Misfit Podcast
Misfit Athletics provides information and programming to competitive Crossfit athletes of all levels.
Misfit Podcast
Tiny Habits: How to talk to anyone - including yourself - about improving - E.380
In this episode of the Misfit Podcast, Drew and Paige unpack why most people struggle to change — even when they want to — and why motivation alone almost always fails.
Using the Tiny Habits framework, they talk through:
- Why starting smaller actually leads to bigger results
- How identity changes before outcomes do
- The role of trust, reassurance, and celebration in behavior change
- Why “helping” friends and family often backfires
- How to build habits without judgment — for yourself or others
This episode is especially relevant during the holidays, when conversations about fitness, nutrition, and “getting back on track” are unavoidable.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once — or frustrated watching someone you care about struggle — this one provides a better way forward.
------------------------------
Misfits! We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did and you're feeling generous throw us a review and let us know how we're doing, we'd really appreciate it.
Join your fellow Misfits on Telegram, today! It's Free! https://t.me/+4jt4uAMmtFA5NGQ5
Save on the best supplement in the game: https://gorillamind.com/MISFIT
Misfit Athletics Programming:
https://strivee.app/marketplace/p/misfit
https://misfitathletics.fitr.training/t/misfitathletics/
Misfit Affiliate Programming:
https://teammisfit.com/subscribe/
Misfit Apparel at sharpentheaxeco.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/misfitathletics
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misfitathletics
Thanks for clicking like and don’t forget to subscribe!
Good morning, Misfits. You are tuning in to another episode of the Misfit Podcast. On today's episode, we have what I'm considering a little bit of a Christmas present for you, or Hanukkah present, or whatever you celebrate, but it's the time of year where you might potentially, whether you want to or not, be having conversations with family members about things like exercise and diet. And like, you ever have someone who is like embarrassed that they're eating pizza around you because you're either a CrossFitter or a CrossFit coach? You're like, hey man, I eat it's it's okay pizza. Um these conversations are inevitable, and I watch possibly the worst versions that I can imagine on repeat of how people treat themselves and one another when it comes to creating new habits in their life. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that again within the context of potentially having those conversations with somebody else or having those conversations with yourself. But of course, as always, we will get into housekeeping, we will get into read, listen, watch, and then we'll dive in. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by GorillaMind. You can head to GorillaMind.com forward slash misfit or just use the code word misfit at checkout on GorillaMind. The product of the week, if you're watching on YouTube, is there's a blurry version of it right over my head right here. This is Gorilla Mode. This is their pre-workout. Speaking of tiny habits, I'll explain how I got back into this, but I did my first fourth gear Echo Bike at Elevation last week. Yeah. And I relied heavily on the old Gorilla Mode. It's a pre-workout that has doses of stuff that actually help you. And for me, I find it to be mental more than anything else. That moment of can I hold these RPMs comes later, and then I can convince myself to stay above that. Now, obviously, there's some, you know, a lot of the ingredients have a physiological effect, which probably plays into that a little bit. But again, the narrative of the elevation, and I haven't done this in a while. And I used to say that I was the worst six-foot-tall, 200-pound rower in the CrossFit community. That title might be on the Echo Bike now. The one positive is the fan moves easier through the air, although eh, at you know, the RPMs I was traveling at, it didn't seem to help all that much. So uh best pre-workout in the game, works really well. GorillaMind.com forward slash misfit. On to shout out of the week. I gotta shout out the whole Telegram group. Stephanie Clisham posted the quintessential scary season, spooky season, monsoon season post. And shout out to her first and foremost. That's what this group is for. That's why we have it. Of course, us answering questions about the nitty-gritty of training is important. But especially in line with this episode, yeah. Like your ability to lean on other people and have those shared experiences is so important. I won't go through every single one, but make sure you join the Telegram group and go into the Hatchet channel and just scroll up so you can see this. In my two cents that I wanted to add, but I actually like taking a full step back and letting the community and page and other people kind of do the work sometimes because the buy-in from someone who's in the trenches with you can be really powerful. Um, Austin Spencer and Kenzie Riley both qualified for the CrossFit Games while working full-time jobs doing lift conditioning skill only. That is that was during semifinals prep. And Austin was getting up at like 4 a.m. to come in and do one thing, and then coming in after cutting trees down all day, qualified for the CrossFit Games for the first time. And then Kenzie Riley was coming off a year of she had taken a year off, given birth, and crazy wasn't really sure kind of where she was at. And it was just like, let's take this one step at a time. And I think one part of it is is the piece of you have the people in that telegram group have this crazy baseline level of fitness, and that just doesn't disappear, right? At a cellular level, it's actually kind of waiting to be brought back out, and you can rely on that because of your ability to put more effort into less things. When you're starting off, if you just go crazy, crazy, crazy low volume, you can't really bring that punch to the workout. But if you have the baseline level of fitness and skill and strength, when you have those seasons of life's life that force you to go lower volume, you just gotta bring the heat. And it works a lot better than more volume and less intensity. So we are only going to add in the seasons of life when we can give that level of effort to those other pieces. Yeah. Because going through the motions, you know, the whole no check boxes thing, that's it's just not gonna help you. Like we've always said, we say it at training camps all the time. We are not impressed by free time. Intensity is king.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think a lot, I think in into her age, right? Her experience, her training age may be much lower. And you can, you know, she's in her early 20s, so there's a lot of experience to still come. So to see the the range of, you know, someone like myself, like experience, have gone through what she's going through. I remember starting with Gabe when I just got into remote coaching, and I have this whole training sheet, and it's like, I want to give 110% to every piece that's in there. And I tried for a day, and I was like, oh my gosh, that's not possible. But you gotta, you know, sometimes learn those things as you go to get that kind of experience is still really valuable. Um, and I was really happy she shared, especially it'll tie in really nicely with um, you know, our topic for today. So I'm excited to dive into that.
