Positive Time Travel: How Discipline Creates Your Future Self

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness.
My name is Rob Maxwell and I'man exercise physiologist and
personal trainer.
I am the owner of Maxwell'sFitness Programs and I've been
in business since 1994.
The purpose of this podcast isto get to the real deal of what
really works and, mostimportantly, why things work.
Hence the name there is aMethod to the Madness.

(00:24):
Before I get started today, letme thank Jonathan and Lynn
Gilden of the Gilden GroupRealty Pros.
They are committed to providingthe highest level of customer
service in home sales.
Why don't you give them a shoutand figure out what your home
is worth?
386-451-2412.

(00:44):
Hey there, everybody.
Good morning, good afternoon.
Whatever time of day you'relistening to, we're here to talk
about and engage in somefitness.
Well, I'm going to redo thepodcast I did yesterday, which
was being disciplined being thegift in the future that we give

(01:08):
ourselves, because I don't knowwhat my server did, but it
screwed with my voice.
In the very first intro portionit made it sound kind of like
Mickey Mouse, and then in thebody of the text it made it
sound like some deep voicedmonster, don't know why.
Looked into it, not really anyclear answers.

(01:31):
Didn't really want that outthere, so redoing it.
Such is life in the world oftechnology that we live in today
.
So let's talk about somediscipline today.
So let's talk about somediscipline.

(01:51):
Discipline is the gift we giveourselves into the future.
If we think of it that way, Ireally think we can begin to
make better choices.
You know, we don't often thinkabout the things that we're
going to do in the moment.
I think it is sort of a humannature thing.

(02:13):
Well, I don't think Iabsolutely know it's a human
nature thing.
You know, we tend to gravitatetowards the path of least
resistance, tend to gravitatetowards the path of least
resistance.
There is biological reasons fordoing this, back when we were
in the world of kill or bekilled, which you know, I guess
some would argue we're still in,but not really and quite

(02:36):
frankly, not even close.
But you know, we had toconserve our energy.
We were either on the move orwe were resting.
So there's a reason we have abias towards the path of least
resistance.
It makes absolute biologicalsense back when we needed to.

(02:56):
But now we don't live in thatkind of world anymore.
We live in a world where weactually have to go out of our
way to get in our physicalactivity so we can be healthy.
We have to even go out of ourway to find more healthy food
choices not that they're not outthere, so we have to go out of

(03:19):
our way to do these things.
So we are going to gravitatetowards what feels better right
now, whether it be physically,mentally or emotionally, what
feels better.
And, of course, going towardswhat feels better now doesn't

(03:43):
often lead to what is better forus in the future, and we could
look at almost every singleinstance and see that that is
true.
But for some reason, I wouldsay adults have a blind spot to
that.
You know, we could argue thatkids do too, and kids being

(04:04):
teenagers or younger, and that'strue, but they kind of know it
and we know that.
You know, like, when we say tothe kids out there, you know you
probably shouldn't skip schoolbecause if you do there's going
to be consequences.
You do, there's going to beconsequences and we can see the

(04:28):
consequences.
We know that they could getcaught and get suspended or
however they handle those thingsthese days.
I'm using that example becausewhen I was in high school, that
was a big thing and I took partin those skip days back then and
I knew exactly what I was doingand I knew I could get caught,
and I guess I just didn't thinkthat much of it.
So I use that example.

(04:49):
You can throw in any examplethat you want to.
But we often accuse the youngergenerations of that kind of
thinking Like didn't you realizewhen you made that choice a
path of least resistance allyour friends were skipping.
It looked like the fun thing todo.
Everybody was going to go tothe beach instead of go to

(05:10):
school.
Yes, that sounds way betterthan going to school, but there
are consequences at the end ofthat, you know, and the kids go.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,right, and we all know it.
We talk about it.
People talk about it on socialmedia, about the younger
generation and blah, blah, blah.
But what I see all the time is Isee, you know, adults,

(05:31):
responsible adults, living theirlives doing the same thing,
especially with health andfitness.
I mean, I think Everybody knows.
If you were to sit there, takea test or whatever that says, if
you eat, say, a hamburger andFrench fries every day for the

(05:51):
next 10 years, you knowtypically goes along with that,
and a high saturated fat dietleads to coronary artery disease

(06:12):
, like.
We know that that is true, asdoes smoking and other say bad
behaviors.
We know that.
But then adults will often say,well, you know, I don't know, I
don't know if that's true andreally what's going on is
they're taking the path of leastresistance.
I see it all the time.

