question, What are
goals or milestones couples should think about for the next
10 years? So years 11 through 20.
Look, one in ten Americans todaystruggle with alcohol use
disorder and I was one of them. Did you know that there is a
(11:32):
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(11:54):
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alcohol. Oh.
Man, that's that's a really goodquestion and I love the variety
of questions that we get on the variety pack episodes.
(12:15):
Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I mean, I am.
I'm one of those people, God willingly, that I can definitely
say that. You know, I, my wife and I
celebrated our ten years last year, which is awesome.
We went to Mexico for it, had a blast.
Should that be everyone's 10 year goal, go to Mexico.
I don't think it's a bad idea. But you know, I've shared a
(12:36):
little bit I think about the struggles that List and I had in
the beginning stages of our marriage.
First couple years weren't pretty at all and that was a lot
of it was myself causing a lot of these things.
But you know, those things were work through and that helped us
get to where we're at and a lot of marriage counseling, a lot of
therapy, a lot of self work. But what I will say now that we
(12:59):
have 10 years of this wonderful journey under our belt, I think
because of society and social media, we always think that like
we have to go to this big trip or we have to do this huge
excursion or spend all this money to get the perfect
pictures taken so we can post it.
But like I have learned and the things that make the biggest
(13:20):
difference in terms of our marriage on the day-to-day level
is trying to get the little things right, you know, like and
I'm going to. But what that what's his name
Peterson does says there's a quote.
But yeah, Jordan Peterson talkedabout this too, and in one of
his interviews about when you wake up in the morning and
(13:42):
you're sitting down at the tablewith your family and breakfast,
that 30 to 60 minutes that you have with them needs to be what
you get, right? You know, the the way that your
wife greets you when you walk inthe door from work, the way that
your kids greet you when you wake up in the morning, the way
you greet your kids, the way that you put them to bed.
Like the quick conversations, like all these things that we
(14:03):
take for granted but are essential to our day-to-day
lives, like focusing on that andtrying to get that right and
nailing it and really understanding how important it
is for all of these things to like be a part of our lives and
how lucky we are to have these. Like you will be surprised how
much shit falls into place. And it took me what, 10 years of
(14:27):
being married and like really understanding that when I focus
on controlling the things that Ican control that are might not,
they may seem minute at the time, but looking back our, you
know, essential to the building blocks of your family and what
you're building like really trying to focus on the small
stuff and understanding that it really ain't that small is
(14:48):
probably my biggest piece of advice.
Yeah. Man, I like that.
That's good. I would I would hit it like
this. I'd start with this.
There's, there's some assumptions built into this
almost that like everybody experiences the same thing in
the 1st 10 years. We know that some people get
married right away and start having kids and then kids bring
challenges and they're so like you're 11 doesn't feel the same
(15:09):
for everybody. But let's set that aside and
just speak in generalities. Whether you're with someone for
five years and this question applies to the next five years
or 10 in the next 10, I would say this typically what happens
the 1st 10 years, there's lots and lots of change.
And that change for most people is simply adjusting to being
married to another partner. It could be changes in
(15:29):
responsibilities and jobs and moving in houses and kids.
But like, by and large, that first ten years is going to be a
lot of change, right? And then also in that first ten
years, you're watching your partner react to change.
You're learning about each other.
Sometimes that brings tension. It could change can expose
differences, which can cause, you know, fights and all those
(15:50):
things, right? So being that for me now, and
this is specific to me and, and we just had our 10 year
anniversary last year. So this is very applicable.
And we had freaking tons of change in that 10 years.
It's our life is almost unrecognizable and everything I
just mentioned applies to us. I think the goal to answer
Mike's question for us, for me, for us in a relationship for the
next 10 years is settling in andstillness because change
(16:14):
sometimes happens organically. Sometimes you make that change
by your choices, but it can alsobe unhealthy if there's too much
of it. So I think 11 years in 11 to 20,
it should be like, all right, let's settle in.
This is our life. Let's walk out distractions.
Let's let's minimize change if possible.
And then let's just really just enjoy life and be present.
(16:34):
Now. If you have kids, be able to
enjoy them. And we talked about parenting
all the time. And then I think the other part
is in that first ten years, you're going to have learned
something about your spouse thatyou didn't know.
There's no way, there's no way around it.
Marriage itself and responsibilities you learn each
other and I think in that next 10 years, what I hope and a goal
of mine and and my wife as well.Meg, it's like, take what you
(16:56):
learned about your spouse and don't try to correct them or
force them to change for you. Try to adjust and be flexible
for them. And I think if you both do that,
if you focus on each other's strengths and not weaknesses and
try to evolve or adapt yourself as best you can to have
(17:17):
cohesion, I think that's a healthy married goal because
often times we just get frustrated.
We want them to do something different.
Why do you do this? Why can't you do that right Put.
The meat. Put the light on yourself if
that's how you want want to put it and always be asking like
what could I be did it differently?
Not like, what can they do differently for me?
So that's how I'd answer it. Yeah, I like.
That a lot, ma'am. Thanks dude.
(17:37):
Thank you. It's recorded.
You can listen to it again if you want.
All right, I'm going to questionthis name here.
This next one's from Timmy from Topeka.
Timmy from Topeka. Yeah, I'm going to read the
whole question. I was going to cut out the first
part, but I think it gives context.
So staying in the lifestyle category here, Timmy from Topeka
(17:59):
asks. I have read that Mark Wahl,
listen to me. I have read that Mark Wahlberg
wakes up at 4:00 AM every morning to get his workout in
before starting his day with work and family.
If I'm trying to change my lifestyle to focus on myself in
that way, and this is the key question, how do I justify going
to sleep earlier and perhaps missing out on family time in
(18:22):
order to do that? How do you properly balance your
lifestyle goals without changingthe entire dynamic for my
family? Oh, yeah.
I mean, look, you want to make changes.
Sacrifices are going to have to happen.
What do the sacrifices look like?
It depends. Do I did?
Should they be family time? I would hope not.
(18:43):
But you want to wake up earlier.Like it doesn't have to be this
drastic change. I feel like like taking it
gradual, go to sleep 1/2 an hourearlier, try and wake up 1/2 an
hour earlier. And in those thirty minutes do
an at home exercise, do an at home workout.
It doesn't have to be anything crazy.
And then from there, try 45. And after you're doing, you're
(19:06):
going to bed 45 minutes early. And if going to bed earlier is
just not an option because of kids and family, then what else
can be changed throughout your day that you can carve off 30
minutes? Is it getting to work 30 minutes
earlier so you can leave 30 minutes earlier Or, you know, is
it getting to work an hour earlier?
Is it going on your lunch break?Like there's ways to fit in
(19:26):
pockets of exercise throughout the day and it doesn't have to
be a 60 minutes straight. Like I have to be at a gym in
order for it to count as a workout.
Like there's ways of doing it and getting the movement that
your body needs without it seeming like this giant chunk of
your day that has to be devoted to working out.
(19:48):
I and just, you know, this, I went through like a two year
phase of being one of those psychos that had the 345 four AM
gym alarm. And honestly, I was in the best
shape of my life at that point, physically, mentally,
emotionally, because I was starting my day with me time.
Was it early as shit? Fuck yeah.
Did I like waking up early that day every single day?
(20:09):
No, But I eventually grew to like waking up that early.
And if I didn't wake up at 4 andgo to the gym, there was some
problems that were going to happen the rest of the day
because I didn't get to the gym.But like the whole the sun, all
that up. It doesn't have to be this, I
got to go to bed three hours earlier just so I can exercise.
Like that's not how it has to be.
It's about being smart and, you know, making it a gradual
(20:33):
transition into whatever updatesand changes that you're making
to your schedule. But I hate, would hate to see
you have to carve out three hours of family time and lose
that just to try and get to the gym.
Like, again, it does not have tobe that.
And I would love like reach out.I'm happy to, you know, offer
any other guidance or advice or applicable, you know, situations
that I think may help you, that'll help me in the past, but
(20:53):
there's definitely going to haveto be some give and take in
terms of schedules. Agreed.
Yeah, I agree. I agree with everything you said
and and I don't have much to addother than if I just kind of
like I think properly frame thisquestion.
I think Mr. Wahlberg here may make productivity his Lord.
You know, I think productivity itself, I think has to be
(21:14):
approached carefully because if you're very proud of how
productive you are, you'll make decisions to add things on your
plate that can put you in the position that Dave here.
Excuse me, Timmy from Topeka asking about.
So I, I don't think this like 4:00 AM waking up.
I mean, sure, fine. But like, if you have family at
night and you know that in orderto get the adequate sleep you
(21:37):
need, because that is something you should prioritize.
If waking up at 4:00 in the morning is is is going to force
you to lose family time or lose sleep, then you should not be
waking up at 4:00 in the morning.