SPEAKER_03:For sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I kind of I have two shout outs, I guess kind of three. In Telegram, Kyle Moline shared that he did his first pro solo high rocks, and his goal was to be under an hour and 10, and he did that by six seconds. That's pretty impressive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, we have to make those wall balls hurt to make that happen, which I love.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and we know he's definitely gonna hit standard on his movements there. Um, but out of 176 competitors, he finished 30th, which is really, really awesome. He's 12th in his age group. Top five percent on the stations, top 49% on the runs. And yeah, I I love that to kind of you know go off of that. Ashley Drabicki and Telegram, just a little bit of banter with her saying she can finally beat him in in some conditioning pieces this week. So that's pretty fun to see the back and forth there. So yeah, if you guys, you know, you have some fun in Telegram and you know, get to know some people in there, you'll you'll really see what kind of improvements you can make just by simply having the community. So if you're not on there yet, get in there. If you don't know how, send us a message, we'll send you a link to invite. And then I have a remote athlete shout-out. One of my athletes, he's a master's athlete, his name is Chris. Um, I'll just kind of write out what he sent to me. So he texted me, he said he got asked to fill in for an in-house competition at his gym. They were second, or the second event was a three rep max front squat from the ground. So all this heavy squat clean work was super impactful this this phase. Frankly, I thought 205 was gonna be the max. My current one rep max front squat is 230, and my one rep max clean is 225. So I was pleasantly surprised to see how well 225 felt for that one. Thanks for programming the things I need. You're the best. Second event, just kidding. I um copy and pasting a duplicate there. So, yeah, to see him be at his current one rep max squat clean for a three rep max front squat from the ground is really awesome. It's really cool to see his strength work paying off.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and that is like the perfect teaching moment of what we're doing when we're doing a peaking schedule and when the expectation of the fruits of your labor showing up are. So most of the people following the program are gonna do at the very least the open, but probably open quarterfinals. A lot of athletes go beyond that, especially this year with the online semifinal. We got local comps, we've got people traveling to competitions. You making your way through that progression early on is about getting the reps and really like locking in the way that you move so that you can start to move a little bit better when we're really making the big physiological changes and the adaptations, you know, from a neurological standpoint and a muscular standpoint. But that moment in the arena when your adrenaline is up is when I want that new one rep max to come out. And if you've never felt that, try to find an arena to show yourself what you're capable of because it's kind of fascinating. It's just hard to get yourself to a place on you know a Tuesday in October to hit your true one rep max, your real in-competition one rep max. And I've had plenty of moments like that with you, Paige. You know, we had the the split jerk at WFP1 where I get to be off to the side and just be like, more. And you kind of gotta know how to play it. Um, there are some people that I feel like I need to into hitting their max, and then there are other people where it's more kind of, you know, the the elbow in the rib cage of like, no, I think you can hit this to get them excited to be able to do so. But I just love that like he's working on that currently and got the moment to go show himself, like, oh, I can do this. And the other side of it might be not being as hard on yourself again on a random Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday in the off season because getting yourself to perform five percent during that period of time just that's just not the way that it works.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Like when when he and I started working together, um, you know, I think some people come in and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be working with Paige, he's a games athlete. You know, there's kind of that that expectation that some of my athletes have put on themselves early on. And it's like that creates a pressure that I don't want you to have. So, like coming in, working with me, like that's kind of something that we talk about up front of like, I'm not here to put that pressure on you unless you need it. But right from the beginning, it's like I need you to settle into feeling good about going into training and not being like, oh my God, I have to show up for her. It's like it's not about me, it's about you and your progress and me wanting to be here to support you. So yeah, that's some stuff that we've kind of worked through early on. We still kind of talk about it here and there, but you know, in the end, all the athletes I'm working with right now, I have I'll be I'll have six that I'm working with soon. Yeah, we kind of have settled into like the pressure's not coming from me. It's you're putting it on you, and you know, we need to make sure that it is for you and not it's it's not about me. So um it's been it's been pretty cool working through those kinds of things and seeing them come out of the other side um and kind of like relax and then see what they're actually capable of. Yep, yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:All right, training camp, CrossFit Roots, Boulder, Colorado, January 30th through February 1st. This is an open slash quarterfinals style prep camp. Myself, Paige, Hunter, and Caroline will all be there coaching. I'm a little biased. Colorado's a pretty cool place to be, even in the winter. You don't gotta go to Maine. I don't gotta go to Maine anymore in the winter, and you don't need to go to Maine anymore in the winter. So the tickets are still available, link in bio on our Instagram. Athletes, coaches, fans of the of the sport. Just such a fun weekend for everybody. I'll say it today and then I'll say it again every single week until it happens. Being in a room for a whole weekend with like-minded individuals that are passionate about the same thing that you are is a transformative experience. And one of the reasons we keep doing it, we keep traveling and doing it because it's transformative and motivating for us as well. So CrossFit Roots, Boulder, Colorado, January 30th to February 1st. Link in bio on Instagram. All right, we are in primer week. And I want to, so phase two, week eight, is primer week. This is the week before test week, and I want to reiterate what the main objective is in primer week. We train a lot, we train really hard, and then a lot of athletes find it challenging to take all of that effort and all of that work and concentrate it down into one open workout or one quarterfinals workout. And we need to remind ourselves that all of that training is actually intended to raise our ability in what is, you know, comparatively a very short period of time. So in primer week, what I want is for an athlete to see one thing in that day and say, I'm going to strategize properly, I'm going to warm up properly, I'm going to fuel myself properly, I'm going to maybe slow down the other areas of my life with the extra 30, 45 minutes that I have because the volume's lower. And I'm going to see what I can put into one thing. So it is not a classic D load where we are trying to dampen nervous system activation. We're actually dampening it on a day-to-day basis outside of your training to then go put way more of it into what you're doing. And your ability to execute on a single thing is part of the game. It's not just I got fitter, I got stronger, I got more skilled, I learned how to pace X, Y, and Z. You have to put that stuff to work in the actual moment. So primer week is in there to remind us that even the highest level athletes need to be able to just lock in on one single thing. That is the name of the game. The volume, anything extra, is to try and raise up your ability in just that single thing. I don't know if you have anything to add to that page, but I just like primer week because I like going into my remote coaching sheets and like putting the devil emoji and being like, let's go. Come on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Faster. Exactly. Yeah. Um, and you know, we do that for any prep, really. We have that our, you know, our peaking schedule, we go up, we go down throughout the weeks. And by that final week, it's okay, you still are bringing intensity because if you back off now, you're gonna be backing off in the competition, and that's not the intention of it. So to still bring the intensity into that one piece and then take the proper steps to recover. If you're not spending that extra 45 minutes in the gym, hopefully you're getting an extra 45 minutes of sleep somewhere, you know. So there are just different ways that you can approach less time in the gym and still have it be very productive.
unknown:Sure.
SPEAKER_03:We are also in week three of the current MIST affiliate phase. Um, this is the only phase where we have the true weekly linear progression five by five back squat. I want to know how you guys are doing. Um, send me a video, send me a DM, let me know how those are going. They're gonna get a little bit harder every single week, and that is a good thing. Individual programs can be found in the link in bio by clicking on the Strive V or Fitter links, and you can get two weeks for free of the Misfit affiliate programming at Sugar Wad, Stream Fit, or PushPress. Or if you would like a sample of the PDF version that you get when you sign up on the website, just shoot me a DM, teamisfit.com, click on sign up now. All right, read, listen, watch. Paige, what do you got for us?
