The Story You Keep Telling Yourself Is the Problem

What does losing 200 pounds have to do with your real estate business? More than you think.

In this episode of the Take It and Run podcast, we sit down with a very special guest — Merrill Jencks — who dropped over 200 pounds, leg presses 540 pounds, and hasn't focused on weight loss for nearly three years. But the number on the scale? That's not the story.

The real story is identity. Mindset. And the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are — in the gym, in marriage, and on the phones.

Merrill gets raw about what it felt like to be disciplined in every area of life except his health, and how he finally stopped lying to himself. He breaks down the all-or-nothing trap (sound familiar?), why perfection killed his progress more than pizza ever did, and the moment Tom Ferry's words about recommitting faster changed everything for him.

Here's what makes this episode land for agents: every principle Merrill shares translates directly to your business. Tracking your workouts = tracking your contacts. Progressive overload at the gym = progressive overload in your pipeline. Consistency over blitzes. Done is Better Than Perfect. Small wins that stack into a new identity.

You'll walk away with:

• The exact mindset shift that finally made the transformation stick — after decades of failed attempts
• Why your identity has to change before your results do
• Merrill's 4 non-negotiables for tracking progress (and how they apply to business)
• The 80/20 principle that replaced the all-or-nothing spiral
• How to find an accountability partner that actually holds you to it
• The one thing Merrill has never once regretted — and what it means for your own "I don't feel like it" days

If you've ever told yourself I'm just not the type of person who… — this episode is for you.

Tactical Takeaways:

1. Break the story. Identify one narrative you've been telling yourself that isn't serving you.
2. Pick one habit. Start tracking it. Expect it to get boring — that's the point.
3. Stop slashing all four tires when you get a flat. Recommit fast.
4. Find your accountability partner. You'll do more for someone else than you'll ever do for yourself.

Take what you heard today — and run with it.

If this episode gave you an idea you can implement in your business, don’t just listen — take it and run.

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🎙️ About the Podcast

Take It and Run is the podcast for ambitious professionals—especially real estate agents—who want practical strategies they can implement immediately. Each episode delivers mindset shifts, frameworks, and real-world insights to help you move from thinking about it… to doing it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to Take It and Run. We're super excited for our guest today. Meryl has lost over 200 pounds. And he recently leg pressed 540 pounds. His body fat is around 17%. But none of that is the actual story.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yeah. Today's story, the real story, is more about identity, consistency, and the narrative that we tell ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah. This is a story about self-perception, discipline, rebuilding muscle and mindset, and what happens after the big breakthrough. It's not just about get a surgery and you're fixed. No, that's not what we're going to be talking about today.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah. Um, so Merle, let's talk about like, first of all, welcome. We're excited you're here. Uh welcome. Let's let's talk about the before and your identity struggle there. When you were at your heaviest, what was the story you were telling yourself about who you were?

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I've you know struggled with my weight most of my life. From the time that I was about 15, I started getting heavier. You know, I went through a little teenage stretch where I wasn't heavy because of, you know, the massive growth spurt that you have when you're a teenager. And maybe my growth spurt was more massive than most people's, right? Since I'm about six foot seven. Um, you know, so I was skinny as a string bean for a minute, right? But then once my body started growing stopped growing at such a rapid pace, I started putting on weight pretty heavily. By the time Christy and I were married, I think I was around 350 pounds. And then uh, you know, at my absolute heaviest, I got up to 475 pounds. And, you know, I was constantly um working on losing weight, right? Uh, you know, like most people who struggle with their weight, it wasn't like I was unaware I had a problem, right? I knew I had a problem and I had the desire to fix it. I just um would would would always kind of fall apart, right? I would, I would usually start with extreme willpower. This time I'm serious, right? And I would I would go on some sort of, you know, whatever it was. We did all sorts of things, Weight Watchers and South Beach and Keto and and you know, just just you know, all kinds of things, or we would, we would try to, you know, go on these diets and and um and and and the the the crazy part, you know, you hear some people say, man, no matter what I do, I can't lose the weight. Oh no, I was the opposite. I could go on any of these programs and I would lose weight. Like, no, I I lost weight on everything. The issue wasn't the ability to lose the weight, the issue was the ability to stick with it. The willpower of sticking to my broccoli only diet. Don't worry, I was never on an actual broccoli-only diet, just an analogy, right? The the the willpower that it takes to stick on this broccoli-only diet was too hard. And I would eventually succumb. You know, I'd be at a birthday party and end up eating a slice of cake. And then I would feel like such a loser for not sticking with my plan that I would completely spiral out of control into a binge and end up heavier than I was then before I started. And then it would take me months and months, sometimes years and years, to get up the goose dough to try and do it all over again. And I just had all of these stories in my head about why I couldn't do it. I mean, there are plenty of other people who were fit and who, you know, are able to control their weight, but I just, yeah, it's just not who I am, right? It's just not who I was meant to be. I guess I just love food too much, or I just don't love working out enough, or I just don't love, you know, I'm just not built like those people. You know, I just kind of had all these stories about how why I can't, you know, why I can't be a you know a healthy and fit person. And, you know, sure I've got my flaws, but so does everybody, type uh type self-talk.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