Yeah, I mean, it's hard stop. And to your point, I think
anyone that's kind of like facedwith this tension needs to look
at their priorities first and then look at their schedule 2nd
and say, OK, is there anything Ican let go of, even if it's an
(21:58):
hour in the day, that would allow you to get that extra
sleep so you can sleep a little bit longer and then wake up at 5
instead of 4. But the root question here was
how do you properly balance that's meaning like my focus on
my fitness goals, my lifestyle without changing the entire
dynamic of the family. I think it starts with an
assessment of the priorities andthen try to let go of some
(22:20):
things. And then fitness should be while
on the Mount Rushmore of your priorities, but it's not like
the number one thing. So then you just got to kind of
restructure your day. But I think people like Mark
Wahlberg, like why is he waking up at 4:00 to start his day work
family? I don't know, like how many
entrepreneurial pursuits is he after and why?
How many kids does he have? I don't know, but I'm I'm
(22:41):
assuming that he could probably make some space in his day to
not wake up at 4:00, wake up at 5 and be a normal person for
crying out loud. But anyway, yeah, I guess when
your. Bank account looks like his too.
You kind of make your own, yeah.Yeah, and I'm sure he can hire
some people if he needs some help.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
All right. Next one is going to parenting
(23:03):
here. This one's from again with these
names, Pete from Idaho. OK, Peter.
Peter from Idaho. This is an interesting one,
very, very specific. I'll read the whole question.
It's three sentences. His question is, Mr. Peter,
regarding parenting core values.We teach our children from a
young age to share and to be kind, fruits of the spirit.
(23:24):
At what age do you begin to teach them?
This is a pivot, how to be ruthless in business.
But I think this last piece is the full question.
Are kids that are being taught too early to be nice starting
off with a disadvantage enteringadolescence and then adulthood
This is a. This is this is a question,
(23:47):
Peter. From SOB.
So there I think there's a couple ways to to look at that.
I think, you know, there needs to be more prioritized for kids
when we're raising kids and teaching kids along with being
nice. So obviously being nice and
(24:09):
having a heart of forgiveness and mercy and grace is a
beautiful thing. But I think along with that, you
know, comes a another lesson that needs to be next to that
of, you know, sticking up for yourself and understanding what
you're going to let happen to you and what you're not going to
let happen to you. As well as, you know, having
(24:30):
that constant, you know, desire and yearn for, you know, wanting
to succeed and wanting to do better.
And I think a lot of that can come from sports too, for kids
at a young age, which I will always harp on being such an
important foundation for kids because not only are they going
to learn how to play a sport, they're going to learn so much
more than that, from teamwork todiscipline to winning and losing
(24:51):
and experiencing both sides of that.
So this just focusing on being nice put your kids at a
disadvantage. Well, I mean, I think everybody
wants their kids to be nice, right?
But I also know that everybody doesn't want their kids to be a
pushover. So I think it's a, it's a
balancing act for the parents. It's not an easy answer to this
(25:12):
question. So I, I'm not going to be able
to sit here and say, here's XY and Z of how you balance that
because I don't have that. I'm still trying to figure it
out, but focusing on the importance of not just being
nice, but what it means to be a genuinely strong, you know,
Christ following person. And, you know, going along with
being nice comes the, the tolerance for, you know, not
(25:34):
putting up with being disrespected, you know, not
allowing my, you know, their brother, their brothers and
sisters to be disrespected. Like, there's a lot of lessons
that I think can be taught from everyday life that focuses on
all these things outside of justbeing nice, which are all
equally important in my opinion.So if we're not teaching our
kids these things, will they be set up for a disadvantage?
(25:56):
100% they will be. They're not going to know how to
what is the right for sticking up for themselves or how to
properly advocate for what is right without being little
assholes because mom and dad never showed them how to do it.
You know, So a lot of the onus of all this doesn't fall on the
kids like it falls on mom and dad.
Look. Life can be hard and stressful
sometimes, we all know that. But when it comes to
(26:18):
supplements, why is it that nobody talks about stress and
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(27:03):
today. Yeah, I agree.
That's what I was gonna that's what I would say man it's like
sometimes this this question hasto do with what we're teaching
our kids. But sometimes we're teaching
them by what we model and sometimes our parents is if you
are modeling that you can his words but share and be kind to
them and to others. But then when they see and then
if you cross doubt if you cross mom like they're also gonna
(27:24):
they're gonna be strong and we're gonna be direct.
We're gonna tell them. So I think some of us like we
can just model by our personalities, right?
I also don't think share, you know, sharing and being kind.
And also, he said ruthless, but,you know, being direct and
sticking up for yourself. I don't think those things need
to be mutually exclusive, right?Like.
You said it, but. Like, you can be both, right?
You can be loving, but when it'stime to throw down, you could do
(27:45):
that too. Yeah, let's.
Go. Exactly.
You know, it's funny, it just popped in my mind.
I was listening to an interview the other day.
It was Rahm Emanuel. If you don't know who that is,
it does not matter. He's he's a potential Democratic
candidate in 2026. Anyway.
He had this expression. He described himself as a middle
child, and he said, quote, like most middle children, I can do
war and peace. And he was being asked the
question around like, hey, how come sometimes you're soft and
(28:08):
sometimes you come on like really strong?
I think that's a good way to putit.
Like, I think a well equipped, versatile, flexible human being
is totally comfortable and willing to be both soft and
strong, right? You can do war and you can do
peace. So yeah, I think, I think you
can model it. But I do think you should be
teaching your kids to stand up for themselves.
I'll just give you a quick on the attic toe.
(28:29):
Just just this question just literally popped up in my dinner
Table 2 days ago. My daughter, she was explaining
to me something, I don't know why I was on her mind because
school's been out, but she said,hey, last year this boy was
really mean to me. I said, well, tell me what
happened. And she said she was practicing
her cursive writing in first grade.
And some little punk frankly came over and said, and she was
(28:49):
trying to spell her name. She's like, what is that
cursive? That's not cursive.
Let me show you how to write it.And then he wrote her name in
cursive better than her and toldher that she stinks at it now.
You got this kids address because I need as a.
Parent that pokes on like that, like unearths all of my own
experiences and how I respond inthat moment.
A lot of it is predicated on like any wounds that I'm
(29:11):
carrying with me or any like Vindic, right.
So, you know, my wife and I are both sitting at the table.
Daddy speaks first, probably because I heard it and was like,
huh? So my wife to my daughter was,
you know what you should have said.
You should have said what was that?
I didn't know. We had a pen mentioned.
Police go tell somebody who cares.
And I said it literally just came out.
And then in my head I was like, oh shit.
(29:34):
Backspace, Backspace. How do I take it away?
Automata P at Penmanship Police.I thought it was pretty clever,
I honestly. Think you're on to something
there. So we'll we'll circle back but
continue. Yeah, but.
Then of course, Meg, she's listening too.
She looks at me and gives me theYEAH.
I know that look, sweetheart. Some sometimes people are just
mean and you need to just be kind, bro.
That's this question coming to ahead at and and by the way, how
(29:57):
we respond to that should be he dictated by how old the kid is
and how much Ray but what she heard there was mom and dad.
Dad's like no turn around. Tell him embarrass him.
He won't come back and do it again.
And what I said to her was that's good for you to practice
standing up for yourself, but it's good for him because if he
hears that and feels a little uncomfortable, he's less likely
to do that right. But I don't know, bad parenting
(30:18):
or not. You tell me, Justin, I.
Well, I'm in your corner here. I wouldn't start winging the
next time she sees him. But hey, penmanship police,
that's good, dude. I'm putting that on a T-shirt.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all right.
Did you want to circle around tosomething or keep going?
Sounds like you said penmanship.Police.
No, I'm, I'm still harping on that.
(30:38):
I think it's, I think it's great.
I'm, I'm, I'm bad. I didn't think of that first.
All right, all right, cool. I lost my my train of thought
here. Where we going?
OK, All right, Michael in Colorado, back to the fitness
world here. If you could recommend 3
supplements men over 30 should take for overall health and
(30:59):
Wellness, what would it be? If there is a.
Supplement that everybody could take to stop putting all of
their eggs in supplement baskets.
I would recommend that. But no, supplements obviously
are important, but like you're in your 30s, they're not that
important. And I think that they don't have
(31:21):
to be overcomplicated like we love to do in everything,
exercise and nutrition of reinventing the wheel.
So short answer, fish oil, a multivitamin.
And the 3rd I'm going to honestly throw in a some sort of
anti-inflammatory. So I'm going to throw in a
(31:41):
turmeric supplement of some kindyou want.
To fight some of this. Fight inflammation because
you're you're in your 30s and assuming you have a healthy
background, a healthy foundation, your blood levels
are in a good line, your testosterone's in a good spot.
Don't overcomplicate it man. OK, All right.
I will echo this question asks about 30.
(32:03):
I think if this question said recommend 3 supplements for men
over 40 would have a different answer.
