What is Mental Athleticism™️? Part Four.

That late-night “who’s at the door?” instinct?

Yeah—you should be using that on your calendar, your phone, and the people who think everything is urgent.

This episode is Part four of Mental Athleticism—and we’re going straight into Environmental Design: aka Protect Your Yard.

We’re talking:

• Why your attention is getting hijacked (and how to take it back)
• How your phone, feeds, and inputs are quietly draining you
• The real reason you feel resentment (hint: it’s not them)
• How to set boundaries that are clear, clean, and unapologetic
• And how to design a life where focus is easier than distraction

Because if your environment is working against you…

your goals don’t stand a chance.

But when you flip it?

Your space becomes your advantage.

This is where your vision gets room to breathe.

This is where momentum actually 

🎧 CATCH UP FIRST:

Part 1: Anchor to Your Big Vision

Part 2: Relentless Daily Execution

Part 3: Self Command

Then come back here—because this is where it all locks in.

💬 YOUR TURN:

Drop a comment: What’s ONE boundary you’re setting this week?

📲 Share this with someone who needs to stop leaking energy

⭐ Leave a review if this hit

Transcript

Opening Energy And Series Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, you beautiful badass. Badass. Welcome to the Carrie Croft Show. I wish I could play music in here. Like if I wouldn't get um copyright, I would have music all over this mofo. Anyway, good morning to you. Good morning. I am so excited about this fourth solo cast in this little tiny cluster of a series called What is Mental Athleticism? I feel so passionate about this particular part of mental athleticism. It's going to probably come through. It's going to feel like I'm jumping through. I'm going to be sitting right in your, if you're driving your car right now listening, it's going to be like I'm sitting right next to you in the passenger seat, just like hyping, pep talking you because this one, they all get me. All of them are important. They all work together like a symphony. But this fourth one around environmental design, for some reason, gets me spicy. It gets me very, very spicy for so many reasons. So let's just get right into it, shall we? I want to do another little um sort of storytime imagery because I always think about this in my head when I think about boundaries. And I want to share it with you. Are you ready? So again, close your eyes. Only if you're not driving. If you are driving, clearly it makes a lot of sense to keep your eyes open. This is called the late night knock. Let me paint a picture for you. It's late, really late. The house is quiet. That deep nighttime quiet where the refrigerator hum suddenly takes center stage. You're home. Maybe you're curled up on the couch. Maybe you're already in bed. If you're me, you're probably already in bed. You've got your old oversized t-shirt on, soft flannel PJ pants, and your hair is in a messy bun. Maybe there's a glass of wine on the nightstand. Hopefully it's a cup of tea. I mean, come on. The day is done. You're tucked away. And then suddenly knock, knock, knock, mofo. Someone is at your door. Who would that be? Rapping at my chamber door. Sorry, I had to. Not a polite little tap, just a real knock. And your body reacts instantly. You know how it clenches up. Your heart starts to jump. You can almost hear it beating out of your chest. Your brain goes into full dateline detective mode. Because nobody really should be knocking that late, right? You freeze. And you definitely do not just casually walk up to the door and swing it wide open. Instead, you move slowly. You creep toward the window, you peek through the blinds, and maybe you look out into the driveway. Is there a car sitting there with a headlight still on? Like what is happening? Then you grab your phone, you open the ring camera. Who is it? Why are they here? Do they look normal or a little sketchy? Are they alone? You gather information because before you let anyone through your front door, you want to know their intentions. Duh. Only after you thoroughly assess the situation would you ever, ever dream of opening that door. And yet, when it comes to our lives, our energy, our boundaries, our invisible force field. It feels sometimes like we will just let anybody in. It's real loosey-goosey. Drama, negativity, distraction, other people's chaos, endless scrolling, energy drains. We open the door all day long. And then we wonder why we're overwhelmed, why our focus is gone, why our energy feels drained. Mental athletes don't do that. They do what I like to call protecting the yard. They design their environment, they protect the yard because they know how important it is. Your environment has to be pristine. In order to really focus in on these big visions and these daily executions, you have to have a pristine environment to have a chance. Let me repeat that to have a chance at winning. And there are so many things coming at us. Don't get me wrong, your phone, your calendar, social media, the people around you, your workspace, the way you set up your home, where you where you are physically, all of it is shaping your attention, your habits, your mindset. And so when you are on the road to becoming mentally athletic, it's it's not like a nice to have. Environmental design is absolutely critical. Critical to your success. I really hope that the the the phrase protect your yard. I really hope that you think about that moving forward after you hear this. Because if you don't, if you don't guard your environment, man, everything creeps in. Everything creeps in. Other people's urgency. It's an emergency. It's so important. Other people's drama. Like, really? No, thank you. Other people's expectations. Expectations. Like, that's