SPEAKER_00:I got kind of a doozy here. I got a lot, yeah. So uh some small clips, but I think they pack a punch. So I'll I'll start with my read. Actually, one of the coaches here at our gym, his name is Dave. He sent me this small little screenshot of a part of the book. It's called How Bad Do You Want It by Mike Fitzgerald. I'm sure some people in here have heard of it. I actually have it, I haven't read it yet, but Dave was is like blown away by this book right now. So he's like really, really into it. Um, but there's a small clip here. It says, Men and women with other coping styles are also capable of falling in love with pursuits that fit them. And when they do, these passions yield the same anti-aging benefits that a positive personality does. Research by by psychologists, including Robert Valerand, who defined passion in a 2012 paper published in Psychology of Well-being as a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that people like or even love find important, and in which they invest time and energy on a regular basis, has demonstrated that passion enhances psychological well-being in ways that are sort of like a personality makeover. People who have a strong passion for an activity are known to spend less time in age-accelerating emotional states such as anxiety, just as naturally positive people do. And I just really like this because I feel like it reframes passion in a way that actually matches like what we see in the gym. Like it describes passion not as motivation or excitement, but as this long-term investment in something that's meaningful to us, something we consistently want to put time and energy into. And I, you know, I think with the way we compete and the way that we have our Telegram community, I feel like it just kind of matches with that and with what we do. So I just thought it was kind of a cool little thing to think about, a little way to reframe passion so that like, you know, when we're feeling the life demands or stress, things that kind of start to pop up, we just have to kind of remind ourselves that this is that long-term investment in something that, you know, we really, really love to do. Um, and I think even from our standpoint and the coaching side of it, you know, it helps bring us back to like our center, like our why we do this and why we love it so much. So thought it was a cool little little thing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the parallel that I'm drawing to the episode today is one ingredient of the tiny habits like framework that I think people don't like as much is celebrating victory in a tiny habit. And I think there's a level of vulnerability to admit to yourself that you're passionate about the thing or to admit to other people that you're passionate about the thing. Because again, like the story as old as time is the person who is passionate about something, but is worried that if they fail, they'll be judged for it. So then they don't bring that level of passion to what they do. Um, and then it ends up sort of dying and fading. Like being too cool is like such a like recipe for disaster. So leaning into the fact that you are passionate about it, you do care about it, win or lose, I think is like incredibly powerful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And even, you know, when you are passionate about something, I think about, you know, taking the time to commit to the comp to the competing and the training that we do. Some people don't understand that. And it's not for them to understand. And that's also just like a powerful reminder that, you know, McKenna and I talk about it quite a bit of like people aren't gonna get what you do or why you're making this commitment to do it. But it's it's your passion, it's your thing, and like it's about you. So, you know, being able to embrace that is is just as important, I think, in especially in the longevity of like, you know, a good mental headspace when competing and going for it long term.
SPEAKER_03:It's part of our ethos too. Like I want to give you guys permission. And sometimes it's a positive character trait and sometimes it's a character flaw for me. But I don't give a fuck if someone likes what I'm into or like is judgmental of the lifestyle that I choose. I just want you to know, I want you to have permission to be that way and that you're in the right group. You're in, you're you're in the right group of people to feel that way for sure.
SPEAKER_00:We are misfits for a reason. Yep. All right. My listen. So McKenna came and visited uh me in Jersey this weekend. We spent some time. We had a nice long Saturday, and my friend Aaron and I surprised her with going to see the Wicked Musical on Broadway. We are all three of us are obsessed with the movies. Love Cynthia Revo, Ariana Grande. So current obsession, listening, wicked soundtrack. You just can't beat it.
SPEAKER_03:The way that it hits to after you go see it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:You just, it's all in your field.
SPEAKER_03:The dude equivalent is street hockey after you watch uh Mighty Ducks.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Like hey, little you gotta go outside and put the blades on, dude.
SPEAKER_00:You have to put the gear on too. You gotta go all out.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. I love that.
SPEAKER_00:And then my last one, my watch. If you guys go either on my Instagram, it's in my story right now. I think it's a little difficult to share it on here.
SPEAKER_03:Um, but it's a two-minute Yeah, we so so I can screen share and show this, but for the listeners, the sound only works if I download it and upload it to the podcasting platform. So it's not really gonna help anybody for us to like the YouTube person could probably read the captions, but I'll repost it. Paige will repost it. Yeah. And obviously you can tell us what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so on uh you could either go on my Instagram story eventually on Drew's after the podcast or on the Misfit Athletics uh Instagram, it'll be in there. So it's actually her name is Kara Lawson, she's the Duke women's basketball coach, and she's just dropping knowledge bombs in this clip. Essentially, what she's talking about is there's this idea that effort is binary. It's either you try or you don't. But in fitness, it's obviously way more subtle for us. It's in reps that we rush, it's in the weights that we sandbag, it's the days you show up physically but not mentally. And I just like there that she kind of brought it into this idea of there being this trap of giving almost your best and how that affects your results over time. So, you know, most people I think fail not because of laziness, but because we start to normalize doing things at 85%, giving less than our best, even you know, after a loss or after a win. It's you're you're creating this new standard that's lower than your best. And we talk about showing up a lot in our sport and you know what it means to do that in a hundred percent looks different on different days, but it's still going in and saying, I'm not gonna compromise here, I'm not gonna compromise there, I'm not gonna let my standard drift. I'm not gonna let slacking feel acceptable. And I just I I love the way that she speaks, you know, I think she captivates who she's talking to in this two-minute clip, like very quickly. So she talks about basketball, but again, this can be related to a job, a promotion, you know, anything it could be related to in your life. And I I just love the way that she explains it. So if you have a second, go watch that. If you have two minutes, go watch that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. This quote, I've saved this more than once. I love it so much. It's just one of those, like one of those Instagram accounts that's the quote and you just keep sliding and there's a bunch in there. But it's easy to please the rats, all they want is trash. Like, I just oh my god.