I don't think at the turn of that particular, you know, 10
year mark, I don't think you need to switch up your
supplements. So my recommendations are just
going to be basically, if you ask me what 3 supplements should
a man take or a woman for that matter, because he's aren't
gender specific here, but same with you.
(32:26):
Fish oil hands down #2 creatine for both and it and but I'm
going to assume that this man inthis question, man or woman,
thank you, care, cares about their fitness and is exercising.
That said, creatine for both thenootropic qualities of it, but
also the physical performance ofit.
So fish oil, creatine, I'm goingto cheat here.
I'm going to give a like 1/3 supplement like you did around
(32:49):
inflammation and say for this one, I would actually say for
stress management and I would take Rhodiola or L theanine.
As as tough and resilient as we all like to think that we are.
I think we all could also benefit from some type of a
supplement that helps us kind ofmanage the stress response to
cortisol levels, etcetera, just for well-being.
(33:10):
So fish oil, creatine and some type of mental health supplement
of which I'd say Rhodiola healththeanine and still a third one
in their ashwaganda. And and there I would caution
dosage matters with ashwaganda. I think you have to get specific
to how much you should be taking, but those would be my 3.
There's huge fan of all of them,especially theanine.
(33:30):
That has been an amazing one, especially for somebody who is a
caffeine junkie like myself. Theanine is a is a beautiful,
beautiful thing. I.
Agree. Do you get sleepy when you take
it? Depends.
There's, I have a, there's a fewthat I have a stress relief one
that it's in as well as just plain old 100 gram or milligrams
or whatever it is of theanine. If I take the stress one, it
(33:54):
makes me sleepy because there's like lemon balm and stuff in
there as well. And I love that.
But yeah, it just feels like I'min a nice little warm blanket,
Yeah. I so I take all three of those I
just mentioned Rhodiola Theanineand Ashley Donde, you've been.
Big on those 3 for a while now Iam I.
Actually, so I take Rhodiola andashwagandha in the day with my
(34:15):
multivitamin and my fish oil andstuff.
And then at night I only take two things, but I take theanine
and magnesium together. Actually, I'm lying.
Zinc is zinc. I was.
Going to say throw your zinc in there.
The ZNI not. It's not technically a like
stress management type supplement, obviously, but that
helps. But if I take theanine in the
middle of the day and like jump on a conference call, like dude,
(34:36):
I'm I'm toast. This.
They're not getting much. You're relaxed.
Exactly, Exactly. Sort of staying in the mental
health kind of Segway here from where we landed next one, Johnny
in Massachusetts, great questionhere.
When people talk about prioritizing mental health, what
(34:56):
does that look like for you tactically?
Great. Question, very great question.
There's I think again, many different ways to answer that,
but like for me personally, froma tactical perspective, it's
prioritizing the things that I know matter in terms of what
make me operate the best. So one is sleep.
(35:16):
Sleep is insanely important for that.
And a long with sleep is movement.
So when I get to the gym and when I'm done working out,
obviously the endorphins are great, but they last a long time
and that helps me get out a lot of the stress, a lot of the
anger, two of which things God'sblessed me with, Thank you.
But like, that is amazing for meto take to get that out.
(35:40):
And yeah, in terms of mental health, that's one of my
favorite avenues. But outside of, you know, just
picking things up and putting them down, like there's more to
taking care of your mental health.
And that is understanding, you know, why you react to things
the way that you do and why you feel the way that you do.
So rather than just pushing things off when the situation
happens and you do something andwhatever, I'm just in a bad
(36:01):
mood. You got to ask yourself the
question why I feel like, and there's many different ways to
help us do that. One of those is therapy.
Instead of waiting for shit to explode and you to hit rock
bottom in order to start taking care of your mental health, get
the fuck ahead of it so you don't have to make the same
mistakes and learn the hard way like myself and many others out
(36:22):
there. And it doesn't have to be this
granddose endeavor like you knowhow you're doing mentally when
you wake up in the morning, likeyou know how you're feeling.
And you know, there's there's ways to uncover obviously the
why behind all of those feelings, but you have to be
willing to do it. You know, there's there's no way
(36:43):
around it. Some of the mental health stuff,
doing the work is going to be some of the hardest stuff that
you've had to do, but it's goingto be the most rewarding and
most important thing that in my opinion, you can do.
You want to live a life being fully free from yourself and the
chains that your brain puts on yourself.
Let's talk mental health and let's start journaling.
(37:04):
Let's start setting small goals for yourself every morning for
the day. Let's start being thankful and
counting our blessings of all the things that we have, like
just getting outside, going for a walk without your phone, like
being still and being present. That is my answer right there.
Tactically, how can you take care of your mental health?
(37:24):
Be still, be present and ask yourself the question why to
everything that you do and feel love it.
Love it, love it, love it, love it.
I'll start with, I agree therapybecause he's asking tactically,
what do you do? How can you be proactive?
Therapy, if if anything, to learn about yourself more.
(37:46):
Because now having been consistently in therapy for
almost 3 months, the amount thatI'm learning that is helping me
just identify when I'm experiencing something
emotionally versus it being a real experience.
I can see the difference and it's kind of helps me react to
the world, kind of a byproduct of therapy.
If you don't want to have a therapist, but when you go to
therapy, you're being vulnerable, you're being on it,
(38:06):
you're being open, you're not trying to hold it all in.
In question, should I feel stressed or am I really
stressed? And how do I react to this, that
I respond the right way? If you don't want to get a
therapist, open up to a friend or your partner or your spouse
if they can tolerate listening to you talk for a long time.
That's why we pay therapists. But just open up and it's
amazing how healing it is just to let it out and just talk
about it and it always just feels good.
(38:26):
You might feel a little uneasy at first if you share something
you're like, should I said that?But eventually just sharing
itself tactically really helps, I think to kind of like unleash
some of that stress and that pressure.
I think setting boundaries comesto mind.
You can be tactical with that and those boundaries.
Can. Be with technology as you
mentioned, but it could also be boundaries with work, you know,
(38:48):
letting, letting go of some inferiority complex that has you
like sending that extra e-mail or doing that extra thing and
always fearful of how you're doing at work.
Just let go of that shit and setboundaries with work.
Set boundaries with people who are toxic in your life or that
don't make you feel good. I think boundaries is something.
And then on the kind of like biological part of it, we
mentioned supplements, so I won't go there too much.
(39:10):
Prioritize sleep. I mean, you can't open up
Internet browser without hearingsomeone preaching about sleep.
It's true. And then lastly, I would say
moderate your alcohol if that's something that you can and
should do, but maybe more largely moderate any substance
you're putting in. Too much much caffeine is going
(39:31):
to have you be stressed and wired.
Too much alcohol is going to have you stressed when you wake
up in the morning, right? So just be mindful of what
you're ingesting in your body, not just with your eyes, but
with your, your mouth and lips as well.
So there's some tactical stuff there.
All right. Last question for this episode
has to do with productivity. We hit on it earlier with Mr.
(39:52):
Mark Wahlberg waking up at 4:00 AM.
But the question here is what tools, apps or programs are you
currently using to help with your productivity?
That's a very good question. I have dabbled in a lot of these
productivity Productivity Tools to try and help organize my, my,
(40:14):
my brain as well as my tasks. And to do so I was, I'm
fortunate enough to have the brain of a ADHD person.
So yay, so very important to tryand make sense of this jumbled
mess that I have going on up here at all times.
So I am a huge proponent in the,you know, the, the workplace
(40:35):
apps like the Trellos, the, the Reichs, the Monday dot coms.
Those have been such a blessing for me, especially doing what I
do in work, like being on a client calls and like just being
able to jot down what's happening in my brain so I don't
lose it. That's my biggest thing.
I will have the greatest and best idea and then it'll be
fucking gone. So being able to, you know, have
(40:59):
this stuff be wrangled, being able to organize it and
prioritize it with my to do's and just, you know, I, you know,
you're a big proponent of this too, Jesse.
But the time blocks that you mentioned, Yes, Sir.
My calendar, 9 times out of 10, I'm going to look fully booked
up. And that is because of two
things. One, my call schedule is insane
and sucks. And two, I need to be very
(41:20):
protective of the free time thatI have.
So blocking off time slots in order for me to be able to get
to certain things throughout theday when I'm in calls for seven
hours, that has been a huge godsend.
And on a, on a personal like lifestyle side, I will say, you
know, tracking macros can be a very helpful thing and for, for
(41:41):
people that need to obviously see where they're at, what
they're doing and you know, where they got to make
adjustments. So taking advantage of, and
there's a lot of free stuff out there too, man, a lot of free
trackers, templates like AI, Charlie, GPT, you name it, man,
you got plenty of plenty of things that you're disposed on a
test with. And like I, I have probably
(42:02):
tried at least ten of them, likefrom the Evernotes to I don't
even know what other ones there are, but I have them all
downloaded. So those have been super helpful
and like just anything to help me make sense of what's going on
in here and how to put it on paper and make it tactical and
prioritized is more than I couldask for.