(06:35):
I see the choices being madeall the time and then so often
people saying, well, I don'tknow what happened.
Often people saying, well, Idon't know what happened.
What you gave into the impulseof what felt better at the time,
having a hamburger from a fastfood restaurant along with

(06:56):
french fries and a milkshake orwhatever on your way home from
work seemed like an easier,better solution to make you feel
better.
The comfort food at the timeNow is that bad.
Once in a while, no, but if youdo it all the time, of course

(07:17):
there's going to be consequences.
Discipline is saying toyourself at that moment that you
know what I might feel betterright now if I do this.
Then I go home and I preparesome rice and I make some fish
and make some broccoli.
That will take a little bitlonger.
It might not be as pleasing tomy taste buds at the moment, but

(07:42):
it's the right thing to do andin six months my six-month
future self will thank me forthis because I'll be lower in my
weight and I'll have betterresults from my physical right.
You know that.
But we choose to not exercisethose discipline muscles and we

(08:04):
say, eh, maybe that's true, I'llstart that tomorrow.
So you show very littlediscipline, if any at all, and
you go with what seems easier atthe time.
But if you think of disciplineas positive time travel, if you
can say you know what six monthsdown the road, this is going to

(08:26):
impact me, of course it is.
I mean, we know that, right.
We know it when we talk aboutkids making their choices, but
we so often forget it when itcomes to ourselves.
Discipline is just saying Iwant to feel better later at the
expense of right now.

(08:48):
I mean, it's really that simple.
The same is, of course, forexercise.
I mean it's so funny and I'vesaid this many, many times.
You know people think thatpersonal trainers that are into
fitness or fitness junkies orfitness nerds or health nuts

(09:09):
whatever you want to call themlike roll out of bed and just
are licking their chops to goout on their run or go to the
gym to lift weights, or go ontheir power walk or get on their
bike.
I mean, why?
Why would people think that weare any different than you if

(09:30):
you happen to be one of thosepeople that say that?
Again, going back to biology,we are all pretty much wired the
same.
We can rewire ourselves withgood habits and habits will do
that.
But we are all pretty muchwired the same.
We want comfort.

(09:52):
We would rather sleep in thanget up.
We would rather have a sugarydrink than water than water.
We would rather eat salt, sugar, fat that's very pleasing to
the palate than eat fiber,grains, lean proteins, fruits

(10:14):
and vegetables that aren't aspleasing to the palate.
But because of experience, ofdoing the right thing, that is
good for us.
Down the road we have learnedand set habits up to where we
want to feel better in thefuture, because any pleasure we

(10:37):
might get from taking the easyroad of sleeping in and eating
junk food I mean pleasure isvery short-lived.
Then, down the road, we feelthe guilt which emotionally, is
like oh, that doesn't feel good.
We feel the arthritic jointsfrom letting our weight get

(11:00):
higher and that doesn't feelgood.
Now, everything we do for theamount of time that we're up per
day, say 16 hours or whateverduring the day, hurts because we
have arthritic joints, becausewe didn't take care of ourselves
.
I mean, that isn't reallygiving into pleasure, right,

(11:20):
like that's not pleasurable.
We give in to pleasure at thebrief moment, but that doesn't
last and that causes moreproblems down the road.
So us health nuts, us fitnessjunkies, we just simply have a
longer track record than otherpeople as far as making the

(11:44):
right choices.
We can take that positive timetravel trip and say you know
what, in six months I wouldprefer to be 12 pounds down.
I would prefer to have mydoctor say, wow, your labs are
looking better than the last sixmonths.
We would prefer to have thedoctor say, wow, that blood
pressure is really really good.

(12:07):
And we'd rather be able to say,yeah, you know, ever since I
lost that 12 pounds, it feels somuch better on my joints, I can
move so much more freely.
And what do we give up?
We gave up simply giving in totemptation of short lasting junk
food, sleeping in a little bitlonger, delaying going out onto

(12:32):
our exercise.
I mean, it's really that simple, but it's also that major.
These are major things we wantto do.
We want to be disciplined andget in the amount of exercise
that we need to get in.
That takes discipline.

(12:53):
It takes discipline to train.
But discipline is absolutely amuscle that you can develop.
It can develop into a habit andsocial scientists have proven
that.
Habits are literallyreprogramming the brain.
It gets easier as you go.

(13:15):
It absolutely gets easier asyou go, but we have to get going
to get into the habit of it.
We have to have a nice, nice,nice resume of saying you know
what, the last time I wantedthat Frappuccino because it
looked so darn good when thatperson walked by me and they had

(13:39):
it in their hand you know itlooked good I thought to myself
you know what that's?
Just empty wasted calories andempty wasted money.
I mean seven bucks for that,for sugar, for a fatty drink,
you know, loaded with cream andsugar.
I mean tastes good.