SPEAKER_00:I think that goes pretty good with that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there's so many different, like, there's so many different angles that I could take this, but I can tell you as a business owner, I've watched and and we've been part of it over the years. I've watched the like flavor of the month when it comes to like either programming companies or a style of training or something like that. And you can see people following the trends too closely. Like, if you are providing golf programming, if you're a CrossFit company and you're providing golf, we just you got pickleball pro like stop it. Okay. And like the like jerk version of that that I could say would be the high rocks thing. I would probably have fun writing a high rocks program. I'm still holding out. I know that some of you DM me every once in a while and ask. Again, I will probably just write it one day and give it away for free because that's just not what I do. That's not what my goal is. I want to get people to quarterfinals, semifinals, crossfit games. But yeah, that quote just that quote just hits for me. Because, because again, like whether it's this stuff all bleeds together. Like, what do you how are you gonna present yourself on Instagram? You know what I mean, as a as a person and not as an entity or something like that. And it's like, am I going to like the eye roll that I have when the current trend of the like that you have to put this song in your reel, and it's like me when I was seven, and now me when I'm older, and I grew a foot. And can you believe it? I just I just can't. I'm not judging you guys, but I would judge the shit out of myself if I did that. Listen, now this one is a little niche. I love Jerry Seinfeld. Watching Seinfeld as a family was like a thing growing up, and then the extension would be like curb your enthusiasm. My wife and I love the Netflix special that Jerry put out. Like, if she's in a bad mood, she'll ask if we can watch that same Netflix special. So I recommend you go watch it. But he was on the podcast We Might Be Drunk. Um, it's episode 262, Jerry Seinfeld. You gotta be a stand-up comedy fan. They go into the weeds a little bit about it, but I just like he's someone who I would consider like has range, like he uses some kind of deeper concepts as a human to then translate back to what he's obsessed with. So like he's huge into stoic philosophy, but also like is obsessed with breakfast cereal. So just to give you an idea of what the range potentially could look like. So if you are a Seinfeld fan and are a stand-up comedy fan, check that out. Let me know what you think. And last but not least, if you need a good cry on Tuesday, December 23rd, you need to watch go to YouTube and go to Casey Nystat's channel, and there is a video called Do It Anyway. It's a bit of a story about like, well, if if my excuse is this, then what's this guy's excuse? You know, you sort of get perspective and it you basically get punched in the face with perspective. But it's very positive, incredibly moving. It's a it's a gentleman that that Casey hooks up with that is running the New York City Marathon with cerebral palsy. And it's just the best. Casey is, if for those who don't know, he is the literally like the original YouTuber, the original vlog guy from way, way back. So he's he's like an absolute YouTube legend. But this this one, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of good, you could go down the rabbit hole a little bit. Um he's got a lot of good content that's sort of related to this, but it's called Do It Anyway. Thumbnail says what's your excuse on it. Please go watch that. Let me know what you think. And if you say you didn't cry, you're a liar, or uh, you need to learn how to cry. Okay. Tiny habits. So again, the context of how we're gonna deliver this could be I don't know how to talk to other people, or I listen to. I'll give you an example. None of the people that I'm gonna mention are gonna listen to this. The way that my wife's family tries to help one another with their like, you gotta exercise, you gotta diet, you gotta change this, you gotta go to physical therapy, it's it's aggressive. Like, I watch and I'm like, I wouldn't take this advice. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's like everyone's like attacking. It's like when you look up in the sky and you see like a bunch of crows attacking a hawk. That's that's kind of the experience. And you just know from personal experience that that's just somebody else projecting onto you, sort of like I haven't fulfilled these agreements with myself. But listen, I know that if you walk a little bit and eat real food and drink water, you're gonna be healthier. So I'm gonna lay it on him. I'm gonna punch him in the face with it. That doesn't work very well. Um, now again, you could be talking to yourself. You could be, you know, we're heading into um the end of year, into the new year, into phase three, where we're really gonna kind of pump up the idea of, you know, crossing the threshold into open prep and then beyond that into quarterfinals prep. And it can be a problem when you say, I am now going to do this laundry list of things. I am, I don't do my couch stretch, I don't do my warm-up, I don't do my cool down, I don't do any of my accessory work, or I don't ride the machines between my lifts. There's all these different habits that people want to have, and the problem is relying on motivation to get those things done because you're gonna have the days, you're gonna have the scary season days where it's just not gonna be possible for you to do. So Tiny Habits is kind of a model based on a book that I really like, probably up over my shoulder there in my my favorites category. And it is a book called Tiny Habits by BJ Fall. And the cool thing about this is it is backed by science. I've read a lot of books in my day that maybe play to the parts of you that want to be better at something, but you're kind of being manipulated a little bit and there's no science to back it up. And this is, you know, from again, scientific research. And his whole idea is behavior equals motivation plus ability plus prompt. Um, motivation is kind of that first piece of want to um, I want to start warming up really well. I want to start doing a better job about warming up. And ability would be like how like how hard is it to do, how easy is it to do, and how does that line up with the motivation piece? And then we'll get into the prompt part, but the prompt is kind of where he considers the magic to be made. So he's got a little chart in the book, um, how do motivation and ability interact? And basically, we've got on the y-axis motivation, low to high, and then the x-axis, ability hard to do to easy to do. And the more, the harder something is to do, the more motivation you need to do it. And I think his example is like the house is on fire and your kids are in it. Like, I'm gonna be above the action line there. I have a very high motivation to do this very hard thing. But then the on the opposite side of this, all the way to the right of the curve, is if this thing is easy to do, I need very low motivation to be able to do it, which is, I think, pretty straightforward. So his whole deal and the the where the name of the book comes from is shrinking it down to the tiniest version possible. So, you know, right after I check my phone, or a lot of people love the whiteboard, a lot of people are transcribing down onto the whiteboard. I am going to go over and sit on an Echo bike. That's the tiny version, right? How long do you end up on the Echo Bike? Do you make it 30 seconds? Do you make it the full 12 minutes with the, you know, ramping the heart rate up? Um, and we're shrinking things down to make them possible. And his whole thing is you've done the behavior. Um, the behavior is a tree, and the shine that is going to make the tree grow is you feeling good about the thing and kind of celebrating it, which I think is incredibly important. And again, that judgment piece is going to be so strong there. Like this, the cynic is gonna roll their eyes and be like, you echo bike for one minute. You're so cool. How did you do it? And it's like, no, I haven't been able to get myself to do this, and now I'm going to do it. And eventually it's supposed to, you're supposed to celebrate it enough that it leads you into potentially kind of like the full version of the behavior. Now he has labels this as three different types of prompts. We have an internal prompt, an external prompt, and then an action prompt. The internal and external are so easy to ignore. And I can tell you right now, as as someone who I have a like a probably by design a very busy, you know, life where I'm bouncing from one thing to another. And as someone with pretty intense ADD, the like reminder on my phone or the alarm or me wanting to be better at doing something is not enough. There will be a point in time where I don't care about that alarm anymore. I think one of the examples in the book is like if you have the alarm to take the trash out at a specific time and you're like watching a good movie, you're gonna be pissed. And then if you think to take the trash out and then you don't want to, you start judging the shit out of yourself. Like you're back to the like, I'm lazy, you know, what's wrong with me, that kind of thing. So the action prompt would be every single time I finish, you know, it's something that you already have to do. So it's it's it should be related to the other thing. So I, you know, I do the dishes every night, and I'm gonna take the trash out after I do the dishes. That's never like really that big of a deal. Like the floss goes next to the toothbrush kind of a situation. And again, in the gym, there's a bunch of different things. Like while I take the empty bar out and I go put it in the rack to do my push press. The next thing that I do is I walk over and get the Echo Bike and I park it right behind. And every time I do a set of push press, I just go do my little forever pace flush. It's not really that big of a deal. And then over the course of the sets, you start to realize that clearing a little bit of waste, getting a little bit of blood flow is actually helping you, both physically and mentally. So the action prompts are supposed to create momentum, and the framework for them is after I do this, I will do that. Pretty straightforward. And back all the way back to we had a few sort of segues from the stuff we were talking about before. You gotta get excited about it. You have to feel positive about it. Like if you're the I think one example would be so I have a mobility routine that I have like written into Google Sheets, and it's a lot, it's very extensive. And I'm the kind of person who will, and this is not a positive thing, if I don't have time to do the whole thing, I won't do any of it. So what I should be doing is every time I'm about to get on the Echo bike or go for a walk, I do one stretch, right? Because if like like there are there are like the huge, like long levers that you can pull. I can do my couch stretch, which is gonna change a bunch of different things. My back's gonna feel better. I'm gonna reverse sitting in this chair here that I sit in all day and stare at spreadsheets. And celebrating that you've done the thing versus the judgment of I didn't do the 20-minute mobility routine, I did the four-minute mobility routine. And like four minutes is a lot longer than zero minutes. You can't really do the math with zero, but like starting to think of things in that context.