You know what's interesting though is um you are a very disciplined person. So this the and I remember you having those conversations of, you know, like I just guess I guess I'm just not and and quite honestly, I've had the same I had I don't anymore, I had the same mindset issues, like no matter what I do, I'm just you know, I'm big boned or whatever it was, right? But the thing is is that that uh you're not lazy, like and you're very disciplined. When Merrill says he's gonna do something, he does it. Um and so you had all this discipline in all these other areas of your life, but you're saying it was the identity around being a healthy person that what that mindset wasn't there for that.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Yeah, I mean, I honestly like it was very frustrating for me because I was like, why is it that I can like be so successful in these other categories of my life? You know, I'm able to, you know, save money and I invest and run businesses and raise children and you know, do all these things that the you know the I guess the outside world would look at as successful, but yet my own personal physical health was wasn't. And that always bothered me because I I did feel like it's ultimately a question of discipline. Um, and this isn't a a direction I planned on taking this, but a lot of this has to do with your own personal integrity with yourself. You know, I do feel like I have a lot of uh, you know, if I tell somebody else that I'm gonna be there at a certain time or I'm gonna, you know, I'll be there at five o'clock, I will be there at 4 45, right? Like, but when it comes to promises I made to myself, um, I I think I knew I was lying. Right. I didn't I didn't trust myself. Um, so you know, um, maybe I I actually did lack discipline in a lot of areas, you know, uh as well. And that is one of the things that's really fun about getting fit, you know, is you you start seeing all this content about, you know, fitness is one of the only, one of the only categories that you can't fake. You can't buy it, you can't, you can't uh, you know, delegate it. You you you can't just hire an assistant to handle your fitness for you, right? You can't just get a VA for that, right? Like you have to do it yourself. And it is it, I actually think it is the ultimate measure of of a person's discipline. So it's it's kind of fun actually proving to myself that I that I am capable of controlling that part of my life as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

How did how like tell me about that mindset mindset shift for you? What were like how did that come to be? Because now, I mean, now we know that your mindset is solid. Uh you've been, what, almost three years at your goal weight?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah, I I think maybe even a little, yeah, around three years that I've been basically no longer focused on losing weight and only focused on building and gaining muscle. Three years, three years at my target weight. I wouldn't say that, oh, my mindset problem is solved, right? I mean, it's a journey that we always need to continue to work on. But what I've learned is that I had to, I had to change the narrative. I had to change what I believed about myself or who I believed I thought that I was, right? So, so I had to stop with the stories of, well, I just don't love working out like other people do. Like I remember, I remember one time an early broker mentor coach of ours, you know, would just talk about how much she loved working out so much that she just wishes she could just work out six hours a day. And I remember just thinking that was like so foreign to me, right? Like I hate working out, right? I have these stories, right? And and I and I had to really change those stories. I had to change who I believe I am on the inside before I could change who I was on the outside. Uh and and you know, a lot of that has to do with, you know, self-talk and and uh and and and our habits. And it wasn't an overnight thing. In fact, it's maybe sometimes still something that I struggle with. So it's a constant journey that you always have to work on. But now I try very hard not to, I actually go out of my way to say, man, I love working out. Like it is just like it is the best feeling. I love how I feel when I go working out. I enjoy being at the gym. And you know what I found? That is the more I say those things, the more true it feels, right? Like, you know, and it just makes me think like if you're listening to this right now and you're not a person who struggles with your fitness, right? It does make me wonder, you know, as a as a coach of real estate agents, how many other stories do we have that are that that are only true to us because we said so, right? Like, oh, I just I don't I don't like making I I'm not the type of agent who makes cold calls, right? I just I hate it. Well, that of course you don't, because you're telling yourself that story. If you told yourself every day how much you hate going to the gym, you're never gonna enjoy going to the gym. If you tell yourself every day that you that you love prospecting and that you love connecting and helping people, right? Like you just need to change the narrative and and the story and the mindset shift, change who you believe you are.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

