Train For A Great Life

Thoughts After A Break From Recording

• Jay Rhodes • Episode 94

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0:00 | 7:22
SPEAKER_00:

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life. It has been a hot minute, and I'm gonna talk about why I take breaks. Every once in a while, I just feel a bit of a pull to stop. Um, not stop training, not stop caring, um, not stop uh obviously, like there's things in my life that need to keep going, but just to stop kind of like putting things out there. Um, and I've learned to listen to that feeling. The first time I experienced it was years ago. Um, before I had it, well before I had a podcast, I was writing an email. Um, and I I love writing, I love putting things out there in in written format as well. And I realized that if I did it consistently, people would read it more often. And um, I did it almost almost two years every single weekday. I sent out an email to this email list, and you know, many of you listening might remember those times, and then I just didn't want to do it anymore, and and it was this really weird feeling that I had to work through because I was it wasn't just stopping, it was breaking a streak, it was breaking this expectation that I had, but I wasn't really doing it for the same like love of just putting something out there, so you know, this is putting your thoughts out there, writing spoken word, it's a form of creation, I think, just like you know, someone writing a book or creating music or or or anything where I feel like you, if you're not feeling sort of compelled to do the thing that you're working on, you're not gonna put out your best stuff. And so I I've just learned to listen to that feeling a little bit more and give myself a little bit of grace there. Um why? I mean, sometimes the reason's simple. I just want to focus inward for a bit, like my own headspace, health, habits. Um, you know, I have things to work on as well, and uh other times I think this is more what it's about. It's less about self-work and it's just more quiet. It's getting offline, it's stepping outside of the noise, and it's letting myself just live my life instead of documenting it, which I understand with what I do in running the gym, there's tremendous value in documenting things, which is why I'm back. But need a break sometimes. Um, a few months ago as well, like eight or nine weeks ago, I deleted Instagram and Facebook off my phone. Um, not because they're evil and not because I'm above it and and I don't judge you for having them on your phone. I've had them on mine for well over a decade, a long time. Um, but I could kind of feel like the the pull, the distractions. Um, you know, I I I didn't I don't think I I scrolled as maybe as much as like it wasn't like a serious problem or anything, but I just found that the way that those apps are set up now, what I was being delivered was just bullshit. Like it was just noise, it was just stuff I didn't really care to see. Um, so I got rid of them, and it I thought it was gonna be maybe a little bit more of a change than it than it than it felt like. Um, you know what it what it did, I still I mean it's 2026. Like I I still have my phone around. I pick up my phone often. You know, I have multiple emails and a couple of different Slack accounts to check and keep up with, but I get through that a lot quicker, and I'm not kind of caught scrolling in this stuff that's just meant to keep your attention. So it created some space, it created more presence, more intentionality with how I spend my time. Because, you know, as much as I talk about living a great life, like my home life is the most important thing. My wife, my kids, the the small ordinary moments that don't show up online. Um, and you know, if if you listen to me, like you know that. Um, you know, and here's the part that I wrestle with sometimes about like putting things out there. You know, I talk about principles and discipline and values and you know, training for a great life, and then I catch myself at times thinking, like, who am I to say this? Like, I'm not perfect, I have blind spots, I have habits that I'm still working on, and I have days that I fall short of the very things that I believe in. And that can feel hypocritical, um, putting things out there. And but maybe that's kind of the point. Like, I'm not trying to present a finished product here, I'm not trying to be a guru or someone who's got it all figured out. Um I'm I'm I'm very much in it. I'm trying, practicing, failing, adjusting. And what keeps me kind of coming back to sharing is after these breaks is the actual state of the internet right now. Um, you know, I talked about so much of it just being garbage. It's empty, it's loud, it's performative, it's optimized for attention and outrage and clicks and comments and like that just doesn't interest me, and and it's not what I want to contribute to. And and I but I don't think this does contribute to that. I I'm not here to shout, I'm not here to posture, and um I'm I'm definitely not here to sell you some perfect version of I'm not here to sell you anything on on this. That and and and so I hope that it feels like a breath of fresh air, like something slower, a little more thoughtful, a little more human. Because I'm not asking for anything of you by listening to this. You know, if you like listening to it, I'd love to know. Um, you know, that that's helpful. But um, you know, and if you ever want to train it at my gym, yeah, I mean I have something to sell you there, but I I believe deeply in what happens there. I have years and years and years of of feedback that it changes people's lives. So um all a lot of things that I I talk about and you can experience by being in that space. Um, but yeah, the this this is is more of just like a place for me to think out loud, explore some ideas worth sitting with, um, and remind me myself and and maybe you that it's okay to step back from things sometimes. Um, you know, breaks that are not quitting, they're recalibrating. And um, you know, the the one with social media especially has been nice. Um, I I don't need to see things every day constantly that I have no involvement in. I don't need to keep up with them. Um, it's it's it's this weird sort of you know dopamine cycle. Um, but yeah, anyway, uh it's been nice to feel a little bit more present with that. Um, you know, a great life isn't built with this constant output and and things that you need to put out to people for them to what judge you on. It's it's built by presence and presence in what's happening in your life right in front of your face. Um you know, and and in regards to not putting a podcast out there for a few months, sometimes the most honest thing you can do is take a pause. I'll see you in the church.