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think a good thing to think about too, um, that actually comes from this book is your identity changes before the outcomes do. So it's not, you know, you don't wait for the results to happen to feel like you are that person. You become that person by doing the thing, right? So I am someone who warms up, even if I warmed up for two minutes. Like I you have to start to create that identity of this is just this is something I do. Um, and that will just kind of help that that outcome stick more consistently. Um and I can think back to myself when we started doing the the 15 minute sweatschecks. I'm like, I can't go a day without doing that now. Like, I don't feel good if I don't do 12 to 15 minutes on a machine. So it didn't start out that way, but again, I need to remind myself I am that person that does X, and it'll start to stick with you and it'll start to become less about judging yourself for how little or how much of it you do, and more about this is just who I'm becoming, this is who I am.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the I think the one of the connections I can draw is I was doing some research on the differences between the endurance community and the like functional fitness hybrid athlete type community. One of the biggest suggestions was what they call finishing the curve. So if I look at my heart rate data and it's only for a tempo run or intervals, my heart rate starts kind of high and then goes up and ends high. And there's no ramp up to the first portion of it, and there's no ramp down. So we're trying to essentially create the full curve from zero up to intensity and back down to zero. And I'm reading about this, and we had had the sweat check for a while. So we had kind of the front side of this figured out. And a lot of times my motivation is I'm researching something, and then I want to go put it into practice, you know, in the actual program. But for me, I have to experience it to a certain extent to kind of have that buy-in. So it was like, okay, after I'm done my run, I'm gonna go for a walk. And it's like, huh, I don't feel anywhere near as sore. And then it's like, okay, what did they really say in that? So I go back to it and it's like, I actually need to keep my heart rate over, you know, I gotta keep it in like zone two for the first five minutes. So then I would leave my heart rate monitor on and I would go get on a machine or I'd continue to jog a little bit and try to keep my heart rate over 130 beats per minute. And then I would try to keep it over 120 for the next section. And by the end of this kind of experiment and just having myself do this small version of like keep moving, keep walking, keep getting on a machine or whatever, I became the athlete that's like walking around the gym like with like cooldown propaganda. Like, guys, I swear this works over the age. If you're over the age of 30 and you don't just take 12 minutes to not feel like someone stabbed you in the legs, you're crazy, right? And that's what came to mind with you saying, like, you want to be the thing before you put the work in to become the thing. And like it's all of us understand it because it's so human, it makes total sense. I want to snap my fingers and do the thing. Um, and I always trace the line back to linear progression and strength movements. Because like when I started doing it, I'm pretty sure there was 95 pounds on the bar on the bench press. I'm pretty sure the first time I did three by 10, it was like 95, 100, 105, that kind of thing. And like three by 10 now might be, I don't know, 185, 205. I have no idea, but it's a lot different than than that. Bringing that mindset to other things, that linear progression of like, I'm just going to do the simplest version of warming up, of cooling down, of my move. Mobility routine of these different pieces is really helpful. So the way that I use this system for myself, I've definitely tweaked it. But when I when I got to Colorado, I was selling one of my businesses. I was driving across the country. I was moving my entire life 2,000 miles. My back was and still is in shambles. And a lot of my like exercise routines were not possible. Like I can't, I can't do burpees right now. Yuck. I can't sit up out of bed. I can't sit straight up. I have to roll to the side. That's that's where my back is currently.
SPEAKER_00:Pretty miserable.
SPEAKER_03:And you the downward spiral is rough because it affects the other parts of your life that could help you feel better and get back to a certain place. So you're not, I'm not weighing and measuring my food. I'm not keeping track of how much water I drink. You know, the day could be bad enough that like I'm gonna take a couple of supplements. The hell's that gonna do for me? Like, I can't move. Yeah, can't do anything. But what I know works for me so well is habit stacking in a reasonable format. I start with 10,000 steps a day. So I go straight to my time blocking that I have to use. I have to plan out my whole day in Google Calendar. I'm doing this from this time to this time. And, you know, when I get done a 90-minute work block, it just says walk. My screen says walk. And I get up and I have, you know, I've set myself up to succeed. I have, you know, different pairs of shoes over here. I have leggings. If I'm gonna go for a walk at like 6 a.m. and it's still 30 degrees outside, I've got gloves, I've got I've got a whole kit over to the side over here for me to be able to do that. And I know that that's just what I need personally. If I know that I've got this crazy to-do list to do and there's three or four hurdles, I'm just not going for the walk. I'll tell myself, okay, not a 30-minute walk now, hour walk later. And then again, the snowball effect is kind of a huge piece. So it goes to that, and then it goes to okay, I'm back on my, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday breathing real heavy routine. So that's week two. And the stuff that starts to take shape around that is I'm doing three or four days in advance of my supplements and the little, the little pill containers and stuff like that. Um, and I'm weighing and measuring my food and I'm paying attention to like this probably doesn't have a place in my like everyday diet um because I don't feel as good if I'm gonna start again. You know, I got I got, I don't know what I have today. I think I might have I either have third gear or fifth gear. Echo bike, really excited about that. Um and I start to get myself back into that form, but it's gonna take me at least a month before I'm back to 10,000 steps, getting stronger three days a week, breathing heavier four days a week. But I would never arrive at that point again without doing it that way. Yeah. And a younger version of myself just wouldn't have been okay with that because the end goal is to be the person. I enjoy working out seven days a week. You know, one of those is gonna one or two of those gonna be a zone too. So, you know, I'm not beating the crap out of myself. But like that momentum of continuing to do the thing keeps me doing the thing. So I want to be that person. What behaviors do I need to slowly stack on top of one another to make that happen is how I do that. And I probably learned it because that's how I coach people.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's how I do give people advice in my life, that sort of thing. So I don't know after you hear all of this, if you draw a connection to the way that you train, to you know, being an athlete to being a coach. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, 100%. Um, I mean, I could even relate it into Stephanie's post and Telegram. She's like, How do I, how do I get my body back to some sort of baseline when I feel like I'm fried? Okay, well, here's a list of eight things you can do. And I'm gonna go into detail on each one. And I sent her a long text about that. And at the very end, I said, This is a lot of information. You look at this, and I even get overwhelmed because I know that these are all things that would make me feel better, but I can't just be like, I'm gonna go and do all of it right at once. So looking at it can be super paralyzing as well. Like, well, there's all this stuff, I'm not gonna do any of it because it just it's it looks like too much. So starting really small, you know, just again, that snowball effect is just so powerful if you can stick to one thing and add another on when you're ready. But I think back to when I I didn't make the games in 2021 and I was like, I I need to be better. I need to not take shortcuts, I need to do the things that actually are in our training and that you know you guys are talking about on the podcast and slowly putting those things together one at a time, uh, fixing my sleep cycle, fixing, you know, doing my zone twos. Like these were all small things or all big things really that I layered on kind of one at a time. It wasn't like I'm gonna go do this, this, this, this, this, and boom, I'm gonna be right where I need to be. It's no, it took a year of I'm gonna add this thing on to this thing and then to the next. And you can only really do that when you are ready. And when you are ready is gonna be different for everybody. So it's, you know, you really have to be honest with yourself in when you start a new habit. Am I ready to add something new onto that? And I very easily can relate that to training, to the warmups, to adding an additional training piece into the day. You know, do I have the effort? Do I have the time? Everything in this, you know, in this tiny habits book really relates to CrossFit and what we do in training. So yeah, very easily relatable.