Agreed. Yeah, and I think he is.
Once you, once you figure out what works for you, you have to
(42:24):
be consistent with it because the last thing you want is to
set out this whole productivity type organization and then not
stick to it 'cause then you get stressed that you're not.
So you have to land on something.
And that said, I've tried a lot of different things and I'm just
going to speak to what has worked for me.
I think first and foremost, you mentioned a calendar.
If you're married or have a family, I think having a shared
calendar is absolutely pivotal. One where like if, if I put
(42:46):
something in, my wife gets a notification, she sees it
blocking things. You mentioned.
We use Apple for that. By the way, you mentioned time,
time blocking. We've talked about in previous
episode. You just nailed it.
But blocking out not just thingsthat are like appointments with
other people or work, but thingsthat you are prioritizing your
life. So Monday through Saturday, I've
(43:07):
got a block in my calendar essentially says 5:00 to 6:30 is
fitness and I put it in there. I make it personal so my wife
doesn't see it. So I don't want it like, you
know, clog up her calendar. But blocking, blocking like
things that are you're doing foryourself as well is huge.
The reason I like using Apples because it actually it kind of
jives well with their Reminders app.
(43:28):
Most of us have an iPhone. If you pick it up, there's
something that says reminders. You can also share and
collaborate with family members in there and actually link them
to calendars who love that. So that's what I do for my
family on a personal side, for organization, I like to separate
what I use for my personal organization from my work
organization because of the boundaries.
And we talked about that. So what I do is I use Trello,
(43:49):
which you mentioned I love, likestacked ranked columns with
cards that you can visibly move to top priority and set
reminders. So I use Trello, I have for a
decade. I love it.
I'm not going anywhere. Sponsors, Trello.
Yeah, there you go, Trello. Let's go.
On the work side, I use Teams. I love Teams, but Teams has a
planner add on into it, which actually feels exactly like
(44:11):
Trello to me, but I keep all my work stuff contained there, so
it's not to bleed into my personal life.
And then lastly, productivity around fitness.
Woop, I love Woop. You can set goals within Woop
for like this is how many hours of zone 2 heart rate I want to
get this week. This is zone 5.
This is how many drinks of alcohol I want to have, whatever
(44:32):
you want it to be. And I love that once you set
those goals, it kind of, you know, you get a report every
single week to keep you on trackand you can manly track drinks
and things like that. So between Apple calendar,
Trello teams and Whoop 01 more thing, we bought this really big
cute like whiteboard type familycalendar for our laundry room.
And I'll normally every month like take everything that's on
(44:53):
our regular calendar and draw itup there because our kids love
it and they like to look at it and say, what are we doing
today? So less about productivity and
more about just kind of spreading the the joy.
But those are my little hacks ifyou will.
I need to get on the whoop trainman.
I can't I I had to have a watch.I can't wear it anymore because
it won't track normally because of all the ink I have in my
(45:13):
arms. So I have to resort to to whoop
strap I think well. If I refer a friend, I get a
free month. So let's talk.
All right. That's it man, that's all the
questions we had dude. Anything put you on the spot?
Any like random questions you want to throw out there to
tackle through? Are we good until next month?
I, I just want to thank everybody honestly for sending
(45:36):
the questions that they did sendin.
We had a lot of good ones and I feel like this is the third time
we're doing this and you know, the questions are starting to
get more and more like I love the long winded ones because
that means people are thinking and like they want, they want us
to, they want to see what we have to say and like the fact
that one, anybody wants to listen to what comes out of this
fat mouth. Very thankful for that.
(45:56):
I. Agree to you, man.
Shout out to the the listeners and the viewers for sending some
awesome questions, and we certainly hope that our
spontaneous, sometimes meandering answers are just
helping you live the best life you can.
So thanks for joining us, everybody.
Thank. You all till next time see you.
Next time. All right everybody, that's the
(46:18):
show, folks. Thank you so much for tuning
into this podcast and spending some time with us today.
We've got a favor to ask. If you enjoyed the show, would
you please consider subscribing to the show and even leaving a
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(46:38):
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Know that your support fuels ourbrand and is greatly
appreciated. So until next time, stay strong
and live deep.
In that first ten years, you're going to have learned something
about your spouse that you didn't know.
And I think in that next 10 years, take what you learned
about your spouse and don't try to correct them or force them to
change for you. Try to adjust and be flexible
for them. If you both do that, if you
(00:20):
focus on each other's strengths and not weaknesses, I think
that's a healthy married goal. All right, everybody, welcome to
(00:44):
Running Free. We are back with another Variety
pack episode and I'm here with my very dear, very red faced
tomato looking Justin Mazars. How you doing?
How you doing Justin? I am sun kissed today and
insanely hot and sunny and the wonderful East Coast.
(01:04):
But that being said it is summerand I'm excited still.
It's almost over it feels like, which is insane, but here we
are. Did I make you blush?
I literally couldn't tell if I made you blush because how do
you want to redo the intro? Are you embarrassed that I
called you tomato? Or no, I want to get redder by
the time this is over, so let's keep going.
All right, cool. Well, we're going to do it.
For those that don't know now, you know, once a month, the last
(01:26):
week of every month here runningfree, we do our variety pack
episode, which is where you can ask us literally anything and
that's what we typically get. We get a a mixed bag of
questions. We got a ton of questions this
time and we tried to choose a variety of questions across
things like mental health, fitness, family, culture and
everything in between. And we are going to dive into
(01:47):
it. Not a lot of prep work on
purpose. We like to just kind of hit
these head on and just react to them and react to each other.
And we're going to dive in now with our first question coming
at us from Jonathan in Massachusetts.
Great question here. Justin, you're going to go
first. All right, let's do this.
It is How has your relationship to the trifecta, which is,
(02:10):
according to Jonathan, food, body image and movement or
fitness changed over time? Again, how has your relationship
to food, body image and fitness or movement changed over time?
That's a really good question, Jonathan.
I mean, I think it's definitely,you know, evolved over time.
(02:33):
At least I'll speak for myself. So I over the years, like it
evolved from just doing it because I felt like I had to
into like this is this is awesome.
This is making me feel great. Like what more can I learn and
what more can I apply? But I will say, you know, coming
with that, you know, body dysmorphia is something that I
would definitely think is very apparent in a a lot of what we
(02:54):
do and I'll. Yeah, but every time I look in
the mirror, I'm smaller than theday I was before.
I you know, I always say like the day that I picked up a
weight is the day that I have I was, I will forever be small to
myself. And yeah, and it's definitely a
struggle. And throw on top of that, you
know, dumb decisions that I madein the past, abusing steroids
(03:16):
and really seeing holy shit, this is how big I can get now
knowing I'll never touch that again.
Kind of a a mental struggle there as well.
But, you know, going, this is meant to be something that, you
know, helps us, not something that hurts us.
So, you know, viewing all these three things as a as a trifecta
like you were saying, and understanding that one doesn't
(03:38):
outweigh the other, that these all three go together.
And the sooner that we understand that, the sooner that
the results that you want to sayyou're going to come as well as
many other benefits. Yeah, yeah, man, well said and
relatable. I could care less about any of
those up until I was about 19 years old because I'm I was
never taught to care about them.I just didn't ate whatever the
hell I wanted. I didn't care about moving and I
(04:00):
didn't care about how I look. But I can remember Justin, there
was just one time back in the day, way back in the day,
because we're, you know, 40 ish pictures weren't around as much.
So I didn't see a lot of pictures of me, and I
specifically didn't see a lot ofpictures of me with my shirt off
until there was this one time myself and two of my friends,
Chuck and Timmy, we're at poolside.
We're all about to jump into a pool.
I don't know who the hell took the picture, but the picture got
(04:21):
back to me and I looked at Timmyand I looked at Chuck and they
were fit and they were ripped. And I looked at me and I had
this little pouch. I had no definition.
And for the first time in my life, body image just kind of
like hit me and went holy crap. Like, I hate how that looks.
And that was like a turning point for me.
And I think that pushed me like very quickly to start caring
(04:42):
about the other ones, which is fitness and food.
So that, that said, since 1920 when I joined the Marines and
fitness was a big culture, big part of that, obviously that
family, that culture, food and body image hasn't changed for me
in terms of how much I care about it.
I've been dialed in. I've been caring about how I
(05:03):
look consistently now, just likeyou mentioned, there's times
when I care more to look bigger and train bigger or to get
leaner. Like that'll fluctuate.
But it seems to be consistent for me and continue to change
his movement or fit because I'vehit a point and this is just one
way I'll say it and we'll move on.
But like I've I've sort of accepted that I wasn't born
(05:25):
genetically gifted to be a monster.
