Finding a balance between a busy schedule and a healthy lifestyle is a challenge that many men face today. Add to that your responsibilities as a significant other and father and it's easy to see why so many men put their health on the back burner.

For many men, going all in for brief periods of time feels like the perfect solution. Unfortunately, that rarely works and even if it does, the results don't last.

In this episode of the Unshakable Habits Podcast, Stephen Box breaks down why it rarely works and gives you a better approach.

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Hey guys.

Welcome to the Unshakable Habits Podcast where we help men to develop

strong minds and strong bodies.

With habits that seamlessly fit into your life so that you can be the husband,

father, and leader that you desire to be.

I am your host Stephen Box.

I am a national board certified health and wellness coach, and today we're

going to be doing something a little bit different because I'm going solo.

Before I jump into.

And tell you what we're gonna be talking about today.

I did just want to answer a question.

I'm beginning asked light lately, which is Stephen, where have you been?

haven't posted a podcast episode in a while.

And the answer to that is, As I just mentioned, I am now a national board

certified health and wellness coach, and I needed to take some time off

to prepare for the exams for that.

So that is where I've been and why I have been missing, but.

I am back and excited to be here.

also you might have noticed in the intro there, we have a

brand new focus for the podcast.

we are now exclusively focused on helping men to improve

their habits and their health.

And this is something I'm really passionate about.

So going forward, you're gonna be hearing a lot of different content

around health and it's gonna be this idea of connected health.

Which entails not just your physical health, but also your

mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, your

relationships, your environments, right?

and we'll also talk about other things like financial health, which, I know

is a big topic for a lot of guys.

create a lot of, stress in your life.

So we're gonna be helping out with a lot of that different kind of

stuff and really, Helping you to learn how to incorporate all these

things into your life without turning your life upside down.

Which actually brings me to today's topic, and that is this idea of

how do we actually manage to get healthy when life will not slow down.

Or another way that you might think about this is, , why we should

stop waiting for life to slow down.

So this came to me based on a conversation I had with a client a couple weeks ago.

this person came to me after trying to do it on their own at

the begining of the year and not really having a lot of success.

Part of the reason they felt they weren't having success was

that their schedule's so crazy.

This just been super hectic for them.

And they didn't have the time.

They didn't have time to cook, they didn't have time to exercise, they didn't have

time for really much of anything at all.

And.

Work's about to slow down for them for a period of about three or four weeks.

So their plan was to hire me as a coach and really maximize

that three or four weeks.

Now, maybe you've taken that approach before, and if you have

judgement free zone, no worries.

But I'm going to talk to you today about why that approach.

Very seldom works.

So here's the thing, a and this is part of the conversation I had with this client.

When we say, okay, life is gonna slow down.

Let me really immerse myself into that time period, and

really just maximize my efforts.

Sounds great in theory, right?

You go really hard for a short period of time and then you just reap the

benefits of it for the rest of your life.

Uh, no, not quite.

The way it works, what usually ends up happening is one or two things.

Either people think they're going to commit to going all

in for that short period of.

Only to realize that they are missing the fundamental skills, tools, and

resources that they need to be successful.

So for example, if you don't know how to cook, then suddenly meal prepping

and eating healthy meals all the time is going to be incredibly difficult.

You could eat out, you could order meal service, different things like that.

And if you have the money for that and you have the ability to order

healthier foods from restaurants, or you have meal services, you

can get delivered to your house.

Cool.

I have no issue with that, if that's something you can afford.

But not everyone can afford those kind of service.

. And so we have to look at all these little things to say,

are you really in a position to even maximize that time period?

But let's pretend that you are.

Let's just say that you are.

And let's say that willpower is not an issue for you.

You will knock it out.

You will be locked in for that time period.

So the next problem that we will oftentimes run into, We crank

everything up for a few weeks and then things get busy again.

And then what happens is we fall off and we fall off hard, as in we just stop doing

everything because that all or nothing mentality starts to kick in, right?

So when that happens, we just fall off.

and we lose all the results that we gained in that short period of time.

Frustrating.

And again, if you've been here, if this sounds like you, no judgments.

I've been there myself.

Okay.

I went through that process multiple times before I finally

got it right and lost 80 pounds.

And cap it off, because here's the reality of the situation guys.

It's not about waiting for perfect opportunities in life.

For some of us, that opportunity never comes.

For most of us, it comes in small windows and it never lasts.

But if you can learn.

To make these things fit seamlessly into your life, no matter how crazy things get.

Oh man.

That is a game changer, guys.

I'm telling you.

So a couple things to con keep in mind here.

Number one, when we talk about simple changes, when we talk about

things that seamlessly fit into your.

I think there's this idea that means slow progress, and that's not necessarily

true because what it depends on is where you are in your journey at that time.

For some people, they do not have a solid foundation yet, and for them

a slow start might be the best.

But maybe you already have a great foundation.