SPEAKER_03:The version of the Christmas gift here is creating a framework for giving advice about this stuff. So we obviously covered the kind of the CrossFit context, how to get yourself back on track, how to try to add these habits in. I would recommend choosing one per week during phase three, during open prep. And that would leave you with some really great habits and momentum for quarterfinals prep. But the framework that I like to use for the general public of how to get yourself on track or someone in your life on track is, you know, we've got the movement aspect and we've got the nutrition aspect. And I think those are really great places to start for people. There's probably, you know, an element of the mental side of things that you would cover once you get further down the road, but I think you create more of an opening to do so when the person feels better than they currently do. So the the the first one on the physical side to me is the non-exercise movement. People going from like, think about honestly, just think about you take a week off and then you do like a gassy mat con, how bad that feels. Now, the person in your life may have taken years off. Like you giving them like even like a burpee air squat workout, they're gonna hate it. Like I watched growing up, I watched my dad decide that he was gonna like start running every once in a while, and he would like sprint out the door and was not in shape and would come back like dead, probably, you know, like tasting blood in his mouth, and that was his run for the decade. And it's not fun. Claire. I can tell you right now, just just and of course, of course, Claire's just pedaled to the metal. Ooh, side tangent. For anybody who who doesn't know anatomy very well, I want everyone to flex their shin right now. Like, flex really hard and to the outside of your shin bone, you're gonna feel a huge muscle, a muscle that runs all the way from below your knee all the way down. Like you can really feel that like popping up. That is your anterior tib. My dad tore it and kept playing baseball and was like, I think something's up. Got an x-ray, of course, it didn't show up on the x-ray, still having issues, finally has an MRI, and the doctor was like, I wouldn't believe that you did this without the picture. So he is still walking, like they're like, you need to have surgery like as soon as possible. Um, I think he's past the window where there's still a nut enough kind of stretch reflex for them to reattach. So I think he has to do the cadaver, but like um yeah, he he was just he was just here in Colorado for a week helping help him with the little one, and he probably walked three mile, three, four miles a day. Like he's got a little weird way that he walks, but he might have to do it. So this is recent to oh yeah, yeah. He currently horn anterior tip. And it was funny because I was on the phone with him and he was you know on a long drive, and I was like, All right, flex both of your legs now feel the good one first. And like I he I have his genetics, so I know he has a large anterior tip, and he's like, Oh yeah, and then I was like, I feel the other one. He's like, Oh, it's squishy. My gosh, it's not there, it's not there, and he's just cruising along. Yeah. So most people that know my dad know he's nuts, but yeah, a little bit of side tangent there. So we would start with on the physical side, the non-exercise movement and convincing them to walk, right? And like the 10,000 steps thing is an arbitrary number. So it's like, what tiny habit can you give them? When I do this, one thing that is fantastic for getting your blood sugar under control is walking in relation to eating. So you could do whatever felt manageable of after each meal you walk for 10 minutes, after each meal you walk for whatever again, like you have to know your audience to know what you're going to ask this person to do. And we would start there. And from there, are they more likely to? And I guess this depends on whether they're willing to do CrossFit or not, but are they more willing to do strength work or conditioning work? You're gonna find a lot of people that are deconditioned that would rather go grab 10-pound dumbbells and go through like a circuit. And Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday is is usually my recommendation when I do like a template for for people, just kind of in their everyday life. But honestly, like the in the book, he does two put two to ten push-ups every time he goes to the bathroom. Yeah. He gets done in the bathroom, he drops down and does a set of push-ups. And he estimates that he does like 60 to 100 push-ups a day or something like that because of that. Now, do we want the person trending towards like actually, you know, getting into a gym and and getting after it? Yes. But like sedentary lifestyle to maybe five to eight, thousand steps a day and 30 or 40 push-ups, like that is a huge difference. And that's when, again, the habits get the shine, they grow, you can kind of convince people. And you know, that last piece would be the conditioning. Obviously, if we can get someone eventually to get their butts into an on-ramp class at a CrossFit affiliate, like that's the end goal. That's what we're looking for. But again, you got to know to your audience a lot of people believe and you can scream at them until you're blue in the face, that they don't need to be fit to walk into a CrossFit gym. But if they're not going to do it, then you need to help them sort of get to that point. So again, the end goal would be, you know, close to 10,000 steps a day. They are in some way, even if it's just air squats and wall push-ups, getting them themselves stronger three times a day or three times a week, and then breathing heavy two to three times a week, that sort of thing. So you're trying to find that single thing that you can convince them to do that you can then help them celebrate and give them step number two. And your timeline doesn't need to be exactly how I'm laying it out. I've just always found the full week habit to be pretty, pretty good. But if you're like, I want you to try to walk for 10 minutes after each meal for a month and you check in on them and help them celebrate. That's again, if that's the timeline that's necessary, go for it. On the nutrition side, this one is tricky for a million different reasons. I start with weighing and measuring protein every time. Starting point somewhere in the neighborhood of one to one on pounds to grams of pro pounds of body weight to grams of protein. I have had situations where someone, you know, did have an extremely high body mass index, and it was like we might base that closer on like what their goal weight would be. Um, you know, so if somebody weighs 250, 300 pounds somewhere in that range, that's a lot of protein. That can be pretty challenging to kind of get down. But I'll start there. And it can help to explain what's happening and why it's better and why why they're feeling better. But a lot of times you get the benefit of just like the the I'm starting to feel better. So like I'm probably not gonna put all that other junk, you know, on my plate kind of at the same time. And like if the weighing and measuring is a problem for people, there are so many resources now for a visual weighing and measuring. Like this much rice is this many grams of protein, you know, sort of what it takes up on your plate. So you can look that stuff up for them, print a page off. But it's like every time I go to have a meal, I know my food scale is right there, and I'm just going to measure out one third of the protein that I need onto that. And then the rest of it is, you know, kind of free form and they're doing their thing. But you will find that if someone is convinced that they're, you know, they're they have self-worth and they're a useful human and that you care about them, that other stuff starts falling in line. From there, I usually shift to calories, but again, like any behavior that you can add. So they did the protein, now they're gonna do the supplements. Or they did the protein and now they're gonna do, you know, certain like fiber in their meal or something like that. So they actually improve their digestion. But we're just going one thing at a time here, and you're helping them with that action prompt. And one of the hidden benefits here is well, I guess first you would have to figure out whether you're actually willing to do this for the person. Right. Because again, we go all the way back to the crows attacking the hawk. That's not really that's not helpful. And again, that's you projecting. So you would have to decide, I really care. You know, there's a lot of situations that comes to mind for me personally. Like you have a kid and you really start to think about the mortality