I think every guy that lifts like wants to be bigger and they
want to be stronger. They want to put on AT shirt and
look like they lift. But I just think I'd like I I
don't have bad genetics. I don't have great ones for
muscle growth And for a long time with movement, I would just
like push my body and lift heavier weights and I'd always
get injured and it, it was just like I wasn't learning from
(05:46):
that. So where I am now, and I guess
it's body image too. It's like I'm kind of happy with
my strength. I'm stronger than most people,
but I'll never be the strongest.I don't look perfect, but I
think I look pretty damn good for you know what I'm what I'm
doing. So on movement, I'm just now
starting to be like, OK, I'm going to choose moves that are
effective but that are safe and I'm not going to like overload
(06:09):
the bar. So I hurt myself, which is
counter counterintuitive, but the way that all three go
together, I I've been focused onlike that whole picture for a
while, Two of them pretty static.
But the movement part, I'm finally, I think for the better
man trying like transitioning towhere like, OK, I'm going to do
movements that are effective butare safe.
And that's where I'm at with it.So.
It's a good place to be, man. I think so.
(06:30):
I think so. All right.
Staying in the realm of fitness,this one from Michael in
Colorado. This is great.
This is great. If you could only do 10 weight
lifting exercises for the rest of your life, only 10, what
would you do? What would you choose?
(06:51):
Oh man, there's something to choose from.
You're going first, so I get to benefit to write my down.
Damn it. All right, fine.
Well, for 10, I obviously got toinclude the big three, so we're
going to go squat, bench, dead. OK.
And I need 7 more. That's unfortunate.
Let's go with, I'm going to, I'mgoing to split it up by body
(07:13):
part. So we're going to start with
back. We're going to do pull ups.
OK. We're also going to do some
barbell rows. OK.
How many am I at 12345? That's 5.
That's 5. We are going to do reverse grip
chin UPS. OK, so pull ups and chin UPS.
Yeah, more so for biceps, but also incorporating some upper
(07:35):
back. OK.
And then we are going to do hat squat.
OK. Three more, three more, three
more. We are going to do the military
press. OK, barbell or dumbbell?
Dumbbell. OK.
(07:55):
Is that for shoulder safety? Yes, for shoulder safety.
I'm so glad you asked. I'm at, I'm at 2:00 left.
We're going to do some dumbbell lateral raises and then we're
going to be doing what's the last one, wild card.
We're going to do some skull crushers.
Skull crushers. OK, All right.
Final answers. Yeah, don't ask me the same all
(08:16):
again 'cause. Whatever, we'll we'll we'll re
listen to it later. All right, all right, I'm going
to go. I tried to group them here as
you're talking. So for lower body, unlike you,
I'm going to keep that barbell off of my spine and keep
heavyweight off of it because remember, this is forever.
You, I don't know. For sure.
Just pressure check that list when you're 80, Justin.
(08:37):
Lower body. I'm going to go Bulgarian split
squats. OK.
And I am going to go with a Romanian deadlift and I would do
those with with dumbbells as well.
All right, on the kind of upper push motions, I'm going to go
with a dumbbell bench press for shoulder safety cable fly.
I just love it. The contraction in my chest
(08:58):
that's that one is the I feel that the most, which means I
know it's working the muscle andthen dips.
I'm going to go with dips. Dips the upper body squat.
I like it. Yeah, yeah.
So at 12345 on the the pulling, the upper pulling motion, I'm
not going to do the pull ups. I've got a lot of trap issues,
probably my form, but I am goingto do lat pull downs, neutral
(09:19):
grip on those and inverted row would be my my other one.
You like that. So that's 6-7.
I got three more probably focus on the arms here.
So I like hammer curls specifically for grip strength
and also for the bicep. I don't know that I would do a
(09:40):
tricep 1. I might have to think of a
different move here back to the lower body.
Sorry. Glute ham raise for my glutes.
I mean like most men and and probably women too, under active
glutes, right? Overactive hand strength.
So glute ham raise. So I got one more just thinking
through this and it's weightlifting exercises, man.
(10:04):
Probably you know what, dumbbellclean.
That's going to be 1 for me. Dumbbell clean.
All right. I see.
I see. You see?
What I do the? Listeners, if you, if you've
been paying attention, if you can't tell, I think the
approaches that we're taking here were meathead approach by
yours truly, science backed approach by Mr. Karjat.
So no surprises at all. Mindful of the lifespan, my
(10:29):
friend, that's where I'm but I am a couple years older than
you, so maybe you'll get there. I don't know.
All right, this is fun. We're going to switch to more of
a a lifestyle and. Even I like those.
Family One. This is a great one.
Is this the same? Yeah.
This is also from Michael in Colorado.
(10:50):
Shout out to Mike. I know he's going to listen.
All right? Mike asks.
This is fantastic. Many people our age.
How old you talking, Michael? Many people our age.
Assuming my if I'm 40, Justin. Mid 20s.
Yeah, OK, sure. Many people are hitting their 10
(11:11):
year anniversary in their marriages.
Question. Here's the question, What are
goals or milestones couples should think about for the next
10 years? So years 11 through 20.
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alcohol. Oh.
Man, that's that's a really goodquestion and I love the variety
of questions that we get on the variety pack episodes.
(12:15):
Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I mean, I am.
I'm one of those people, God willingly, that I can definitely
say that. You know, I, my wife and I
celebrated our ten years last year, which is awesome.
We went to Mexico for it, had a blast.
Should that be everyone's 10 year goal, go to Mexico.
I don't think it's a bad idea. But you know, I've shared a
(12:36):
little bit I think about the struggles that List and I had in
the beginning stages of our marriage.
First couple years weren't pretty at all and that was a lot
of it was myself causing a lot of these things.
But you know, those things were work through and that helped us
get to where we're at and a lot of marriage counseling, a lot of
therapy, a lot of self work. But what I will say now that we
(12:59):
have 10 years of this wonderful journey under our belt, I think
because of society and social media, we always think that like
we have to go to this big trip or we have to do this huge
excursion or spend all this money to get the perfect
pictures taken so we can post it.
But like I have learned and the things that make the biggest
(13:20):
difference in terms of our marriage on the day-to-day level
is trying to get the little things right, you know, like and
I'm going to. But what that what's his name
Peterson does says there's a quote.
But yeah, Jordan Peterson talkedabout this too, and in one of
his interviews about when you wake up in the morning and
(13:42):
you're sitting down at the tablewith your family and breakfast,
that 30 to 60 minutes that you have with them needs to be what
you get, right? You know, the the way that your
wife greets you when you walk inthe door from work, the way that
your kids greet you when you wake up in the morning, the way
you greet your kids, the way that you put them to bed.
Like the quick conversations, like all these things that we
(14:03):
take for granted but are essential to our day-to-day
lives, like focusing on that andtrying to get that right and
nailing it and really understanding how important it
is for all of these things to like be a part of our lives and
how lucky we are to have these. Like you will be surprised how
much shit falls into place. And it took me what, 10 years of
(14:27):
being married and like really understanding that when I focus
on controlling the things that Ican control that are might not,
they may seem minute at the time, but looking back our, you
know, essential to the building blocks of your family and what
you're building like really trying to focus on the small
stuff and understanding that it really ain't that small is
(14:48):
probably my biggest piece of advice.
Yeah. Man, I like that.
That's good. I would I would hit it like
this. I'd start with this.
There's, there's some assumptions built into this
almost that like everybody experiences the same thing in
the 1st 10 years. We know that some people get
married right away and start having kids and then kids bring
challenges and they're so like you're 11 doesn't feel the same
(15:09):
for everybody. But let's set that aside and
just speak in generalities. Whether you're with someone for
five years and this question applies to the next five years
or 10 in the next 10, I would say this typically what happens
the 1st 10 years, there's lots and lots of change.
And that change for most people is simply adjusting to being
married to another partner. It could be changes in
(15:29):
responsibilities and jobs and moving in houses and kids.
But like, by and large, that first ten years is going to be a
lot of change, right? And then also in that first ten
years, you're watching your partner react to change.
You're learning about each other.
Sometimes that brings tension. It could change can expose
differences, which can cause, you know, fights and all those
(15:50):
things, right? So being that for me now, and
this is specific to me and, and we just had our 10 year
anniversary last year. So this is very applicable.
And we had freaking tons of change in that 10 years.
It's our life is almost unrecognizable and everything I
just mentioned applies to us. I think the goal to answer
Mike's question for us, for me, for us in a relationship for the
next 10 years is settling in andstillness because change
(16:14):
sometimes happens organically. Sometimes you make that change
by your choices, but it can alsobe unhealthy if there's too much
of it. So I think 11 years in 11 to 20,
it should be like, all right, let's settle in.
This is our life. Let's walk out distractions.
Let's let's minimize change if possible.
And then let's just really just enjoy life and be present.
(16:34):
Now. If you have kids, be able to
enjoy them. And we talked about parenting
all the time. And then I think the other part
is in that first ten years, you're going to have learned
something about your spouse thatyou didn't know.
