Episode 37: 75 Human: Why You Don’t Need Another Hard Thing

This episode came straight from a run and a voice memo I actually remembered to record. We’re talking about 75 Hard program, why it’s so appealing, and why it might not be the answer for most of us…especially the women already juggling a full life.

Because a lot of you are already living in “hard.”

So what if instead of adding more rules, more pressure, and more all-or-nothing thinking…we tried something different?

In this episode, I talk about:

•  What 75 Hard actually is and how it works 
•  Why structure and “hard” challenges feel so appealing 
•  How you’re already doing hard things every single day 
•  The pressure women are already under (and the added layers for non-white women) 
•  How the wellness industry keeps you chasing “not enough” 
•  Why all-or-nothing thinking keeps you stuck 
•  The idea behind “75 Human” 
•  What it actually looks like to stay consistent without being perfect 
•  Real-life examples like missing runs, low energy days, and life blowing up 
•  5 simple guidelines to help you stay in it 
•  What real discipline actually looks like 

If you’ve ever felt like you needed to be more disciplined or more consistent to make progress…this one’s for you.

Because you don’t need another challenge that breaks you down just to build yourself back up. You need something that actually supports you while you’re doing hard things.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olson, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hypewoman, and Professional Overpacker of the Midrun Snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real life legs and real life time. You've got work, relationships, laundry, pets, a group text that never shuts up, and maybe a big goal sitting quietly in the back of your head that you're not totally sure you're allowed to want. You're not out here chasing podium spots. You're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. So let's get into it. Alright, personal update. No huge news of running. I had a nice little D-Load week. I don't think I realized how much my body was craving that. Um, and all a D-Load week is a recovery week, whatever you've heard it called. It's really just reducing volume a little bit, reducing intensity, um, and letting that fitness settle in, letting your body just like calm down a little bit, and that way the next week you can keep building. So next week is my last build week. So um another big week, and then taper starts and Coca-Dona is here, which is crazy. Um, we got an email from the race director like Tuesday or Wednesday of last week, maybe, and it's just and the the the um subject was three and a half weeks until Coca Donna, and it was like, whoa, like that's crazy. Um and at the same time, it's even crazier, and I'm just ready to go. Like, I am if I had to run tomorrow, I'm ready. Like, I'm ready to go do this. Um, it's been a great training block and like mentally and physically. Um, and I'm just ready, just ready to go. So super excited. Uh, got my spreadsheet together yesterday, sent it off to my pacers to check out and see when they can um help out and all of that. So just moving right along there. So uh stoked. That's all I can say is stoked for that. It's a little bit of a it was definitely good to have recovery week too. Like I had a a little cold. I thought it might be allergies at first, but uh, I think it's a mixture of allergies and a cold. And even yesterday I was kind of feeling a little bit, so um, I actually took a nap, which is not like like me to take a nap like that. And I mean I was out for it. I even went to bed early last night, so I think that really helped. Uh, so feeling good, feeling better. Uh, and I'm glad it's happening now, and not like two days before Coca-Dona, because it would not be fun going into that sick. So uh outside of that, Kai is adjusting super well um to the uh life here. Uh, she is a bed dog, that's for sure. She is not food motivated. It's not that she won't eat any food, but like treats do not make her go, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So we have been crate training and doing some stuff. So she gets a little bit of cheese, that is her high value treat, or a little bit of chicken, um, because that's what we were told to do, and that is something that sparks her attention. So cheese and chicken for her to get her into the crate. Um, but yeah, she's doing super, super well, seems super happy, and she would live on that bed if if we let her. She's she's behind me right now, just listening to me record, and I'm sure gonna learn so much from me. So, yeah, outside of that though, things are just going super, super well. Um, but now let's get into the actual episode. Um, and this episode actually came to me yesterday when I was running. I have a list and actually like probably six or seven other episodes written already. Um, because as I think about things, I like to get them out. But I've been working on actually doing voice memos while I'm running if I think of something. And this one it hit me a couple times while running, like I mean, over the past month, and then I would not get out of my phone to do a voice memo real quick, and it'd be gone by the end of the run. I'm like, what was I thinking about? I had this great idea. This time, um, I took my phone out and recorded a short voice memo just to at least get the initial thoughts out of my brain so I could write