How does someone go about I mean, because you've rewritten your identity and you said it's a work in progress, but like how does someone, you know, what are some of the actionable steps that you took to be able to start to create a new identity and then reinforce the new story?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I wish I could say that it was as simple as like chanting a new affirmation or something like that. But it it's been much more of a journey for me. Who knows? Maybe it really is that simple. Maybe it really is just as simple as like there have been a lot of times where I really did focus on my morning routine, my affirmations, my visualization, you know, that kind of stuff. Focusing on a lot, but but I would say the journey has been more about focusing on a ton of little victories along the way. Like, like I remember the first time I flew on a plane and didn't need a seatbelt extender. Do you know what I mean? Or uh, or, you know, um, hey, you know what, my resting heart rate has improved a little bit over the past, you know, couple of months, or my, you know, um, like it was really built over time through, you know, consistent action, right? There are certainly plenty of times where I did not feel like going to the gym, or I didn't feel like eating healthy, or I didn't feel like going for that walk. There's still times when I don't feel like doing them, but I just do them anyway as often as possible because I'm focused on, you know, trying to be consistent. But I there's one more point about this consistency thing that I really want to add because before I was always very much a all or nothing, you know, mentality. Like, you know, so let's just say I've got a goal to walk every day, and I want to go for this two-mile walk every single day. And I would do really, really good for seven days or 12 days or whatever it was, and then I'd miss a day, right? And and then I'd be like, ah, see, I'm just not capable of being the type of person who walks for two miles every day. I just give up on the whole institution of the whole thing, right? The biggest mindset shift has really had to come in. Tom Ferry said something one time that just has always resonated with me. He's like, you know, the you want the real difference between highly successful people and and and mediocre, the highly successful people fall off the wagon too, right? It's like they're perfect. It's not like they always make their calls. It's not like they never get sick or never have a doctor's appointment or an inspection or an appraisal or like they have things that get in the way too. The difference is that they recommit and get back on track faster, right? And so that has kind of been my new mantra. If I mess up and eat a cupcake, oh well, next meal, next time I eat, next day, next everything is you know, uh recommitting, doing better, staying true to what I really want, not just what I want in that one moment. But I'm not gonna go slash all the other tires on my car just because I got one flat tire.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Oh, go ahead, Kelsey.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Well, I was just gonna say that what I'm hearing is that before your identity was really tied to your um your perfection and not your progress. And now your identity you've you've kind of severed for the most part, and you know, we're all susceptible to insecurity, but you've kind of severed that that tie between like your your worth is connected to your ability to maintain 100%. Um and I just there's a lot of there's a lot of those lies in our lives that no matter what we do, that like what whatever you're trying to achieve, whether it's weight loss or or something business related, like what's can you can you share some other lies that you've heard, some other identity lies um that are like that, connected to like my my worth is connected to my my perfection or or anything like that that you hear as a coach, as somebody like that?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I mean, I think it's I think it's uh I I actually think the more I think about this, I'm I'm struggling to come up with very specific examples right now, but I actually think that we all have a narrative of who we believe that we are and we're capable of shattering through that thing by just changing the narrative. Um, you know, uh so like I'm thinking about my personality profile is a really good one. Like I used to consider myself a high D. Like I just loved, like, you know, I'm an action taker and a driver, and I, you know, and every time I would take a disc test, I would always score as a high D because I could kind of tell based on how the question, like I, you know, but over time I've sort of decided, honestly, that I'm more analytical and I enjoy looking at things from a more analytical standpoint, and I enjoy building spreadsheets. And and over over a few years, I've decided that I'm more of a of a C than I am a D. And it makes me think, I bet that I could change the narrative and decide that I want to be, you know, like it's all just I feel like almost everything in our lives, all of our patterns, all of our behaviors are based on these narratives and stories of a oh, here's one. I'm just not a morning person. I I just I struggle waking up early in the morning, like I just can't get to the get to work before 9 a.m. because I, you know, I I just need my sleep, right? Like, yeah, you know, that's a generic example, but it's one that I hear, you know, quite a lot. And and I and I know that there are some actual like scientific cicadian rhythm type things going on here. But trust me, if you decided that you wanted to be a morning person, not just I'm trying to force myself into if you started telling yourself every day I'm a morning person and I love getting up early and I love getting to the gym first thing. I love nothing more than the feeling that by 9 a.m. I've already accomplished more than most people are gonna do all day, right? Like you start telling yourself and talking to yourself that way and taking action that way, and you stay consistent with it and wake up at 5 a.m. every single day for a couple months straight, I bet you by the end of it you'll feel like you're a morning person.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious, um I'm curious, like I wanted to I want to touch on two things. Uh I definitely want to get to your non-negotiables, right? Like some of the things that that have helped you maintain this identity. But before that, like how has how has you know shifting your identity and becoming a healthy person, right? Like, because that's really what it was. It was it it's now your identity is that you are a healthy person because you're you don't identify as overweight and you're not overweight and you're not obese. Uh you're still six seven, you're still a big guy, but um how did that lead into other areas of your life? Like losing the weight, obviously, did that affect your confidence? Did you become more disciplined in your uh in real estate? Like, how did mastering that part of of your life affect other areas of your life?