for a whole nother solo cast. And then suddenly your day isn't yours anymore. And then you're resentful. You're resentful. But really, if you are taking radical self-ownership, going to self-command, back to the third, you know, big pillar, it's your call to make. It's your responsibility to design an environment that protects you from your own resentment. Truly. And I mean, I'll fight you about that. I will debate that one all damn day. I'll die on that hill for sure. That is your responsibility. So if you're resentful toward whomever for whatever, come talk to me and I'll back you into why that's actually your responsibility, not theirs. And for today, since this is like, you know, 101, I will tell you like, here are a couple ways you can just start, just start to build the muscle a little bit. Like guard your inputs, um, what what you're watching, what you're scrolling, what you're listening to. If your inputs are constant outrage or comparison, negativity, don't be surprised if you're feeling some type of way. Secondly, be aware of the people that you're around. They influence your standards, they influence your energy, they influence everything, your ambition, your emotional state. You don't have to cut everyone off, but you do have to be honest about who energizes you and who drains you. I think, you know, this is a really hard one for people. And I know this just from all the conversations that I've had, and especially this first B10 that we did, we do this exercise, and it's really like auditing your external environment. And when you ask people to take a really raw look at their circle, it's a hard thing to do. But like it's very, very eye-opening. It can be very eye-opening, and it's important. So, I mean, when when you go back to what I said around having this, this, you know, system set up for yourself gives you a chance to win. Aren't you gonna try to do everything in your power? You know, so I'm definitely not gonna sleep on, oh, I'm just not gonna, you know, audit the people I'm around. I mean, listen, you have to do it. You have to take the step, and it's hard, but it is once you see it, you can't unsee it. Put it that way. Guarding your boundaries is another one. You know, boundaries are the lock. They're the lock on the door, on the front door. Without them, everyone gets access to your time and your effort and your energy. You have to have them. Um, you have to protect your priorities. You have to just guard up boundaries up. Not in a dickhead kind of way, just in just a very matter-of-fact kind of way. It's like this just is how it's gonna be moving forward. I think that's it. I think I think I've beat that horse down for this little intro, intro solo cast. So if you're still listening, congratulations because you've just gotten through the first four basic overview solo casts of mental athleticism. And I will tie a bow on that by simply saying, you know, you cannot build a powerful life with a chaotic mind and a sloppy environment. I'm gonna fight you on that too. So if I'm a person, I'm I'm addicted and I'm bought in on these big anchored visions that I have, and I'm gonna relentlessly execute on the daily to put myself in a position to win, then I'll be damned if I don't sit and fine-tune self-command and environmental design. Because all four of those things together are gonna clock me at a much faster pace, moving toward the direction of my dreams, than someone who's just winging it, someone who is blaming other people, who's just kind of doing it sometimes. No, that's not how we operate here. Mental athletes understand that your life, you know, it's largely shaped by what's happening inside of you and what you're allowing around you. What's happening inside of me and what am I allowing around me? You just can't, you can't half-ass that. So, where do we go from here together? Well, I will tell you this the good news is I am gonna be doing a weekly solo cast. I'm holding myself, my feet, my little Tootsies to the fire. I'm doing one solo cast a week. So we are gonna continue this mental athleticism conversation. But the ways in which we can go deeper together are so mental athleticism live is an ongoing way we can communicate. The B10, baby, B10 starts April 13th. It's 10 days with yours truly. It really is a foray into mental athleticism. If you want to be put on the wait list, you can send me an email, DM, set up a 15-minute call with me. I would love to talk to you more about it. I absolutely love it. It's fun. You learn. We actually make you do stuff, but it's simple and it's very doable. It's like a little way to um build your little muscles and get yourself more mentally athletic before you kind of um maybe go into the mental 30. So that's all happening. Very, very exciting stuff. The In Real Life event, the first one in her badass era, happens April 9th. Tickets are on sale. There's only 25 available for the public. I will put that link in bio as well. And before we go, I just want to let you know something. I'm 99.9% sure that you're doing much better than you give yourself credit for. You're out there, you're trying, you're never gonna be perfect, right? But you got to give yourself some grace because you are taking steps forward. You're working on trying to figure out how to make yourself more mentally athletic. So keep going, keep moving. Please use me, use me in any way that you can. This is such a point of passion for me. I absolutely love nothing more than when I'm working one-on-one with somebody and just helping them take baby steps toward their ultimate badassery. Like there's nothing better for me. So if you're a listener and you've been nervous to reach out or you're apprehensive, here's your open invite. Reach out to me, whatever, whatever makes the most sense for you. And until next time.