it. Um so it just came to me and I don't even know why, but it's about um uh how we kind of do that all or none mindset, but what hit me was the 75 heart, and I'm gonna explain the 75 heart in just a moment. But um this is just something that like it it hit me more because like I've been talking to a lot of my athletes and then just like friends who, you know, are just feeling bad about missing things, or they don't feel like they're being like perfect at everything, and we can't be perfect in everything, so like they're right about we can't be perfect, but feeling bad about it um it's not a great place to be. And it made me start thinking about how like and I don't feel like I see this often, but I still feel people I still have people asking about 75 Heart, and I still see posts about it, and like it was super big in 2020. It came around, I believe it was founded in 2019 by some dude named Andy. Um he's actually from Missouri, of all things. I lived there for about 10 years. Um, so let me actually describe what the 75 Heart is before we get into um why I don't think it's a great idea and what we can do to actually be like our human selves. Um, so 75 Heart against it by this dude named Andy. Uh he's actually had some issues um out there, I imagine that, with um some machinistic things. So uh that's the whole other story. But um it's marketed as a mental toughness program, not just a fitness program, but it's it's by somebody who's an influencer. Um and what it is is here, well, I'll just give you the core rules. Like it says two workouts per day, one has to be outside, each has to be at least 45 minutes. You follow a strict diet, no like anything outside that diet. Um, it's supposed to be I'm I'm doing healthy and quotes, healthy food. So anything outside of that would be considered a cheat meal to them, and so those are not allowed, no alcohol, um, things like that. Drink a gallon of water daily, uh, read 10 pages pages of a self-development book, which is what he has written, and then take a pro progress photo every single day. Like those are the core rules. There's other things that are mixed in in that, but those are the core pieces. And the biggest rule of that is if you miss anything, so if you are not perfect, you start over from at day one. So you go all the way back and you do it again. Um, some of you might be going like, ah, like that's that's that sounds like a bad idea, or some of you might be like, well, like that's just discipline and it can help. I'm at least you know, 75 days is a long time to be perfect. One day is a long time to be perfect. Hell, one hour can be a long time to be perfect. Um, so it's not about doing the things, like it's not about getting workouts in or even following like a certain diet for yourself or drinking more water or reading, even like having like pages to read. It's about doing them perfectly um for 75 straight days and no room for being human. Like that for me, it's it's not it's not a realistic thing, it's not sustainable. I know people who have done 75 hard and then after the 75 hard, that's they haven't learned anything. They haven't found a sustainable thing for them. They've done the program and then it's over, and then they re revert back. I have had some people um who have said like they did they did do like the the 75 hard, they cut out alcohol because they were drinking so much, and it helped them either not want to go back to alcohol or like drink, you know, a lot less frequently than what they were doing before, and that's fantastic too. But again, it wasn't a program that was even sustainable for um past those 75 days. I know many people who started the program and like burned out on it within a couple weeks, so um, but why does it appeal? Like, why does it appeal to people? Um, because it's it has sold a lot. Um, I there there are parts by the way that are like free about this program, like the 75 Hard, but you can also buy some stuff with it too. Um, he's also a supplement salesman on top of that. So we won't get into that. I mean, I have so many things to say about that, but I'm trying to stay on task here. Um, but so why does this program appeal to people? Um, a lot of times it's because structure does feel really good when things are chaotic. So, like, this is like, okay, this is exactly what I need to do if I follow this perfectly. Like, I've got some structure in my life. My life is chaos, but this is gonna help me like have this space where like everything is just as I need it. Um, clear rules also help remove that decision fatigue. So um I have a coach, by the way, who's amazing as a running coach, um, is an amazing person and all that. But I have I hired her not because I don't know how to program myself, but because I didn't need that decision fatigue like in my life. Um, so decision fatigue is a real thing. So when you have clear rules outlined, it does take away some of that fatigue. Um, but if you're being perfect, there is other fatigue that comes with that, just so you know. There's also this sense of control. Like if you can do exactly this, there's a control. But also, if I do this, I'll become whatever this person is that you want to be after 7500. I will, you know, maybe I'll be like thinner, or maybe I will be stronger, or maybe I will be able to eat like I've been wanting to eat. Um, all these things, like it's just like you have this feeling of control when you're in it. Um, and people want to prove something