GMG ThriveCast – Episode 002

Episode 002: Discipline Over Motivation: Building a Life That Compounds

📝 Episode Summary

In Episode 002 of ThriveCast, Aaron Goodman and Austin Page dive deeper into one of the most misunderstood concepts in personal growth: discipline.

Most people know what they should do. The challenge is doing it consistently when life gets busy, motivation disappears, and excuses start to creep in.

Austin shares the principles he teaches clients every day—from controlling what you can control and building simple systems, to winning the morning and creating habits that compound over time. Aaron opens up about his own struggles balancing work, family, fitness, and leadership, and how accountability has helped him stay on track.

Whether you're trying to improve your health, lead your family better, grow your career, or simply become more consistent, this episode offers practical strategies that can help you stop relying on motivation and start building lasting discipline.

⏱️ Chapters

0:00 – Why We Lose Focus After Progress
2:00 – Discipline vs. Motivation
3:30 – Controlling What You Can Control
5:00 – The Power of Personal Accountability
6:20 – Backward Planning Your Day
7:20 – Making Time for What Matters Most
9:00 – Setting the Standard for Your Family
10:00 – Leadership Through Action
11:15 – Winning the Morning
13:00 – Why Most People Fall Off Track
14:10 – Accountability Changes Everything
15:30 – Simple Systems Create Big Results

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Motivation comes and goes, but discipline creates consistency
• Focus your energy on the things you can actually control
• Small daily decisions compound into massive results over time
• Leadership starts with personal example, not words
• Winning the morning often leads to winning the day
• Success is usually built through simple, repeatable habits—not complex plans

💬 Notable Quote

"If you want more, you're going to have to do more. Time isn't found—it's made."

👤 About the Guest

Austin Page is the owner of GymFlo, a coaching business focused on helping individuals transform their lives through fitness, nutrition, and disciplined daily habits. With over a decade of experience, Austin has helped hundreds of people redefine who they are by building structure, consistency, and confidence.

Connect with Austin:
https://www.instagram.com/gymflo_fitness/

About GMG
Goodman Management Group builds communities where people thrive—professionally and personally.

🎧 Listen & Follow
Follow ThriveCast for conversations on leadership, discipline, culture, and community.
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🔗 Connect
🌐 https://www.gmgva.com
💼 LinkedIn: Goodman Management Group
📱 Instagram: @goodman.management.group