Maybe you already know how to eat well, maybe you already

know how to cook healthy meals.

Maybe you already know how to exercise.

Maybe you already know all these things and your skill sets are extremely high.

So for you, we might be able to put more on your plate.

, but the key is that it's not about trying to be perfect for a couple weeks, right?

The idea here is that we want to think of this like a dial, right?

A, and this is a concept that I got from Precision Nutrition, who I'm

certified through, that we can look at even, I'll just use exercise here as

a simple example, but you can use this concept with anything, but we can look.

Any habit we want to create as a dial, any behavior that we want to do as a

dial, that dial goes from one to 10.

It never goes to zero.

Okay?

And that's the key here, is that it never goes to zero.

There is no off one is if my life was absolutely pandemonium, super

crazy, what's something I could do?

And the answer to that question.

Is what you put at one.

So as a simple example, if we're talking about exercise,

maybe I say, you know what?

I could get up and I can knock out 20 pushups no matter what.

So first thing in the morning, I roll outta bed, I hit the

ground, I'll do 20 pushups.

Done, right?

I've now hit my minimum for the day, right?

Or maybe I went into the day with the intention of doing

something a little bit more.

and it got away from me.

End of the night, I'm sitting there, I haven't done anything.

I'm like, you know what?

I'm gonna do my 20 pushups.

I'm gonna turn my Dow to one four today.

Now, are you going to get maximum results at one?

No, but mentally it's going to keep you locked in.

It's gonna keep you into the pattern of exercise, and that's why this

concept is so powerful and so important because guys, I'm telling you where

we get ourselves in trouble with this, all or nothing thinking is that.

We feel like I can't do it full force today, so I might

as well not do it at all.

And you have a couple of, I didn't do it at all days.

And the next thing you know, you're done.

Your consistency's gone, your willpower is gone.

And before you know it, you've just, you've missed several days and it's over.

Okay.

On the other side of the spectrum here, we got a 10, right?

That's what's the absolute best workout you're gonna do, right?

I'm gonna go work out for an hour or whatever, right?

It doesn't really matter what it is.

The specifics aren't super important here.

What's important is that you understand that on your best days, you're well

rested, you slept well, your stress is low, your nutrition has been on point,

your energy levels are super high.

Turn that dial to a 10, let's.

But on the days that it's not, let's turn it down to a one.

There's no shame in having to turn the dow to a one.

Okay?

A lot of us are turning the dow all the way to zero, a lot of days right now.

So why would we not just turn it to one and at least mentally

stay locked into this pattern?

Okay.

So guys, that's what I wanted to bring to you today.

I wanted to bring this concept to you of why we need to stop

waiting for life to be perfect.

We need to stop waiting for these circumstances to align themselves

for us and not just the way out.

One more thing for you here just to consider, just in case you haven't

bought into this idea yet, if part of your motivation behind getting.

So that you can be a better husband and father, and you find yourself really

focusing on the leadership aspect at work.

Then here's the challenge I want to give you.

I want to, I want you to ask yourself, honestly, when you're

focusing on work, are you being the best father and husband you can be.

If the answer to that's no, I want you to ask yourself, when you've turned

around and you take that downtime that you're gonna get, and you focus

on exercise and nutrition and all of the things involving your health, and

that's your main focus, is that going to impact being a good husband, a good

father, and you've been, a good leader?

Probably right?

And then all of a sudden things get crazy again, and now you're

back to being focused on work.

So if your goal is to be a better father and a better husband, but you

also want to have better health guys, I'm telling you this concept of the

dial, being able to adapt things and.

Not always feeling like you have to go all in and learning how to make these habits

fit seamlessly into your life so that it frees up more time in your schedule.

It allows you more flexibility to be there with your wife.

It allows you more time to be there with your kids, and it allows you to focus

on work and get stuff done when you're.

. That is when things go so much smoother and when things do get

a little bit crazy and you can't possibly be everywhere at once, we

can always turn the dial down, right?

Sometimes we just maintaining our health is where we are, and then when

things do lighten up a little bit, when things are a little bit better,

we can always crank the dial up, but let's not ever have that thing.

So if you enjoyed that, wanna ask a favor?

if you could head over to unshakeable habits.com/podcast and at the top

there, you're off, you're gonna see a link to rate the podcast, and I

would appreciate you just hopping in there and giving me your feedback.

Let me know, did you enjoyed this format?

did you get some good value out of it?

and while you're there, feel free to go ahead and.

Download the ultimate habit Checklist, checklist and mini guide, that is going

to give you a lot more information on some of the things that I've

talked about today, about how do we actually implement these changes?

How do we actually start setting ourselves up for success?

How do we create better goals?

All those kind of things are gonna be there on that sheet.

So guys, this is Stephen Box.

For the Unshakable Habits Podcast, and I want to just remind you that

we're not all born unshakable, but we can all become unshakable.