to themselves too. They want to prove they can do this thing. Um, and you can do that without being perfect, guys, but this program is what that's about. It's like if you are perfect, you you have done something. Like, this is this is what you need to do. So I'm not here to say that having that discipline is bad. Um, I'm a disciplined person, I coach discipline, I live the disciplined life. Um, but this version of it, discipline, does not mean perfect. So that's where I've got the problem. Um, and it's life's already hard enough, y'all. Like, it isn't it is no need to be perfect. So the fact that this has gained so much traction to me isn't is not um a surprise. Again, I'm pretty sure it was 2019, 2020. I'm pretty sure it was 2019 when it came out. In 2020, it gained a lot of popularity um because of the pandemic. You know, people were searching for something and trying to find some control and trying to find something in the chaos of that was going on. So it happened to launch in a very good time um for what it was. Uh so but I just mentioned this earlier, but like we are already living in a hard, like in a hard mode. Like we are oh, life is not easy all the time. So why are we trying to be perfect? You know, most people listen to this are already juggling what I mentioned, like in my intro, right? You've got full-time jobs or multiple jobs, kids, partners, pets, you know, running, training, trying to take care of yourselves. Like, and it doesn't have to be running, y'all. It could be, you know, pickleball. I love pickball. I've been playing it much lately because of running and all that stuff, but like we we do other things too that are outside of the running that I always talk about. Um, but I mean it could and it could just be like having a bit of a social life, whether it's going to dinner with friends like once a week, once a month, baseball season has started. Maybe you like to go to baseball games um every once in a while. Uh women's basketball is about to start. All those things, like we're already doing things that are like, hey, we have to do like the jobs, we have to keep up with our kids and our partners and our pets. And then there's things we want to do on top of that, because we're humans and we like to do things and we are social creatures. Um, but then we also have the mental load of remembering literally everything that we have to do, we want to do. Uh, so there's so much going on out there, and then we're not even getting into the the current climate of our country um and the world and all the bullshit that's going on. I've already gone off about that in the past, I'll go off on it again, but like all of that on top of it, um, living in this country is not easy right now. It is not easy, especially uh for people who are um not like myself who is white. It is not easy for me right now either. I'm a woman, but outside of that, there's even more. So include those layers of the different of people who are basically working with this, I don't want to say basically, people who are not white. You've got more on top of that. So why am I emphasizing that? Because I want to show you like how hard the struggle is, and there are people who are struggling even more, and then people who are struggling even more on top of that. So things are already hard without trying to be perfect. Um, and on top of that, like we are receiving constant messaging like from social media about everything that's going on, uh, the internet, not even social media, I mean just the internet in general. You are just constantly bombarded with things, and then we have those um things in our culture about like uh for women especially, like being smaller, you know, eat less, weigh less, take up less space, uh, but also we're supposed to be able to support perform on a high level. And I don't mean that with just running, I mean that with everything. Like, so we have all of these things that don't aren't even congruent to each other, right? They don't go together, but yet we have all these expectations put on us. Um, you're already doing these hard things every goddamn day. And you don't need to go send it for something hard just to feel worthy of progress. Like it is not worth it for your mental health, for your physical health, for your emotional health, for any of it. It's just not worth it. Um, so but when it comes to, and this is part of that with the wellness industry, I don't know if you know this, but the wellness industry industry makes just a shit ton of money. Um, I haven't looked at the numbers actually in about a month or two. It's a shit ton of money. Um, but they are huge. And there are there's supplements, there's influencers um selling their product. There's so many different things out there, but it thrives on making you feel like you're behind, um, convincing you that you need fixing, selling you the next solution, right? That's what they're trying to do. They are trying to do say, hey, my thing's the best, my thing's the best. And right, I'm a running coach, I have a business, so obviously I want to sell my running, like, hey, I'm the best out there. Um, I never never said that, by the way, but like I, you know, like I'm working here too to like help people see, hey, I'm a good coach, here's why I would be a coach, good coach for you, and everything. But what I'm talking about are these people and these these companies who are really trying to do those things that make you feel like you need