There's no way, there's no way around it.
Marriage itself and responsibilities you learn each
other and I think in that next 10 years, what I hope and a goal
of mine and and my wife as well.Meg, it's like, take what you
(16:56):
learned about your spouse and don't try to correct them or
force them to change for you. Try to adjust and be flexible
for them. And I think if you both do that,
if you focus on each other's strengths and not weaknesses and
try to evolve or adapt yourself as best you can to have
(17:17):
cohesion, I think that's a healthy married goal because
often times we just get frustrated.
We want them to do something different.
Why do you do this? Why can't you do that right Put.
The meat. Put the light on yourself if
that's how you want want to put it and always be asking like
what could I be did it differently?
Not like, what can they do differently for me?
So that's how I'd answer it. Yeah, I like.
That a lot, ma'am. Thanks dude.
(17:37):
Thank you. It's recorded.
You can listen to it again if you want.
All right, I'm going to questionthis name here.
This next one's from Timmy from Topeka.
Timmy from Topeka. Yeah, I'm going to read the
whole question. I was going to cut out the first
part, but I think it gives context.
So staying in the lifestyle category here, Timmy from Topeka
(17:59):
asks. I have read that Mark Wahl,
listen to me. I have read that Mark Wahlberg
wakes up at 4:00 AM every morning to get his workout in
before starting his day with work and family.
If I'm trying to change my lifestyle to focus on myself in
that way, and this is the key question, how do I justify going
to sleep earlier and perhaps missing out on family time in
(18:22):
order to do that? How do you properly balance your
lifestyle goals without changingthe entire dynamic for my
family? Oh, yeah.
I mean, look, you want to make changes.
Sacrifices are going to have to happen.
What do the sacrifices look like?
It depends. Do I did?
Should they be family time? I would hope not.
(18:43):
But you want to wake up earlier.Like it doesn't have to be this
drastic change. I feel like like taking it
gradual, go to sleep 1/2 an hourearlier, try and wake up 1/2 an
hour earlier. And in those thirty minutes do
an at home exercise, do an at home workout.
It doesn't have to be anything crazy.
And then from there, try 45. And after you're doing, you're
(19:06):
going to bed 45 minutes early. And if going to bed earlier is
just not an option because of kids and family, then what else
can be changed throughout your day that you can carve off 30
minutes? Is it getting to work 30 minutes
earlier so you can leave 30 minutes earlier Or, you know, is
it getting to work an hour earlier?
Is it going on your lunch break?Like there's ways to fit in
(19:26):
pockets of exercise throughout the day and it doesn't have to
be a 60 minutes straight. Like I have to be at a gym in
order for it to count as a workout.
Like there's ways of doing it and getting the movement that
your body needs without it seeming like this giant chunk of
your day that has to be devoted to working out.
(19:48):
I and just, you know, this, I went through like a two year
phase of being one of those psychos that had the 345 four AM
gym alarm. And honestly, I was in the best
shape of my life at that point, physically, mentally,
emotionally, because I was starting my day with me time.
Was it early as shit? Fuck yeah.
Did I like waking up early that day every single day?
(20:09):
No, But I eventually grew to like waking up that early.
And if I didn't wake up at 4 andgo to the gym, there was some
problems that were going to happen the rest of the day
because I didn't get to the gym.But like the whole the sun, all
that up. It doesn't have to be this, I
got to go to bed three hours earlier just so I can exercise.
Like that's not how it has to be.
It's about being smart and, you know, making it a gradual
(20:33):
transition into whatever updatesand changes that you're making
to your schedule. But I hate, would hate to see
you have to carve out three hours of family time and lose
that just to try and get to the gym.
Like, again, it does not have tobe that.
And I would love like reach out.I'm happy to, you know, offer
any other guidance or advice or applicable, you know, situations
that I think may help you, that'll help me in the past, but
(20:53):
there's definitely going to haveto be some give and take in
terms of schedules. Agreed.
Yeah, I agree. I agree with everything you said
and and I don't have much to addother than if I just kind of
like I think properly frame thisquestion.
I think Mr. Wahlberg here may make productivity his Lord.
You know, I think productivity itself, I think has to be
(21:14):
approached carefully because if you're very proud of how
productive you are, you'll make decisions to add things on your
plate that can put you in the position that Dave here.
Excuse me, Timmy from Topeka asking about.
So I, I don't think this like 4:00 AM waking up.
I mean, sure, fine. But like, if you have family at
night and you know that in orderto get the adequate sleep you
(21:37):
need, because that is something you should prioritize.
If waking up at 4:00 in the morning is is is going to force
you to lose family time or lose sleep, then you should not be
waking up at 4:00 in the morning.
Yeah, I mean, it's hard stop. And to your point, I think
anyone that's kind of like facedwith this tension needs to look
at their priorities first and then look at their schedule 2nd
and say, OK, is there anything Ican let go of, even if it's an
(21:58):
hour in the day, that would allow you to get that extra
sleep so you can sleep a little bit longer and then wake up at 5
instead of 4. But the root question here was
how do you properly balance that's meaning like my focus on
my fitness goals, my lifestyle without changing the entire
dynamic of the family. I think it starts with an
assessment of the priorities andthen try to let go of some
(22:20):
things. And then fitness should be while
on the Mount Rushmore of your priorities, but it's not like
the number one thing. So then you just got to kind of
restructure your day. But I think people like Mark
Wahlberg, like why is he waking up at 4:00 to start his day work
family? I don't know, like how many
entrepreneurial pursuits is he after and why?
How many kids does he have? I don't know, but I'm I'm
(22:41):
assuming that he could probably make some space in his day to
not wake up at 4:00, wake up at 5 and be a normal person for
crying out loud. But anyway, yeah, I guess when
your. Bank account looks like his too.
You kind of make your own, yeah.Yeah, and I'm sure he can hire
some people if he needs some help.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
All right. Next one is going to parenting
(23:03):
here. This one's from again with these
names, Pete from Idaho. OK, Peter.
Peter from Idaho. This is an interesting one,
very, very specific. I'll read the whole question.
It's three sentences. His question is, Mr. Peter,
regarding parenting core values.We teach our children from a
young age to share and to be kind, fruits of the spirit.
(23:24):
At what age do you begin to teach them?
This is a pivot, how to be ruthless in business.
But I think this last piece is the full question.
Are kids that are being taught too early to be nice starting
off with a disadvantage enteringadolescence and then adulthood
This is a. This is this is a question,
(23:47):
Peter. From SOB.
So there I think there's a couple ways to to look at that.
I think, you know, there needs to be more prioritized for kids
when we're raising kids and teaching kids along with being
nice. So obviously being nice and
(24:09):
having a heart of forgiveness and mercy and grace is a
beautiful thing. But I think along with that, you
know, comes a another lesson that needs to be next to that
of, you know, sticking up for yourself and understanding what
you're going to let happen to you and what you're not going to
let happen to you. As well as, you know, having
(24:30):
that constant, you know, desire and yearn for, you know, wanting
to succeed and wanting to do better.
And I think a lot of that can come from sports too, for kids
at a young age, which I will always harp on being such an
important foundation for kids because not only are they going
to learn how to play a sport, they're going to learn so much
more than that, from teamwork todiscipline to winning and losing
(24:51):
and experiencing both sides of that.
So this just focusing on being nice put your kids at a
disadvantage. Well, I mean, I think everybody
wants their kids to be nice, right?
But I also know that everybody doesn't want their kids to be a
pushover. So I think it's a, it's a
balancing act for the parents. It's not an easy answer to this
(25:12):
question. So I, I'm not going to be able
to sit here and say, here's XY and Z of how you balance that
because I don't have that. I'm still trying to figure it
out, but focusing on the importance of not just being
nice, but what it means to be a genuinely strong, you know,
Christ following person. And, you know, going along with
being nice comes the, the tolerance for, you know, not
(25:34):
putting up with being disrespected, you know, not
allowing my, you know, their brother, their brothers and
sisters to be disrespected. Like, there's a lot of lessons
that I think can be taught from everyday life that focuses on
all these things outside of justbeing nice, which are all
equally important in my opinion.So if we're not teaching our
kids these things, will they be set up for a disadvantage?
(25:56):
100% they will be. They're not going to know how to
what is the right for sticking up for themselves or how to
properly advocate for what is right without being little
assholes because mom and dad never showed them how to do it.
You know, So a lot of the onus of all this doesn't fall on the
kids like it falls on mom and dad.
Look. Life can be hard and stressful
sometimes, we all know that. But when it comes to
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(27:03):
today. Yeah, I agree.
That's what I was gonna that's what I would say man it's like
sometimes this this question hasto do with what we're teaching
our kids. But sometimes we're teaching
them by what we model and sometimes our parents is if you
are modeling that you can his words but share and be kind to
them and to others. But then when they see and then
if you cross doubt if you cross mom like they're also gonna
(27:24):
they're gonna be strong and we're gonna be direct.