💚 #WhereCommunitiesThrive

Transcript

Aaron Goodman: 0:06

I think a lot of people, even me, I go through seasons in life, not just with physical fitness and nutrition, where I lock in, but just I realize problems or inconsistencies that I need to work on. And I get to a point where like, okay, if I’ve fixed this or it's manageable and I lose that concentration a little bit and not again, not that I all the way back the other way, but now my focus goes other places, which can be just a a telltale sign of impatience, too, right? Yeah. On to the next thing. Gotta change something else. But you've come up just in your own personal life with a really good discipline, where, I mean, you... I always joke, when I look at your social media or I look at your day. Not that it's boring, but it's literally the same thing every day. You wake up early, drink that cup of coffee, get some mental preparation together, and then you're off to making sure that you know, you're providing for your family and then doing something with your body to move it, push it beyond a limit than you did the day before. I think that's tough for people who aren't immersed in it all the time, like myself, who is working, you know, a demanding job and a demanding, you know, family, home life that I want to be involved in. And A lot of times the first things I push to the side is the 30 to 45 minutes I could workout, move, push my body, or it's really nice to have that ice cream sandwich or two before I hit the rack at night. So I guess talk about a little bit what you have done with clients to show them, you know, that that level of discipline that you have in your life and give them pointers and exemplify that in their own because you got you got some awesome success stories. I'm one of them. yeah, man, of seeing how people who were not just physically and mentally a certain way, but they've come under you and you've been able to help them restructure their life, their balance and their disciplines. What are some of those things that you have been learned how to teach people in those moments, to bring them that level of discipline? For a long time, I didn't realize that there was like principles to the way that I was living. And I'm not perfect. I'm not a saint. I'm red blooded, just like you. I, I have bad days, I have rainy days, I have sunny days, you know, and most of the time, 80% of the time, I don't just like you. You don't feel like doing this extracurricular shit. Yeah, more so than not, you know? So it's like, those are the days that actually test us and build us. But that's sort of a whole nother story in itself. But these principles that I feel like I've incorporated over time and and now that I've read and built more of my mental side and became became a reader for a long time, I'd never read a book, not even in high school. I always took the cliff notes or cheated off my I was I was that guy. And, always looking for the shortcut, cutting corners. The least minimal, the least, the least effort as possible. Right. Was always that guy. And I still can be. Sometimes I have to fight that person that's inside of me. I'm just like. I'm sure, like anybody this listening to this, watching this, Everybody has that person that wants to find the, the easiest, the quickest, the least friction possible. And that's not always going to pay or be be be good for you positive long term. In the short term it might save you a little bit of time, might feel more comfortable. But in the long term it's it's it's deducting skill points from all of us have think of it think of these things. Let me first let me answer the question. The principles of almost like stoicism or stoic practices or principles of controlling what we can control. There's a lot of things that all of us in our lives we can't control. Things. Right? The weather, what other people do and a many things the list could go on. It's actually a ton of things that we cannot control, but there are a few basic things that we can control. And this is what I try and implement or shed light to with clients is that we can all control. The we can all control many things that dictate the quality of our life, right? What we eat, what we drink, how we train our body, who we listen to, who we hang around. Those are all choices that we make. You know, these are choices. And those choices are either building you or degrading you. Not immediately you don't see it. And over one day or one one decision that isn't aligned with that. But over time, you hear the people say, I don't know what happened. I just gained 20 pounds or I don't know, man, I'm a I'm a health kinda shit. I don't know what happened. And it's like, well, yeah, of course it's like a death by papercuts or slow bleed, you know, you'd like four months ago, you made to say you were making these compounding little decisions now and and a lot of people, including myself, I can fall victim to a two under the trap of putting it into circumstances like, oh, it's just it's this person's event. Or I had a lunch with this person or this birthday or so on, so forth. And when you can think back on it, like all right, but there was a decision that I made though, to do or not to do right with the things that we can control. And again, I have to play the same game to or the play those same principles as well. Right? And that is I think the ultimate empowerment is realizing there are a lot of things in our control that we just have a tough time being aware within ourselves or having that talk in the mirror per se with ourselves and be like, okay, I am making time to eat because if I'm overweight, I ain't skipping food, right? Duh. Or, you know, most likely all right, I am busy. I got a family, I got this or that going on. I don't have a family myself, but, you know, we're all busy in some aspects. Everybody has daily obligations. What are we doing about our time? Are we trying to be a little bit more efficient or more aware of where we're spending our time? Are we able to maybe make time by controlling our wake up time, some of those simple things that like, it's like, oh, I can't get up early like you can if you if you want to make the time. So, I guess, to put it simply, controlling what we can control and putting all your focus into that. And sometimes it may need you writing that stuff down by putting it on paper so you can see, okay, I can control this or that because, you know, and to how to implement this, I guess to make it more actionable for anybody that's listening, for you to be able to say, all right, it's easy for Austin, say, to wake up earlier or to make sure I'm making better choices. My food, easy for him to say, well, I do it by backward planning. Just like if you had a mission per se. I'm sure in the military you backward planned all right from A to B, this is what we're doing a b to C this is what we're doing. And we backward plan from there. How to get from A to C. It's not going to be pretty. Is it going to be perfectly aligned with that plan. No. But like if you have if you can backward plan your day of like all right. If I wake up at this time it's going to a lot. This much time to get that workout and 30 minute workout. 