to be fixed, making you feel like, you know, you need their solution instead of actually treating you as a human being. Um programs like this really blow up and get big. Um, like, you know, like Beach Body, that's one of them too. Um, because they package discipline into something extreme, and extreme feels very powerful at first. So it feels like, you know, hey, you you hear these things and you get excited, right? And that it's it's a physical response. Like we have chemicals going through us that when we hear about these things, we get excited. That's why it's good to like pause and like have all that settle down, get your body to settle down and really think about things before you jump in, because you keep these things start hitting your brain, and you get these, you're just like, oh man, that's exciting, that's exciting. And you start to feel like, man, if I do this, like I I feel empowered. And it's really, I'm gonna call it false false empowerment, so false, false power that you're feeling, um, because it will go away. Um, unfortunately, like it just does. Um, we are not meant to be perfect, we are meant not meant to be at the ext uh hold an extreme and be able to sustain that extreme. That's just not how we're built. Again, we're human. Um, there's billions and billions and billions, trillions of dollars being made off of you believing that you are not enough as you are right now. That's that's literally what they're doing. They're playing to that side of you. And this doesn't mean that you can't want to improve. That this can't mean you don't want to lose weight or you don't want to gain muscle or all of these things. This doesn't mean that you can't want those things and want to work for those things, but that doesn't mean you aren't enough as you are right now. That just means you want you have you see an opportunity in yourself, you see something you want to improve, but that doesn't mean you aren't enough. This industry, this program, programs like it, that's what they feed off of, making you believe you are not enough as you are. Now, we're gonna layer being in a woman, um, and also a non-white woman, what that looks like, because those are the people I'd coach, women. Like that though, though those are my those are my people. Um, but we already carry more emotional labor, more caregiving responsibilities, more household responsibilities. That's called unpaid labor ladies, by the way. Um, more societal pressures around our body, our appearance, our behavior. Um, when I mentioned earlier about how they want us to shrink ourselves, how we're supposed to look a certain way, how we're supposed to act a certain way, we're supposed to talk a certain way. I mean, I have people who are like, when I when I use the F word there, they're still, you can tell it like, ah, a woman shouldn't use that. And I'm like, ah, it's one of my favorite words. Uh, but like, we have all of these things going on, plus more, plus whenever we are, what whatever we're working a job or doing something, we have to be two or three times at least. Um, we have to put two or three times more work. We have to be two or three times more better. Um, more better. That's not right, but better. Like, we have to prove ourselves so much more out there. So we've already got that going on that makes it harder. Um, on top of that, and if you're a woman who isn't white, like I am, you're dealing with even more, and I can even pretend I know what that feels like, but you have even more pressure to prove yourself, more barriers, less room to mess up, and less grace is given. So, on top of what like I go through, there is even more. Um, so we have that. So if we are trying, we're already battling, we're already battling to be better than what we are because we do constantly hear that we are not enough. We are constantly made to feel that way, even if those words are not used. Um, so when we throw something like 75 hard into the mix, we're gonna feel a little bit empowered in the beginning. Um, but also at the same time, it's gonna go away. And we're not starting from the same baseline for everyone, or that baseline isn't the same for everyone, I should say. So we're starting at a different place for everybody. So we're already have pressures on ourselves for the for the different reasons that I just mentioned, and then we want to add more pressure ourselves by trying to do something because we think it's gonna make us feel better, do better, be more disciplined, be more um, and get us past that point of we're not enough. So here's where I want to shift though. Shift from like, what if instead of that 75 hard, we tried a 75 human? Yes, that is not a program, but that is something I'm like, hey, that'd be pretty cool. But the 75 hard, again, I've already said it's about perfection. You have to start all over if you mess up once. That's not how life works. If I miss a run, I don't start over by building base. I just go to the next day. That's what you do. But what is 75 human? What do we see that as? What is being human, period? It's not even 75 human. You still show up consistently, you still move your body, you still challenge yourself, you still build discipline. You don't punish yourself for mission of the day. You don't restart because life happened. You don't ignore your stress, your cycle, your energy, your actual capacity. You don't just push through because something on a piece of paper or somebody on some podcast told