of your parents and your in-laws, and like how much those people mean to your kid, and what can we do to help them? What can we do so that they can, you know, come skiing when he can finally do that sort of thing? Or they can always take him on a walk in a stroller or or that sort of deal. And if the motivation on your end is there, it's about like, can you stick it out with them and continue to check in on them? Because that's a version of you that is actually trying to help another human being. And that is a version of the situation where they're again going to feel like they are worth it because you are giving them your time, like that sort of thing. So it can be really easy. Like, I don't, I don't do the full-on, like, I used to write out nutrition and exercise guidance for friends outside of the CrossFit space. And it's just a huge waste of time, right? Because, you know, after the first person asks for it, if I just forward the same, like how much work am I really putting in to help a friend if I'm forwarding them a PDF? That all intents and purposes might look like a different language, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, I think of how much, how many remote clients can you take on and still give them the quality of care that that matters, right? It's it's kind of that same idea there. But now you're talking about people that you love and that you are connected with and and close to. It's like they're the level of care needs to be still a level up and being able to be prepared for pushback as well, too, you know, of like you're we get a remote athlete that's like, I don't want to do that. And it's like, this actually really benefits you. How can we make you a little bit more like willing to buy into this thing? That was kind of me on the echo bike. Like, I'm not good at this, I hate it. I, you know, what did I do? I spent hours of zone two on an echo bike, and but it wasn't just like an easy thing. It was uh how do we start in small increments to get you to buy in and willing and ready um to do this thing, you know, quality of care that you put into helping your friends or your family, um, and keeping the big picture in mind of like, I want my dad to be there for my kid for years. And, you know, as he grows up, I want him to be able to do activities with him. It's like that's a quality of care that like matters so much to you and that you value that you are going to find the time to put into it. So finding those things with the people that you're trying to help, the why behind it can really benefit.
SPEAKER_03:And you have to, that's such a good point because if we're gonna talk about the other side of the fence and we're gonna talk about being the coach, you have to build trust. I have to prove to Paige that I know how to help her move the needle so that when the ask is, I need you to hold 50 RPMs for an hour and a half on the Echo bike, and you're like, what am I doing here? Like, this isn't hard, but it's also very hard because I want to get off the bike, you know what I mean? Building that trust of I'm not gonna ask you to do some bullshit because of my ego. It's just not gonna happen. And one of the reasons why, like, like I have a little document of kind of ways to get ahead for remote coaches that I will give them as a reminder before they head into a new relationship, because one trick that you can pull to build trust is by biasing something a little bit more than we would actually suggest as a coach, because we can sit on this podcast and say, as CrossFit coaches, getting someone better at one thing, please, that's too easy. Give me something challenging. But until you experience it on the athlete side, that probably just sounds like me being an asshole on a podcast. So I want to get better at wall balls, I want to get better on a specific machine, I want to improve this skill. We have our 10,000 hours at getting people better at that thing. So I will divert attention to that place and say, you can trust me, I do know what I'm doing, so that when my ask is the big side of things versus yours, you can actually buy in and go in and do that thing. So that doesn't matter who you're working with, what the context is, that level of trust is sacred. Yeah. And it takes a lot to build it up and it takes almost nothing to watch it come, you know, tumbling down. And man, if you really want to help another person, you have to be in it for the long haul, or you have to direct them to someone who's in it for the long haul. Because we're not saying that this stuff is always easy and realistic to do. You can't be the de facto health coach for every single personal relationship in your life, right? You're getting paid zero dollars, you need a ton of pushback, most of the people are gonna quit on you. Like, that's not realistic. So you have to decide before you start, you know, cramming propaganda down their throat that you're actually gonna see it through and help the individual. And again, that's you know, someone else. At the affiliate level, feeling like you're really on their side, and that you know, you will meet them in open gym for 10 or 15 minutes without charging them a hundred dollars an hour. And of course, there's a place for that as well. But like there's just building that trust and and proving to the person that you give a shit will go a really long way because so often, unfortunately, this is a conversation of self-worth and whether people know it consciously or not, they're not working on themselves because they've, you know, judged the shit out of the behaviors that just sort of happen via autopilot.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I um I definitely see in my experience um a lot of reassurance and encouragement have been two like really valuable kind of tools in my kit that even in the affiliate go a long way, in my remote coaching go a long way, but in my friendships, my personal relationships, like people want reassurance. They want to know that you are there for them, they want to know that you have their back, they want to know that you are gonna celebrate wins with them. You know, I think part of the reason that even McKenna and I's relationship was built so strong, like we we celebrate small wins, and that's you know, you're hitting a power clean at 90% today. Well, damn, like you don't feel that great. That's incredible that you're that high in your percentages. Like there's just little things like that. And again, the reassurance of like, you know, I'm here, I'm supporting you. Like your goal is to make the CrossFit games. What can I do on my end to be a better friend and support you in that? Like, what can I do? And you know, obviously there's a lot of experience there for me that I can, you know, kind of bounce off of. So relating it to my mom who would go for walks with her friend and walk three miles uphills and downhills. And, you know, she eventually made it into the CrossFit gym and started going to classes three to four days a week, and she fell off that wagon a little bit. So, what can we do to start getting her to feel more active again? And it's probably gonna go back to can we get you back into walking? Like it's not gonna go right back to the CrossFit gym. It's like there are layers to that to kind of build back up. So, and you're talking about a woman who's retired and still very busy on her feet all the time and getting steps in, but there's still that level of self-care of like, well, when I have kids one day, I definitely want you around, you know. So there is like there are the the values that you hold that matter that will translate into, you know, helping somebody else as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and she's the kind of person where she brings the level of care, like she takes care of other people. She does. She does. Yeah. And those people often are the ones who need that reciprocated the most because they sort of feel their their duty and their purpose in life and their why is to take care of the people around them. And it's like, damn, every once in a while you get kind of smacked in the head with, I should probably be doing the same thing for that person. It's very much that kind of an old school mentality.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. As I get older too, and like, you know, a lot of my friendships, my relationships, I'm like, I see Joanne in me, and I'm like, like, I'm starting to see that, right? Like, of course, making it to the CrossFit Games, it's a huge commitment. It's kind of a selfish thing to do, right? And I've been very fortunate to have the support behind me to do these things. But still, as I get older and I evolve, and I'm like, I love giving to my friends, I love doing for my friends, for my family. And I'm like, I I see where it comes from very easily.