We're gonna tell them. So I think some of us like we
can just model by our personalities, right?
I also don't think share, you know, sharing and being kind.
And also, he said ruthless, but,you know, being direct and
sticking up for yourself. I don't think those things need
to be mutually exclusive, right?Like.
You said it, but. Like, you can be both, right?
You can be loving, but when it'stime to throw down, you could do
(27:45):
that too. Yeah, let's.
Go. Exactly.
You know, it's funny, it just popped in my mind.
I was listening to an interview the other day.
It was Rahm Emanuel. If you don't know who that is,
it does not matter. He's he's a potential Democratic
candidate in 2026. Anyway.
He had this expression. He described himself as a middle
child, and he said, quote, like most middle children, I can do
war and peace. And he was being asked the
question around like, hey, how come sometimes you're soft and
(28:08):
sometimes you come on like really strong?
I think that's a good way to putit.
Like, I think a well equipped, versatile, flexible human being
is totally comfortable and willing to be both soft and
strong, right? You can do war and you can do
peace. So yeah, I think, I think you
can model it. But I do think you should be
teaching your kids to stand up for themselves.
I'll just give you a quick on the attic toe.
(28:29):
Just just this question just literally popped up in my dinner
Table 2 days ago. My daughter, she was explaining
to me something, I don't know why I was on her mind because
school's been out, but she said,hey, last year this boy was
really mean to me. I said, well, tell me what
happened. And she said she was practicing
her cursive writing in first grade.
And some little punk frankly came over and said, and she was
(28:49):
trying to spell her name. She's like, what is that
cursive? That's not cursive.
Let me show you how to write it.And then he wrote her name in
cursive better than her and toldher that she stinks at it now.
You got this kids address because I need as a.
Parent that pokes on like that, like unearths all of my own
experiences and how I respond inthat moment.
A lot of it is predicated on like any wounds that I'm
(29:11):
carrying with me or any like Vindic, right.
So, you know, my wife and I are both sitting at the table.
Daddy speaks first, probably because I heard it and was like,
huh? So my wife to my daughter was,
you know what you should have said.
You should have said what was that?
I didn't know. We had a pen mentioned.
Police go tell somebody who cares.
And I said it literally just came out.
And then in my head I was like, oh shit.
(29:34):
Backspace, Backspace. How do I take it away?
Automata P at Penmanship Police.I thought it was pretty clever,
I honestly. Think you're on to something
there. So we'll we'll circle back but
continue. Yeah, but.
Then of course, Meg, she's listening too.
She looks at me and gives me theYEAH.
I know that look, sweetheart. Some sometimes people are just
mean and you need to just be kind, bro.
That's this question coming to ahead at and and by the way, how
(29:57):
we respond to that should be he dictated by how old the kid is
and how much Ray but what she heard there was mom and dad.
Dad's like no turn around. Tell him embarrass him.
He won't come back and do it again.
And what I said to her was that's good for you to practice
standing up for yourself, but it's good for him because if he
hears that and feels a little uncomfortable, he's less likely
to do that right. But I don't know, bad parenting
(30:18):
or not. You tell me, Justin, I.
Well, I'm in your corner here. I wouldn't start winging the
next time she sees him. But hey, penmanship police,
that's good, dude. I'm putting that on a T-shirt.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all right.
Did you want to circle around tosomething or keep going?
Sounds like you said penmanship.Police.
No, I'm, I'm still harping on that.
(30:38):
I think it's, I think it's great.
I'm, I'm, I'm bad. I didn't think of that first.
All right, all right, cool. I lost my my train of thought
here. Where we going?
OK, All right, Michael in Colorado, back to the fitness
world here. If you could recommend 3
supplements men over 30 should take for overall health and
(30:59):
Wellness, what would it be? If there is a.
Supplement that everybody could take to stop putting all of
their eggs in supplement baskets.
I would recommend that. But no, supplements obviously
are important, but like you're in your 30s, they're not that
important. And I think that they don't have
(31:21):
to be overcomplicated like we love to do in everything,
exercise and nutrition of reinventing the wheel.
So short answer, fish oil, a multivitamin.
And the 3rd I'm going to honestly throw in a some sort of
anti-inflammatory. So I'm going to throw in a
(31:41):
turmeric supplement of some kindyou want.
To fight some of this. Fight inflammation because
you're you're in your 30s and assuming you have a healthy
background, a healthy foundation, your blood levels
are in a good line, your testosterone's in a good spot.
Don't overcomplicate it man. OK, All right.
I will echo this question asks about 30.
(32:03):
I think if this question said recommend 3 supplements for men
over 40 would have a different answer.
I don't think at the turn of that particular, you know, 10
year mark, I don't think you need to switch up your
supplements. So my recommendations are just
going to be basically, if you ask me what 3 supplements should
a man take or a woman for that matter, because he's aren't
gender specific here, but same with you.
(32:26):
Fish oil hands down #2 creatine for both and it and but I'm
going to assume that this man inthis question, man or woman,
thank you, care, cares about their fitness and is exercising.
That said, creatine for both thenootropic qualities of it, but
also the physical performance ofit.
So fish oil, creatine, I'm goingto cheat here.
I'm going to give a like 1/3 supplement like you did around
(32:49):
inflammation and say for this one, I would actually say for
stress management and I would take Rhodiola or L theanine.
As as tough and resilient as we all like to think that we are.
I think we all could also benefit from some type of a
supplement that helps us kind ofmanage the stress response to
cortisol levels, etcetera, just for well-being.
(33:10):
So fish oil, creatine and some type of mental health supplement
of which I'd say Rhodiola healththeanine and still a third one
in their ashwaganda. And and there I would caution
dosage matters with ashwaganda. I think you have to get specific
to how much you should be taking, but those would be my 3.
There's huge fan of all of them,especially theanine.
(33:30):
That has been an amazing one, especially for somebody who is a
caffeine junkie like myself. Theanine is a is a beautiful,
beautiful thing. I.
Agree. Do you get sleepy when you take
it? Depends.
There's, I have a, there's a fewthat I have a stress relief one
that it's in as well as just plain old 100 gram or milligrams
or whatever it is of theanine. If I take the stress one, it
(33:54):
makes me sleepy because there's like lemon balm and stuff in
there as well. And I love that.
But yeah, it just feels like I'min a nice little warm blanket,
Yeah. I so I take all three of those I
just mentioned Rhodiola Theanineand Ashley Donde, you've been.
Big on those 3 for a while now Iam I.
Actually, so I take Rhodiola andashwagandha in the day with my
(34:15):
multivitamin and my fish oil andstuff.
And then at night I only take two things, but I take theanine
and magnesium together. Actually, I'm lying.
Zinc is zinc. I was.
Going to say throw your zinc in there.
The ZNI not. It's not technically a like
stress management type supplement, obviously, but that
helps. But if I take theanine in the
middle of the day and like jump on a conference call, like dude,
(34:36):
I'm I'm toast. This.
They're not getting much. You're relaxed.
Exactly, Exactly. Sort of staying in the mental
health kind of Segway here from where we landed next one, Johnny
in Massachusetts, great questionhere.
When people talk about prioritizing mental health, what
(34:56):
does that look like for you tactically?
Great. Question, very great question.
There's I think again, many different ways to answer that,
but like for me personally, froma tactical perspective, it's
prioritizing the things that I know matter in terms of what
make me operate the best. So one is sleep.
(35:16):
Sleep is insanely important for that.
And a long with sleep is movement.
So when I get to the gym and when I'm done working out,
obviously the endorphins are great, but they last a long time
and that helps me get out a lot of the stress, a lot of the
anger, two of which things God'sblessed me with, Thank you.
But like, that is amazing for meto take to get that out.
(35:40):
And yeah, in terms of mental health, that's one of my
favorite avenues. But outside of, you know, just
picking things up and putting them down, like there's more to
taking care of your mental health.
And that is understanding, you know, why you react to things
the way that you do and why you feel the way that you do.
So rather than just pushing things off when the situation
happens and you do something andwhatever, I'm just in a bad
(36:01):
mood. You got to ask yourself the
question why I feel like, and there's many different ways to
help us do that. One of those is therapy.
Instead of waiting for shit to explode and you to hit rock
bottom in order to start taking care of your mental health, get
the fuck ahead of it so you don't have to make the same
mistakes and learn the hard way like myself and many others out
(36:22):
there. And it doesn't have to be this
granddose endeavor like you knowhow you're doing mentally when
you wake up in the morning, likeyou know how you're feeling.
And you know, there's there's ways to uncover obviously the
why behind all of those feelings, but you have to be
willing to do it. You know, there's there's no way
(36:43):
around it. Some of the mental health stuff,
doing the work is going to be some of the hardest stuff that
you've had to do, but it's goingto be the most rewarding and
most important thing that in my opinion, you can do.