you just do it. Just keep doing it. I'm not using Nike, by the way, that's not what I mean by that. You don't just keep going and going and going. That is not how life is, that is not how life is structured. Most people do not live in a vacuum. We have things that are going on, whether it's work stress, life stress, um, training for something big and we're trying to fit everything into our lives. Like, we we just have to be consistent. And I'm I don't mean it just. Like, I know it can be hard, even like just fitting those things in, but consistency is where it's at. And again, consistency is not perfection. It's getting things in, it's making things work for your life for you, it's being realistic about your capacity, your energy, um, and all of that. And with capacity and energy for me are about the same, but with capacity comes the time too. So you don't start get to stop being human just because you cited a chase a goal. You want to run your first 50k, fan fucking testicles. You have to have a plan that's built for your life, and one that allows to be flexible, to be fluid, to know that there's other things going on, that running is not the only thing. I just signed an athlete recently, um, super stoked to start coaching her, but she uh chat GPT'd me. I think I may mention this last week. Um, now I can't remember, but it didn't chat GPT me, she chat GPT'd for a coach she was looking for, somebody who doesn't put running as like the only thing in life, somebody who treats him as a human, all of these things. And my my coaching uh website popped up for the first one. It's like this is your number one, uh, here's a second, third one, but this is the number one for you. So, yes, that made me feel good. I'm not saying that to brag on myself. What I'm saying is is how I coach and how I believe, and what uh what I'm saying here is that you are a human and you can have these goals, but you don't get to stop being a human. Like, that's just part of it. Uh so and that can be very hard. Again, for the mentions I mentioned for women, like I I've mentioned those already above, but it's hard as you just a just a human, doesn't matter man or woman on that. It is hard already. So we need to remember that we are human. That's it. Like we're human people. So what does this actually look like? So I'd like to give you some like here's here's how it looks, like here's some examples, and then also just like here here's some here's some simple rules to follow. And these are not just rules for trail running or lifting or movement. Like these are rules for you and your life. And you know what? I almost like the word guidelines a little bit more because I I don't know, rules that make me feel like I'm shoving it down your throat there, but that's not what I'm trying to do. But they're guidelines that can help you. Help you when things aren't perfect, and how do I do that? How do I give myself that grace um when I feel like I don't get enough grace in life? Like, how do I, you know, work through these barriers, especially when I have already have barriers in life? Like, what do I do? What happens when I feel like I've messed up? So I mean an easy one, like you miss a run, right? What do you do? You don't spiral or restart. You just get back to the next day. If you miss a run, like because you overslept, um, or for whatever reason you weren't feeling it that day, you know, the next day you get back to it, like I just said. If you are sick, uh that's a different story. There could be a different thing to do, but if you're sick and you need a couple days off to recover, if you need a week to recover, like those do look differently, but you still don't restart back at day one. You get sick, you work through it, you get better, and then you keep moving again. So you give yourself that grace when you're sick. Again, if you just miss a workout, because don't punish yourself. Go back out the next day, do it. Keep following the plan that you have for yourself. You're exhausted, like from work or life. Sometimes you might have a hard workout plan for that day and you don't do the hard run. You make it an easy run, you go for a hike instead. Do some yoga, you do some mobility, you jump on the Peloton, you stay in bed and sleep because you are flat out done, and you think if you push yourself to even do an easy run, it might be too much. That still counts for you for taking that break and doing it. Um, and again, we want to be able to differentiate between hey, I'm kind of tired today, and then I'm actually completely exhausted, I need to take a time off, a time off. But also, these are those times, and this is for people. I'm I'm I'm a consultant, so I don't have sick time, but if you have a corporate job that allows you that gives you sick time, uh, or some people actually get unlimited PTO, uh, I know that's not a thing that's out for all companies, but take a day off. Take a day off from work. Uh, I know that can be challenging. I've been in roles where I feel like I couldn't take a day off, but I was so close to burnout so many times. That work is not that important. It will never be that important. I do understand that not all people have that opportunity. Um, it is a privilege to get that time out, time off. And some people, they just don't have it. They have to work day to day to day, and it is very hard. So I don't take that for granted. But if you do have it, take it when you can. Take the day, take a half day, whatever