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Well, I mean, obviously, you know, it has a really positive effect on every category of your life, but the what the one thing that that is that I want to share, you know, yeah, you you have more energy, you you you have more confidence, you you know, I feel I feel like it improves your conversion and you know ability to do, you know, almost everything, interact with your kids and and and like just just tons of things. But but the so you know, when I was heavier, right, I I thought that it was so unfair. Uh or I I felt that there were there were times when I maybe you know didn't get the business or didn't, you know, or or didn't get the opportunity even for the business with some people because they were judging me because of my weight, right? Like, you know, um, you know, there's there's obviously these people out there who are who are fat prejudice, right? And and and and I saw that as a shame on them. Like that that that's wrong of them to believe that I'm somehow, you know, uncapable or not the best option for them as a as their real estate agent because just because of my weight, on when I know I'm gonna do amaz an amazing job for them because of their weight. And like I didn't like that that you are being judged for you know for this external thing. It felt felt very much like judging a book by its cover. But but honestly, now I completely see it the same way that they do. I try not to you know be as judgmental to people because you know we're all going through stuff and we all have our things, but um, again, it is a sign of your discipline, right? Your your weight and your fitness is a sign of how committed are you to your health, which should be one of the most important factors in your life. And if you're not committed to that, then I might have questions about you know what what other commitment issues you might have in your life. And uh, you know, I I I see some kind of content about like, you know, uh uh I'm not uh is a bad example, but like pretty privilege, right? Like is it unfair that people who are prettier, you know, that things seem to come easy, you know, the business or whatever, whatever it is seems to come easier to them, or is it actually just because they have put in the work to take to take care of their physical fitness? So um I I really see it both ways. And I think that uh, you know, we're all ultimately making judgment calls about other people. And so I do think that like my ability to convert with people and have confidence and and frankly, just even getting in at bat with people that I might not have gotten previously has improved by losing the weight.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

So let's talk about like again three years of living in in a body that is the right size and focusing on your muscle building and and doing that. What are some of your non-negotiables now? Like how how like this time's different, right? You said you were a pro at losing the weight and gaining it and losing it, and you've been able to, you know, maintain this. What are some of the things that you do um to be able to do that?