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's you know, every once in a while you kind of take that step back and you're like, oh, I need that reassurance too. And I need those, I need that support as well. So it's kind of, you know, little cool thing with Joanne. Love her.
SPEAKER_03:So before final thoughts, I'm gonna give a quick recap here. So behavior equals motivation plus ability plus prompt. Um, more motivation you need, or you need more motivation, the harder the thing is to do. So we're trying to stay above the action line, which is something that is easy to do, where the motivation does not need to be as high. And we are achieving that through action prompts, where certain behaviors that we already have in our life are now linked to the thing that we're trying to add. And we're starting incredibly small. And again, an action prompt creates momentum. The after I do blank, I will do blank is what we're looking for. And shout out to uh OG misfit Catherine Lewis, the sweatshirt, it's really cool to give a shit. Not many relics from CrossFit Past have survived in the closet. If I kept everything that I had gotten, I would need 27 closets, I think. Yep. But that crew neck is still front and center, and I look at it all the time. The celebrating, and we talked about it as like a team effort, and I think sometimes the community aspect just gives you permission to do the thing that you wanted to do in the first place. So, like you're talking about a situation where you and McKenna are hyping each other up. I think that gives the person the person permission to celebrate on their own, to feel excited about it. 100%. Like, I'm not too cool because this person that I think is cool is telling me that this is awesome. So it must be awesome. But again, the tiny habit is the little tree, the celebrating is the sunshine. It is the light that you shine on the habit that you're doing that is going to create a situation where it grows into the behavior that you wanted to have in the first place. And all of this seems very straightforward and kind of easy, but in practice is incredibly powerful. Like I read a lot of books, honestly, I think I've read like five books that have habit in the title. And for me personally, this one resonated the most. It just had very clear and concise pieces attached to it. Like I think there's a almost poetic nature to atomic habits, and I really enjoyed that book, and it opened with like a baseball story, so it was like I'm I'm in. But I will say that this one probably had a bigger effect on things that I actually do in my everyday life. So I would urge people, if you are a reader, if you are into this kind of thing, or if you're starting to take some walks and you want to download the audiobook. Good point. It's the kind of thing where I think you can kind of we talked about it a little bit, we went over it in more of a summarizing kind of way. And if you're into this kind of thing, um, reading the book or listening to the book, I think could help it hit home. So with all of that, do you have any final thoughts on this topic?
SPEAKER_00:I do. I have two things actually. Um, number one is gonna be for the listener and for our kind of misfit community. How would you guys feel about running our own little kind of weekly habit stacking through our open or like our our six-week phase three prep?
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm gonna, you know, go and telegram and kind of post some ideas of like what are things that you guys struggle with, and then how can we kind of line those up to make it kind of a team effort and kind of have that accountability in our in our group. So I'd love to hear.
SPEAKER_03:Um make a worksheet with a cool logo on it if you guys want to do this.
SPEAKER_00:So um, we want to hear from you guys about this. I would love to do something like that. Uh, we're actually, you know, have some stuff like this going on at our affiliate here. So that's that's first thing. Uh so I'll bring that to the group. Um and yeah, I think uh final thoughts identity changes before outcomes. So I think that's the biggest thing of like, I am this person. I am this person that does X before I actually start doing that, or or as I do it in small increments. I need to remind myself that I become the person by doing the behavior even when it's small.
SPEAKER_03:If you're the kind of person that does the yo-yo exercising, dieting, you know, taking your supplements, that whole deal, creating systems like this is incredibly important. And there's going to be some attrition and there's going to be some like, I fell off in this area. And for me, I just I think have gotten over the judgment related to it and I put the system back in place to go do my thing. And I think this time of year is challenging because we mix we mix a lot of things that might be construed as unhealthy behavior with the like New Year's resolutions. But back in my health coaching days, my rules relating to whether it be alcohol or junk food or whatever, we were stacking as many positive behaviors on top of those things as we could, as we could. So you're hanging out with family and you're having fun, and it would be like, yeah, you can have cinnamon rolls, but you gotta cook those bitches. Like you got to get the whole family into the kitchen and do the whole thing. And, you know, you gotta share it with another person. And, you know, if you're eating cinnamon rolls and drinking high noons in your bedroom, you know, by, you know, on January 30th, like that's not what we're talking about here. So I think it's a tricky time of year, and I think judging yourself related to it is a problem, right? Like you can make the right decision. You can, you know, not drink the alcohol and you can have a smaller portion of the thing that you're sharing with someone. There's there's no need to go off the rails this time of year, but I do think it can be complicated for people who have a complicated relationship with diet, exercise, things of that nature. So yeah, just use systems like this to get yourself back on track, and I think it'll work really well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and lean on the group of misfits that will tell you that certain behaviors are okay, even if there's kickback elsewhere.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Did we do it? We did. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the podcast. If you would like to support the podcast, keep this bad boy going, here are the ways to do so. Number one, head to gorillamind.com forward slash misfit. Buy yourself some whey protein, fish oil, pre-workout, energy drinks, intra workout, all that good stuff. Really, really helps support the podcast. Also, go to training camp. Link in bio on Instagram, January 30th to February 1st at CrossFit Roots in Boulder, Colorado. And all of our individual and affiliate programs are also in that link in bio. Yeah, see you guys next week.
SPEAKER_00:Bye.
SPEAKER_02:Biggest bunch of misfits I ever said.