it is. Um, and again, I say that with a caveat of I know not everybody has that privilege to be able to do that. You have to pay your bills, you have to keep your electricity on. You know, you could lose your you could lose your car, like if you miss a payment. So please I I don't take that take what I have for granted either. But if you've got the time, try to take it sometimes. All right, another example. You eat something that's off the plan. Say you have a nutritionist or you found the template online or whatever, and it's like, well, we're eating like this. Nothing happens, y'all. Nothing happens. You keep going. No punishment, no starting over. Do not run further because you think you need to earn your meal. Do not do another workout or an extra workout because you think you have to like work that off or earn that food. We are human. Humans, again, do not live in this vacuum. We like food that isn't, I'm gonna put healthy in quotes, that isn't the we'll say that isn't like the most energy-giving food, right? I love tortilla chips. I love chips in general. I like salty food. Sometimes I have them. There's a place that has this halt salsa that is so good, and yesterday I went and got that in a bag of chips from them. I didn't eat the whole bag. Not because um I didn't want to, but literally, this is a huge bag of chips. Um, but why am I saying that? Because me doing that isn't gonna throw me off for that long. The only time I get thrown off is I have certain reactions to certain food that makes my body get inflamed. That is when I get thrown off, and I do avoid those food, especially if I have something going on like a long run that I need to or hard work out. But you eat something that isn't perfect, you have the cookie, you have a couple cookies, you have a burrito, you have something that you're like, this isn't right for me, nothing happens. You are fine. You just have some food. The only time something happens is if you have a sensitivity to it, you know, it doesn't make you feel good. Yeah, that's not gonna feel great. But heck, have stuff because you like it, because it brings you joy. Don't worry about being off this plan. We're human. Your week just blows up. Maybe you had to work extra. Um, who knows why? Maybe you had a sick kid, maybe you got sick yourself, uh, you had a friend in crisis who you needed to be there for, you have a death in the family, um, just something unexpected. Who knows what it could be? I try to give examples so it's real life, but just something unexpected. You adjust instead of trying to force that perfection. Um I have had people be like, I have this funeral to go to, and like I'm worried about missing my run, and like, you know, and I don't want to, I want to be there for them, but like if I miss my run, it's gonna blow up this training block. And I'm like, dude, don't even worry about the run. Like, holy cow, you've got a funeral to go to, you have family, you have friends. Like, that's your focus right now. This running is not important. Um, now I do encourage people who have like challenges or have something that is very emotionally hard, whether it be a funeral, whether it be something completely different, somebody that's sick in their family. I do encourage for their mental health to keep moving as they can, but I will not ever push them over the edge of being like, you have to hit this plan perfectly because this is your race, all of this. No, I encourage movement in those times because a lot of times that's what keeps us mentally like sane in those moments. It also keeps us present in the moments when we're with these people. Um what if you're consistent over time and you're not perfect for 75 days? That makes you stay steady for way longer. So that's what being human. It's all called 75 human, but that's what that's what being human actually looks like. Being consistent over time makes you steady for way, way, way longer. It's sustainable. It's having that piece of cake because you want it, it's missing a run because you are tired. Um, it is not making up uh a workout that you miss just because you feel bad. It is giving yourself grace. All of that is a hell of a lot more sustainable than being perfect for 75 days. Um, this is literally how we train. It's how I train my athletes, it's how I try to live my life. Still working on that because, well, none of us are perfect. But no one builds fitness, no one builds a life, no one builds a relationship by being perfect. You build it by staying in it. Staying in it consistently, without perfection, um, the way that you need to. So remember, you build it by staying in it, not by being perfect. Alright, because I know we all love a little structure. I mentioned that's why 75 hard got popular. Another ones got popular too. It's because of the structure and the chaos. It makes us feel like we have some control. It makes us feel like we have some power back. Um, and it's why 75 hard, you know, people can get through it because of the structure, but it's also why it's not sustainable because after 75 hard, it's like, do I do 75 more hard, or do I just like keep going and doing what I was doing before? Or how does that look? So if we're gonna do 75 human, if we're gonna be human, we need something to like anchor to it. So I've got a few guidelines here, rules, whatever you want. There's five of them. Five's a good number. Uh five's my favorite number, it was my softball number. So show up when