SPEAKER_02 18:27

So I think that the most important uh aspect on this, and what I love about all the this whole conversation that it is completely applies to business as well, is that you can't improve what you don't track and measure. So uh so for me, the tracking A, I'm a bit analytical, so I I just straight enjoy the tracking part of it and and seeing the the metrics of, you know, look at how consistent I've been with my steps, or look at how uh, you know, how my sleep has improved or my heart rate has improved, or just different things like that. Um, but but I also find that just merely like the awareness that is created by tracking something uh improves the behavior without even consciously trying to improve the behavior. So it I would challenge almost everyone don't change what you're eating. Eat, continue eating exactly the way you've always eaten. Just log it. Just make that one change. Just log what you eat. I'm not asking you to change your diet at all. Eat the cake, eat the whatever, but but just commit to yourself that you're gonna log it in MyFitnessPal or chronometer or whatever app you want to use for tracking. I don't care. I use MyFitnessPal. And and I want you to track it. And I think that you'll find that subconsciously, or maybe sometimes consciously, you will start making better eating decisions. Or uh or you'll choose to just not eat something because you don't want to bother logging old, right? There's all these like tiny little, like, I'm not gonna eat that chip because I don't want to log with a chip. And then there'll be other times I'd be like, that Snickers has how many calories? Right. And and so you'll start to make these little changes and adjustments to your to your uh you know approach by tracking the thing. So I I actually made I tried to prioritize all the so I tracked you know a number of different metrics, and I tried to prioritize like if I could only track one thing, it would absolutely be the food that I eat. So if I had to get rid of all other forms of tracking, it would be you know calories in, you know, basically. I think that uh most of us are lying to ourselves about how much uh women in particular are usually lying about they're not eating as much. Like they're they're probably eating too little in many cases, especially if they're trying to focus on going to the gym and working out and you know, building muscle and that kind of thing, many, many times not eating enough. Or we we're it maybe we are eating enough or too much, but we're but we're not getting nearly enough protein, right? There's there's like all these things that we have to look at that we need to really start tracking. So if you take only one thing, if you if you if you're looking to improve your fitness and your health and you only take one thing from this call, I hope it would be that you need, well, A, you need to work on your mindset, right? And but then the other one is I think you should start tracking everything that you eat. But if I could track two things, right? So uh food would be number one, number two would be sleep. Um, you know, uh if your cortisol levels or your stress is too high, if you're not getting good sleep, it's nearly impossible to lose weight or to gain muscle, um, not to mention the the perform in business and and anything like Christian, we've always been quite good about prioritizing sleep. Like we love our eight hours, right? You know, uh and it surprises me how many people um, you know, kind of think they're fine on four or five hours. I read something somewhere. I wish I had like a reliable source to say this is for sure, but I read something somewhere that said LeBron James sleeps 10 to 12 hours a day, right? Like, you know, and and you probably seen that he spends a million dollars a year on his body, right? So so the point is is like you need you need sleep. And so we absolutely love our aura, you know, our aura rings that help us track our our sleep. And then the the third thing that I would track would be my my steps like how much movement, just how much natural movement am I getting throughout the day? Like can I just can I get up and pace during making phone calls or get some extra steps while watching TV? Can I go for an extra walk? But a little bit less about like I'm trying to hit an exact step target and more about like how can I just increase my motion like as a natural just just try to make it come natural because I know we're all stressed for time. I know it's hard for us to be like I need to add three hours of walking every day. Right? Like that doesn't feel sustainable. How can I just increase how much walking I'm doing as part of my natural day and then the last one would be my workouts. So like uh for for me like it kind of surprises me when I see people like just go to the gym and just sort of do what they feel like doing. I don't even remember I can't even remember what weight I'm capable of doing on that machine without looking at what I did on it last time. But then also once I know oh I did you know 250 pounds on that machine last time somehow doing 250 pounds today feels a little bit easier. So I practice a kind of a fitness routine called progressive overload. Every week when I go back and do the same movement that I did last week, the goal is to either do a few more reps, even just one or two more reps than I did at that same weight last week, or up the weight and just do as many reps as I can. But the idea is it's very fulfilling to see like because sometimes you can go to the gym for a while and not see the results, right? But but if you could track the results in a spreadsheet right if you could track the results in an app that shows like hey you know what I'm I'm I'm going 10 or 15 pounds heavier on that movement than when I first started. When I first started I could only do four push-ups and now I can do 18 right like that it's so fulfilling to if you're not even if you're not visually seeing more muscle on your body or you're not seeing the weight on the scale go down or whatever number it is that you're trying to you know achieve like seeing the progress that you're making in your movements is also like really really fulfilling you know I might need to upgrade that above steps. Oh that's a tough call though I might I might put tracking my workouts above steps but honestly I I love tracking all four of them.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Okay for our list oh go ahead um well I just on the topic of progressive overload it just how would you apply that to someone struggling with consistency in like in their business or in I mean I've I've witnessed your guys's marriage go through hard times and great times and you know you've stuck together and and other disciplines, morning routines, nutrition like how do you apply progressive overload in those areas of your life?