40 minute workout, right. Be able to hang with the kids and do this or that, or send those emails. Make those cold calls, whatever the case may be, you know, that there's planning that can be done. Again, it's not always going to be perfect and going to be pretty. It's not going to be ideal. But it is real that we have to be accountable for our time, what we eat, what we drink. If you care about changing those things but you have to care ultimately. Yeah. I think just for me I've realized, Be wanting to be present with my kids and family, even getting them on the bus in the mornings, you know, and being a part of that. Yeah. And then also when I get home from a busy work day, wanting to be a part of those moments, too, as chaotic as they can be. 00 for me is like the optimal workout time in my mind. It would be for me to because I'm awake, I've had some something to eat. I've got some energy, my blood flowing, and I'm not exhausted from the day. But then I go, but then the workday starts and I'm like, why? I can't just get away necessarily and run to the gym. And and so I'm like, okay, you know what? Never mind. I'll get it done when I get home. And you're right, it's just one decision. I wouldn't say bad decision, but one decision of things that I can control over another. I'm going the other way. And by the time I get home. Yeah, it's, it's time to just chill out and not necessarily be locked in and focus. Yeah. Even though I have all the workout stuff in the world I want at home, so. Sure. Sometimes, though, I'm able to snap my mind back halfway through the day and be like, okay, you've you've got to lock this in and get a workout in day because maybe it's been a day or two. Yeah. And you have helped me kind of create those disciplines where I'm able to like, it's almost like I'm able to shift in those moments and be like, remember, you know, what are your disciplines that you know, you need to do today to be able to lock in and have those good workouts and make those good decisions with food and choices? I've really seen my mentality switch to kind of just, you know, being a man in general and making sure that I set a really good standard for my kids, to see. And they're, you know, the examples they see of men, because their mother already sets a great example. It's my job to set a really good male example in their lives, and being able to say no to stuff and switch and lock myself back in, just kind of build some character inside me to 100% it it goes both ways. Them helping you hold a standard. Obviously you are going to help them become a standard or hold a standard for themselves. You know, it's it's hard not just for the sake of your kids, but it's hard to be a leader in general if you aren't taking your own advice. So say, for example, I guess the the saying would be, if I want to be like you, why would I listen to you? If you don't have what I want type of do? Or if you don't, why would I take advice from financial advice from a person who doesn't have financial stability or is broke right. It's vice versa, you know? So like it being an the sake of leadership and setting an example word doesn't mean anything. It's your actions, right? And the way you live it. And again, it doesn't have to be perfect. We're all human and that's what makes it more relatable. More real is seeing the failure and seeing the pivots. Like you say, it's like, okay, it's time to lock back in. I realize I'm starting to drift. All right. This is a this is a moment to where they can see dad or mom or a coworker can see somebody. Like, it all bleeds. There's people watching, whether you realize it or not, whether it's your kids, whether it's your friends, family or just people around you that just are inspired by you, admired by you. So there there's, there's something that can always be set, and sometimes it needs to be bigger than you. I guess that's what I'm saying, that the reason why are that are the selfish moves needs to be pushed to the side. And sometimes you need to be selfish, to be selfless, though, you know, you need to be putting yourself first, taking that time out of your day to work on yourself, to be able to show up for others and be a better standard for others, or be a better leader. Whatever. I think I wanted to dive back a little bit into you, realizing that you wanted to have more time with your kids in the morning, in the evenings, and I'm sure, like many people do, or time for their partner or whatever goals, ambitions they have. And I mentioned this in our group chat a while back, and it's something that I read from a book of David Goggins. And and ever since I read that quote, it was something I was getting up early before I read that, but it just reinforced that I was doing the right thing, because some mornings you're like, what the hell am I doing? I'm up at four in the morning like, nobody's up. It's just dead dark. It's quiet, like, what am I doing? But then once I get move, I realize, okay, I'm making time. I'm winning the morning. Right. And his passage, I'm going to talk about it real quick is, you know, that we all have daily obligations. We all have life. We all have families, bills and things that rely on us. And the time is getting taken from us every day if we don't wake up and make the time. So we must get up and when the morning. And that's something that is almost become a, a thing that I post a lot, you see on my social media is about winning. The morning is for people that are busy and they want to do more. If you want more, you're gonna have to do more, right? That might mean sacrifice or investing that wake up time, right? That sleep or whatever investment or some people call sacrifice is. And I think starting the morning with something tough like that, like a tough, physical, demanding workout, it does set the tone. It does set the energy for the day because you did something tough right out the gate when most people are still cuddled up in bed. Yeah, your feet already hit the floor. You're already getting up, getting after it, knocking things out, and it's hard to, trash or disregard or fall to the wayside, go into the ditch with food or treating your body a certain way. If you did all that work first thing in the morning, it's easier to say, oh, I'm going to work out this afternoon, but then stuff pops up at work, right? Dumpster fire over here you got to put out. Next thing you know, you're getting late home from work, you're stressed and you're like, screw it. I'm just going to have some food to chill. I'll get at it again tomorrow. Right. And that is where most people live. Yeah, most. Not everybody, but most people live, I said I was gonna do it this evening, but life happened, so I guess that's the way it is. I'm going to just chill, bust out some food. I'm gonna get back after tomorrow, and tomorrow turns into next Monday. Next week, next month, 30 pounds, 40 pounds later. Damn. What happened? Right? That happened. Those choices happen, I think, one of the things I want to talk about to are, you know, for me, I've, I've gone to like, you know, the larger gyms before and had like a personal trainer and I saw once a week, but it wasn't like, a build a relationship, a check in. I'm going to look at your workout and fitness and your nutrition and your goals. I'm just you're going to show up once a week and you can do a 45 minute workout for me, and I'll make you sweat, and then I'll see you next week. Yeah. So that hasn't ever worked for me. And I mean, I spent four years in the military where we, you know, workouts were Monday through Friday, whether it was run in strength training. And I left the military and I did not have it's almost like I did not have the, accountability behind me. Yeah. To make those decisions. And I struggled for like ten, 12, 13 years and then, you know, really got a lot of alcohol in there just to kind of suppress a lot of those, you know, the anxiety that I had in work and business and was using it to kind of supplement, my levels of, of comfort, what you've done is and this is the reason why I've been working out with you two years. You make this very simple. Yeah. And you talk about that sometimes, like I'm giving you a very simple blueprint of some good decisions you can make. And I'm going to be there to work and have accountability with you. Talk about, talk about how you came up with some of that, because I don't think that that is necessarily just in my experience, and I have a vast experience, but I haven't had that anywhere until here, which is really made me want to stick around and keep working with you. So I think it circles back to those simple things that we can control about the food and the training and whatnot, but I think when it comes to my training, nothing. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel like a lot of training programs or styles or coaches might do. For me, it's simple daily things that we can compound. I don't have to be fancy, don't have to be these mountain moving, events or workouts. It has to be little. I call them like base hits, which you got to get on base every day. And if we get on base, keep moving. We're going to make we're going to we're going to make goals, you know, or home runs and I think when you start to add too much to the plate, sometimes success is subtractive lot with a lot of hundred percent. So the simpler, more clear we can make things, the more adherence is going to be over time. And again, it's at least from me personally building myself up over the past 15 plus years. It's always been simple, basic, just compounding interest movements or deposits that you make daily or whatever it needs to be that fits, you know, your life or whatever. Sometimes it may not fit,