(14:00):
I mean, what does it take todrink like five minutes or
something like that?
You just spent $7 five minuteslater and it did you no good.
So when you saw that, that timeyou said you know what, I'm not
going to give into that.
And then you got into the carand you said you know what?
I didn't even miss it.
You know, of course you're notgoing to miss it, right?

(14:21):
I mean, it's just temptation.
I mean you know, marketers knowthis, which is why they put all
this crap out in front of youall of the time, because they
know you're going to see it.
You're going to want it rightout of sight, out of mind.
So as soon as you don't see itanymore, you go.
I don't really miss that.

(14:41):
One of the things I talk aboutin my book is the concept of
delaying gratification, my bookbeing you can't outrun a poor
diet.
Delay gratification.
Don't say not ever.
Don't say I'll never do thatagain.
Say not right now.
I want that frappuccino.

(15:02):
All right, maybe you do.
If I still want it, I'm goingto go back to the store and get
it later, but right now I wantthat frappuccino.
All right, maybe you do.
If I still want it, I'm goingto go back to the store and get
it later, but right now I'mgoing to pass and see how I feel
in a little while.
It always passes.
Delay gratification.
Your future self will thank you.
Now.
One last thing on discipline.
Discipline isn't always doingwhat we should do.

(15:25):
Discipline is also not doingwhat we shouldn't do.
That takes discipline too.
I believe there's essentiallytwo types of people out there
when it comes to this.
There's type A's that drive,drive, drive and push, push,
push, push this.

(15:45):
There's type A's that drive,drive, drive and push, push,
push, push.
And there are people that arenot like that.
They're much more passive.
Well, type A's and I know thisfrom coaching a lot of type A's
will always have to be reeled in.
You're always going to have tobe like, like, don't do that,

(16:11):
because that's going to impedeyour recovery.
So discipline is also sayingthat we need to rest today.
We don't need to go on thathard run.
You need to be disciplined andtake one day off during the week
where you don't have anystructured training.
The type A personality is notgoing to want to do that.
For some reason, they're driven, driven, driven to a fault

(16:33):
Again.
They need to be reeled in.
So discipline is saying I'mtaking that rest day Now.
Too often in society, people getpats on the back for going past
that.
You know.
There's a couple differentsocial media icons out there
whom I don't overly respect andeverybody's always talking about

(16:54):
how tough they are and theytalk about how they push through
that and they push through thisand you know, sometimes that's
good but oftentimes it's not andoftentimes it's not real and
oftentimes they're actuallybeing really weak because the
disciplined athlete is going todo the hard things for them and

(17:17):
oftentimes for a disciplinedathlete, the hard thing is
taking the day off.
Athlete, the hard thing istaking the day off.
They want to go train to eitherrelease energy or to
obsessively do something theythink they should do and in
reality the best thing for themis to take that day off.

(17:39):
I heard a quote from a famousmountain bike professional and
she said the question I askmyself is do I want to be fast
now or do I want to be fastlater?
And if you're a professionalracer or if you're training for
a marathon or a bike race or atriathlon, you want to be fast

(18:00):
later, you want to be fast onrace day.
I mean, there's all theseweekend warriors out there that
race people during training.
Those aren't very disciplinedpeople.
It's the disciplined athletesthat say I'm not going to get
caught up in all this.
I'm supposed to do an easytraining run today or an easy

(18:20):
training ride or a power walk oran active rest day.
It takes discipline to exercisethose muscles too.
So I want to make it very, veryclear that discipline is doing
the hard thing.
Whatever that is for you that'sgoing to make you better in the

(18:44):
future.
Okay, let me repeat thatDiscipline is doing the hard
thing that is going to make itbetter for you in the future.
Oftentimes that's going out andgetting your exercise in.
Sometimes that's taking the dayoff.
What is hard for you to do andwhat is best for you to do, that

(19:11):
is what discipline is and, as Isaid, it is falling into
positive time travel.
So hopefully my serverBuzzsprout doesn't mess with my
voice today, because I thinkthat this is a very important
message for everybody.
Delay the gratification forwhat seems pleasurable now but

(19:34):
you know in your heart and mind,isn't going to be good for you
in the future.
You know, those few beers outon a Friday night, you know,
might feel better now to relax,but it may not be better for you
when you got to get up early toexercise the next day.
Or you have to be present andyou have to be focused.

(19:54):
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know what behaviors itis for you.
I know what it is for me and Ihave to say you know what.
This isn't going to help me inthe future.
It's not going to be greatright now, so I think I would
rather be able to look back andsay you know what?
I'm really glad I did thosebehaviors for the last six

(20:14):
months.
Thank you for listening totoday's show.
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(20:37):
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If you need any help with yourgarage doors, give them a shout.
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