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Well I've never thought about applying progressive overload to other areas of my life but I do think that the tracking and measuring part is relevant to every so whether it be progressive overload but not so much progressive overload but more of a more of a tracking and measure like if you're if you're if you're struggling in business right like what what what number what KPI if you hopefully our whole audience is familiar with that phrase but key performance indicator what metric could you decide to start tracking to measure essentially your effort right like I I don't want to measure the result. We call that a lag measure. I don't want to measure your GCI I want to measure your effort. I want you to find a metric that is going to help you measure how much effort are you putting enough effort into the thing whether that be tracking how many contacts you make how many doors you knock on how many calls you made how many equity reviews you could do how many you know like you need to find some KPIs just like I have on my fitness you need to find some business metrics that you can start tracking that are going to measure your effort. And and I think that you know ultimately it always yields it all it always ends in a positive result um you know the track tracking you can't improve it if you're not tracking it. We're so good at lying to ourselves right oh I worked so hard today I just was put in such a long day only had two conversations but you know I worked hard.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah no I totally see it as if somebody is tracking say their conversations and they have a goal uh per week of I don't know I'm pulling this out of thin air so the coaches would probably change it but like 50 contacts a week um and you're tracking that for say two weeks and you hit it and the third week comes around and you're like, you know, I could actually probably call 12 people today instead of 10. You know and it's kind of like what you were saying of 150 150 sounds okay but I think I could do 155. And that's that's kind of how I see progressive overload in real estate.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Sure. Yeah yeah I I think that could apply but but I think there's also a point sometimes especially when it comes to like calls or it's more I guess progressive overload is a little bit different than the it because here's what I would rather do. I would rather that you make 10 contacts a day. I'd rather have you make 50 contacts every single week for the whole year than try to squeeze out 60 in in a week and do this like blitz effort. You know it's more about consistency. You know like I I go to the gym four four days a week you know oh that that's another story. That's another I I just realized this I I I also had this story like I looked at people who had a lot of muscle and I and I had can they must work out you know 12 hours a day like I I don't know how that those people have time to to devote that much time to their fitness. And and what I've learned is that it's actually not like it's it's an it's not as much as I thought it was like I work out four days a week for about 45 minutes and and I'm not the world's most ripped guy by any means but I'm quite pleased with the amount of like visible visible visible muscle that I can see on my body and I continue to see it improving. I continue to see my muscle mass increasing and I'm working out for 45 minutes, four days a week it is it is not about trying to make a hundred contacts in a day.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