You want to live a life being fully free from yourself and the
chains that your brain puts on yourself.
Let's talk mental health and let's start journaling.
(37:04):
Let's start setting small goals for yourself every morning for
the day. Let's start being thankful and
counting our blessings of all the things that we have, like
just getting outside, going for a walk without your phone, like
being still and being present. That is my answer right there.
Tactically, how can you take care of your mental health?
(37:24):
Be still, be present and ask yourself the question why to
everything that you do and feel love it.
Love it, love it, love it, love it.
I'll start with, I agree therapybecause he's asking tactically,
what do you do? How can you be proactive?
Therapy, if if anything, to learn about yourself more.
(37:46):
Because now having been consistently in therapy for
almost 3 months, the amount thatI'm learning that is helping me
just identify when I'm experiencing something
emotionally versus it being a real experience.
I can see the difference and it's kind of helps me react to
the world, kind of a byproduct of therapy.
If you don't want to have a therapist, but when you go to
therapy, you're being vulnerable, you're being on it,
(38:06):
you're being open, you're not trying to hold it all in.
In question, should I feel stressed or am I really
stressed? And how do I react to this, that
I respond the right way? If you don't want to get a
therapist, open up to a friend or your partner or your spouse
if they can tolerate listening to you talk for a long time.
That's why we pay therapists. But just open up and it's
amazing how healing it is just to let it out and just talk
about it and it always just feels good.
(38:26):
You might feel a little uneasy at first if you share something
you're like, should I said that?But eventually just sharing
itself tactically really helps, I think to kind of like unleash
some of that stress and that pressure.
I think setting boundaries comesto mind.
You can be tactical with that and those boundaries.
Can. Be with technology as you
mentioned, but it could also be boundaries with work, you know,
(38:48):
letting, letting go of some inferiority complex that has you
like sending that extra e-mail or doing that extra thing and
always fearful of how you're doing at work.
Just let go of that shit and setboundaries with work.
Set boundaries with people who are toxic in your life or that
don't make you feel good. I think boundaries is something.
And then on the kind of like biological part of it, we
mentioned supplements, so I won't go there too much.
(39:10):
Prioritize sleep. I mean, you can't open up
Internet browser without hearingsomeone preaching about sleep.
It's true. And then lastly, I would say
moderate your alcohol if that's something that you can and
should do, but maybe more largely moderate any substance
you're putting in. Too much much caffeine is going
(39:31):
to have you be stressed and wired.
Too much alcohol is going to have you stressed when you wake
up in the morning, right? So just be mindful of what
you're ingesting in your body, not just with your eyes, but
with your, your mouth and lips as well.
So there's some tactical stuff there.
All right. Last question for this episode
has to do with productivity. We hit on it earlier with Mr.
(39:52):
Mark Wahlberg waking up at 4:00 AM.
But the question here is what tools, apps or programs are you
currently using to help with your productivity?
That's a very good question. I have dabbled in a lot of these
productivity Productivity Tools to try and help organize my, my,
(40:14):
my brain as well as my tasks. And to do so I was, I'm
fortunate enough to have the brain of a ADHD person.
So yay, so very important to tryand make sense of this jumbled
mess that I have going on up here at all times.
So I am a huge proponent in the,you know, the, the workplace
(40:35):
apps like the Trellos, the, the Reichs, the Monday dot coms.
Those have been such a blessing for me, especially doing what I
do in work, like being on a client calls and like just being
able to jot down what's happening in my brain so I don't
lose it. That's my biggest thing.
I will have the greatest and best idea and then it'll be
fucking gone. So being able to, you know, have
(40:59):
this stuff be wrangled, being able to organize it and
prioritize it with my to do's and just, you know, I, you know,
you're a big proponent of this too, Jesse.
But the time blocks that you mentioned, Yes, Sir.
My calendar, 9 times out of 10, I'm going to look fully booked
up. And that is because of two
things. One, my call schedule is insane
and sucks. And two, I need to be very
(41:20):
protective of the free time thatI have.
So blocking off time slots in order for me to be able to get
to certain things throughout theday when I'm in calls for seven
hours, that has been a huge godsend.
And on a, on a personal like lifestyle side, I will say, you
know, tracking macros can be a very helpful thing and for, for
(41:41):
people that need to obviously see where they're at, what
they're doing and you know, where they got to make
adjustments. So taking advantage of, and
there's a lot of free stuff out there too, man, a lot of free
trackers, templates like AI, Charlie, GPT, you name it, man,
you got plenty of plenty of things that you're disposed on a
test with. And like I, I have probably
(42:02):
tried at least ten of them, likefrom the Evernotes to I don't
even know what other ones there are, but I have them all
downloaded. So those have been super helpful
and like just anything to help me make sense of what's going on
in here and how to put it on paper and make it tactical and
prioritized is more than I couldask for.
Agreed. Yeah, and I think he is.
Once you, once you figure out what works for you, you have to
(42:24):
be consistent with it because the last thing you want is to
set out this whole productivity type organization and then not
stick to it 'cause then you get stressed that you're not.
So you have to land on something.
And that said, I've tried a lot of different things and I'm just
going to speak to what has worked for me.
I think first and foremost, you mentioned a calendar.
If you're married or have a family, I think having a shared
calendar is absolutely pivotal. One where like if, if I put
(42:46):
something in, my wife gets a notification, she sees it
blocking things. You mentioned.
We use Apple for that. By the way, you mentioned time,
time blocking. We've talked about in previous
episode. You just nailed it.
But blocking out not just thingsthat are like appointments with
other people or work, but thingsthat you are prioritizing your
life. So Monday through Saturday, I've
(43:07):
got a block in my calendar essentially says 5:00 to 6:30 is
fitness and I put it in there. I make it personal so my wife
doesn't see it. So I don't want it like, you
know, clog up her calendar. But blocking, blocking like
things that are you're doing foryourself as well is huge.
The reason I like using Apples because it actually it kind of
jives well with their Reminders app.
(43:28):
Most of us have an iPhone. If you pick it up, there's
something that says reminders. You can also share and
collaborate with family members in there and actually link them
to calendars who love that. So that's what I do for my
family on a personal side, for organization, I like to separate
what I use for my personal organization from my work
organization because of the boundaries.
And we talked about that. So what I do is I use Trello,
(43:49):
which you mentioned I love, likestacked ranked columns with
cards that you can visibly move to top priority and set
reminders. So I use Trello, I have for a
decade. I love it.
I'm not going anywhere. Sponsors, Trello.
Yeah, there you go, Trello. Let's go.
On the work side, I use Teams. I love Teams, but Teams has a
planner add on into it, which actually feels exactly like
(44:11):
Trello to me, but I keep all my work stuff contained there, so
it's not to bleed into my personal life.
And then lastly, productivity around fitness.
Woop, I love Woop. You can set goals within Woop
for like this is how many hours of zone 2 heart rate I want to
get this week. This is zone 5.
This is how many drinks of alcohol I want to have, whatever
(44:32):
you want it to be. And I love that once you set
those goals, it kind of, you know, you get a report every
single week to keep you on trackand you can manly track drinks
and things like that. So between Apple calendar,
Trello teams and Whoop 01 more thing, we bought this really big
cute like whiteboard type familycalendar for our laundry room.
And I'll normally every month like take everything that's on
(44:53):
our regular calendar and draw itup there because our kids love
it and they like to look at it and say, what are we doing
today? So less about productivity and
more about just kind of spreading the the joy.
But those are my little hacks ifyou will.
I need to get on the whoop trainman.
I can't I I had to have a watch.I can't wear it anymore because
it won't track normally because of all the ink I have in my
(45:13):
arms. So I have to resort to to whoop
strap I think well. If I refer a friend, I get a
free month. So let's talk.
All right. That's it man, that's all the
questions we had dude. Anything put you on the spot?
Any like random questions you want to throw out there to
tackle through? Are we good until next month?
I, I just want to thank everybody honestly for sending
(45:36):
the questions that they did sendin.
We had a lot of good ones and I feel like this is the third time
we're doing this and you know, the questions are starting to
get more and more like I love the long winded ones because
that means people are thinking and like they want, they want us
to, they want to see what we have to say and like the fact
that one, anybody wants to listen to what comes out of this
fat mouth. Very thankful for that.
(45:56):
I. Agree to you, man.
Shout out to the the listeners and the viewers for sending some
awesome questions, and we certainly hope that our
spontaneous, sometimes meandering answers are just
helping you live the best life you can.
So thanks for joining us, everybody.
Thank. You all till next time see you.
Next time. All right everybody, that's the
(46:18):
show, folks. Thank you so much for tuning
into this podcast and spending some time with us today.
We've got a favor to ask. If you enjoyed the show, would
you please consider subscribing to the show and even leaving a
rating and review? That simple act drastically
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(46:38):
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