you can, and that's not gonna be every day. Aim for consistency and not perfection. If life hits and you miss a day, if you get sick, nothing happens except you pick it back up. That's the big point here. You're gonna show up most days. You really are. You're not gonna show up every day because that is life. You just gotta remember to pick it back up. The goal again is staying in it, not stacking perfect days. Brick by brick, that's what Heidi likes to say out there. I hope she's listening, but you're building it. You're building it, and it's not gonna be perfect. Alright, number two, adjust, don't quit. Bad sleep, stressful day, low energy, what do you do? You adjust. Maybe it's you definitely don't run that day because you do feel that bad. Maybe it's you go for a 30-minute walk instead of run. Maybe you have a coach and you tell him, man, it's not happening today. Everything's bad. Everything's just bad, and your coach adjusts the schedule for you. Whatever it is, you don't just you don't just skip it, and I don't mean you don't skip a run, but you adjust your life. The thing is, is maybe you stay in bed that day and call and sick to work, and the next day you hit your run. Whatever that adjustment looks like, it just depends on what was happening. Maybe a hard run becomes an easy run. Uh maybe strength becomes mobility. Um, maybe 60 minutes becomes 20 minutes. Uh you're still the kind of person who is showing up as you need it. And sometimes showing up means staying in bed and sleeping a little bit longer. Sometimes it means spending some extra time with your partner just because it's been one of those times where you hardly have seen each other or talked to each other. I know I've been there recently with how busy we've been, and you're showing up for that person in that moment, and that's what's going to help you continue to show up for your runs, continue to show up um as a good friend, continue to show up um to lift weights, all of that. Continue to show up to work and be able to do great at your job by adjusting instead of being perfect. Alright. Number three, haven't really mentioned uh this much as much, but feel like a human, not a robot. So, no earn your food bullshit. I really hate that, and I'm not making this is not me making light of people who feel that way because it is something where I have I have been like that. So, like, been there, done that, but we don't earn our food. That is not how that works. We don't go and run for five hours just so we can eat a whole pizza. I'm not saying don't eat a whole pizza sometimes. I'm saying you don't push your body just so you can eat that thing. That's not how we should treat it. We eat food, fuel our bodies. Um, totally last week did the fuel performance podcast. Definitely take a listen to that. But we don't earn our food. It's bullshit. No punishing yourself for eating something. So whether so before I mentioned like hey, running five hours and eat it, and then you think you can eat whatever you want. By the way, I'm not saying eat whatever you want. Not my thing, but don't run because of that. But if you eat something one day and the next day you're like, well, I need to run further or longer or harder because I need to burn this off. Let's not do that. That's not human, that's a robot. Support your body for performance, energy, life, all of that stuff. So I'm not just talking about during the run, I'm talking about all the time. You have to support yourself by eating what you need for you. And sometimes eating what you want. I should add that too. I mentioned earlier, you can get joy from eating something. That's fine. Some food is not the best fuel for a run because it hurts your stomach, it makes you feel inflamed, whatever. I do, like I said, I do avoid that. But sometimes I just want something, and I'm gonna have it. Like, that's just how it is, and that's okay. That's more of a mental-emotional thing, and that's okay to have those times. There is nothing wrong with that. That is helping you, that is helping support yourself in that. What you see some issues in is like, hey, because I by the way, I live a good IPA, West Coast IPA, that's my thing. What you do see though is if you continuously give into things like that, like drinking a couple beers here and then a couple beers there, like that's where you're gonna see an impact on your life, and that's where you do need to rein that kind of stuff in. But having something every once in a while are sometimes not a big deal. And this goes way beyond running, y'all. This is how you show up for everything. You gotta fuel for yourself. Fuel like you're a human. Okay. Four. There's no restart button, no reset, we move forward. Period. This is a big one. You don't go back to day one because you messed up. You don't just say fuck it all because you messed up either. Um, there is no failure here, it's only continuing. So we're not gonna be perfect. We're gonna be human, we're gonna do something that's not what we see as perfect, and what are we gonna do? We're gonna continue all. Continue on. We're gonna break that all or nothing cycle. It's some or something cycle. Period. That's it. Some or something. Five, pay attention to your life, not just the plan. So you can buy, by the way, like plan, say, you can buy any kind of plans on online. You can buy how to plan your day, how to organize your day. You can plan when you're gonna clean, you can plan running, obviously, right? There's