It's about saying like can I do 10 every single day for a year that's where the real I I I think the biggest change that I saw in in you again having been married to you for coming on 21 years is that um you know you had all these all these you know get skinny fast I don't want to say get rich but you get like like lose lose the weight fast right um things and and the big difference and and this was for myself too is as part of my identity shift of being a healthy person and a p a person who does healthy things like workout four times a week and steps and water and all of that is coming back to can I live like this forever. So I remember when I started working with our health coach you know she she really had us look at things differently and rather than trying to hit a hundred contacts this week like a bold 100 which we've did we've done bold 100 a couple times um and it's not that it doesn't work but it's not it's not something that I can do in my business all the time. And so even she has this uh 80 20 principle and if you've read the 12 week year it's also a principle of the book it's like I just need to I don't need perfection I just need to get 80% there. And so when I look at what can I do at the gym, when I look at what can I do in my business, how can I prospect can I can I run my business like this for a significant amount of time or am I going to burn out and you know then not want to do anything because or in this case in in health it was go off the rails and you know now I can't eat a piece of broccoli for two years because you know I'm so broccolied out right like we just want to do things like when we when we're building things into our business. So where I see a lot of times it's elimination for certain right like eliminating things from eliminating distractions. In this case when we are habit stacking when we when we are tracking our food we make conscious decisions differently when we're tracking um how we spend our time during the day we start making different decisions and then you start to habit stack people who exercise eat healthier people who are exercising and eating healthier they may drink less they may um you know like all of these different uh habits start to to do that I see that in business people who start prospecting or people who log into their CRM every day then they start to make more calls they keep it more organized they set more appointments they end up selling more real estate so I I kind of see that also as a progressive overload.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Sometimes it's just about saying okay what can I do consistently what's feasible right and is there anything that I need to eliminate and then is there anything that I can kind of daisy chain or habit stack because it becomes one of those keystone habits that affect everything else in your life yeah absolutely uh yeah I I think yeah the the the the the consistent action is more important than the blitzes um without a doubt and I just have one last question. Um what do you do on the days where you just don't feel like it um I have an accountability partner right so one one of the things that has been really really helpful uh a I continue to work with a health coach uh and um you know uh um I don't know I don't know if I is appropriate for me to shout her out on this or not.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Yeah go for it.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

So yeah I I work with the health coach her name is uh Megan Krajur Cradure I'm not I might not be saying her name right maybe we can tag her in this episode when it comes out or something. But but anyway um to be honest uh every once in a while I have a very technical question about a hormone level this or a peptide that or you know the but for the most part she doesn't teach me a lot of new things on our health coaching calls right it's about the accountability it's about the fact that that you know whether I feel like it or not I know that I need to report back to her. And then for the gym sometimes I don't feel like going to the gym but I've got partners that I'm going to the gym with usually at most days I'm working out with Christy and Christy's sister Ashley you know and so they're counting on me right I'll you'll do more for someone else than you'll do for yourself many times. So like who you know who who can you who can you set up with as an accountability partner on these types of things really helps. And then there's just other times like there's other times when I have to go to the gym by myself and I don't feel like going but but I go anyway because I you know want to be like you do the thing until you're in the mood to do the thing. You don't wait to be in the mood like you know uh you just have to do it sometimes. And I tell you what I have never never once gone to the gym and regretted it. Like never one time have I finished a workout at the gym and be like I shouldn't have done that. What an idiot so and and there are times when I'm at the gym and I'm just like the the the universe better just be thankful I'm here today. I'm not trying to break like I'm I'm not gonna get a PR today I'm not I'm not out here crushing it but I showed up. Sharon has a quote along these lines uh right like you you can you can be mediocre Christy you probably know the quote better than I do but like you just show up is is more important than than missing entirely. Yeah I like that okay so here's your here's your tactical takeaways or your take it and run moment uh from today's episode is that uh we started with shifting your identity right like you know get ready to break that story up that you've been telling yourself create a new identity um pick one habit right start tracking it uh expect it to maybe potentially get boring right like food food is just fuel right um uh you may get boring but keep pushing through and let that identity catch up right but I think the big one is is definitely tracking so Merrill if anybody wants to find you where can you know where can they learn more about you and find you uh I mean you can connect with me on social media I'm on Facebook and Instagram or you can always just uh you know I don't know email me or or you know I don't pretty um google me you'll find me everywhere definitely call him call him every time I like it okay Kelsey you you wrap us up better with email than I do with phone calls don't call um he'll send it to me um okay so everybody the important thing is that you don't just listen that you take one thing from this episode and implement it today and like Christy said we definitely suggest finding that one thing and tracking it um and it can be boring and that's okay that doesn't mean it's bad.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

So Meryl thank you so much you're definitely um the guy who uh inspires so many um me included and we're just so thankful that you are on the podcast today so um everybody take what you heard today and run with it thank you