programming, you can plan strength training, you can plan date night, you can plan your whole life, you can find stuff out there to do all these planning for you, but it doesn't have an it doesn't know what your life is doing. You have to pay attention to what's going on in your life. Your stress, again, I mentioned this earlier, your stress, your cycle, your work, your relationships, they all matter. Everything matters, and you have to be intentional with that. So you don't ignore your life to complete a challenge. I know people who have done 75 hard, and they just stopped, kind of stopped doing what they normally do. And I'm not saying you don't have to like change things that you do when you're when you're going for a big goal. You know, I'm I'm training for a huge goal for me, a 250-mile race. So I have had to make adjustments, thanks. I have had to say no. I mentioned earlier I haven't played much pickleball lately. I haven't. Like I've had to get up and run. It's getting warmer here, so I don't really have as much flexibility to run a little bit later. Uh, my consulting job is busy, coaching is busy. I have to make time for things. You know, I am working on my website, just different things that are happening, right? So things don't just stop because of that. So, but like I've adjusted, but I haven't just stopped doing what I want to in life. I'm not just ignoring what's going on in my life to complete this 250-mile race. Like, I am still living my life and making adjustments. Like I mentioned earlier, that was that was that was number two. Adjust, don't quit. But the goal is to build something that fits into your life and not something that takes it over. That is a recipe for burnout. That is a recipe for things that are unsustainable. It's like, what is it? Weight watch is also not a sustainable thing either, unfortunately. There's a lot of negativity around that one. But a lot of times we get that focus and that chaos and we focus, focus, focus, and then we realize, or we don't even realize it just becomes not sustainable, and we just start reverting back. So we need to find things that are sustainable for our life, and that doesn't look the same for everyone. But we do, if we pay attention to our life and not just the plan that we have in front of us, we can work on what's sustainable. And we're not perfect at that. We're never perfect. Sometimes we think we've got a plan, and we're like, okay, this works for me, this is the days I'm gonna run, this is date night, this is like all this, all this is working. And sometimes a wrench gets pulled thrown into it, and sometimes we realize we just weren't being realistic about what our life is and what our work is, so we have to adjust, and that's okay. So just so you know too, this is still discipline. In my opinion, this makes me feel a little bit more in control than trying to be perfect because it is still discipline. You have control because you have given yourself permission to flex. You have given your yourself permission that you are not going to be able to show up every single day. You have given yourself permission to not be a robot. You have given yourself permission not to hit the restart button. You have given yourself permission to pay attention to your life and know that the plan isn't always gonna be followed 100%. And that's where the power comes from, that's where the control comes from, that's where the discipline comes from, right there. You're still there, you're still showing up in some way for yourself, but it doesn't require you to stop being a human to do it. Also, reality check, if you are hard for 75 straight days, you might want to get that checked out. I think if you're hard for one day, you might want to get that checked out. But seriously, that all or nothing mindset, that is what burns people out. Like it really is. You've got to be real. You don't want burnout, you don't want to be hard for 75 days straight. Like, you've got to realize you are human and that is perfect. So, discipline isn't punishment restriction, all or nothing. Real discipline is showing up when it's messy, adjusting instead of quitting, and continuing it continuing without needing a reset button. You don't need to prove you're tough. Look at your life. You already are. Alright, here's what I got for you to sum this all up. You don't need another challenge that asks you to ignore your life just to prove you can suffer through something. You don't need another set of rules that punish you for being a human. You need something that actually supports you while you're doing the hard things because your life is already so fucking full of them. And the people who go the furthest in this sport, hell, even in life, aren't the ones who are perfect for 75 days. They're the ones who stay in it over and over again, make those adjustments, don't hit the restart button, pay attention to their real life without burning themselves to the ground. And that's what lasts. And that's what's actually gonna work. Alright, y'all. Thanks so much for being here, spending this time with me. If you love the episode, make sure you download it, uh, follow the show, leave a review or rating, share it with a friend. Uh, it helps this message reach more and more people. Um, I don't know how that works because I don't know how the behind the scenes internets work, but please feel free to share it. Um that's it. So now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.