184: Why Most People Fail at Consistency and How to Fix It

This week, I'm connecting the topic of this podcast with my most recent vlog titled, "How to Be More Consistent." In this episode, I break down why most people who responded to my question on Instagram struggle with consistency and usually, it's not motivation. Pulling from Atomic Habits, I share how I built my morning run, my meal prep, and my training around systems, not willpower. CHAPTERS 00:00 Why This Episode Is All About Consistency 02:27 The Cycle 05:29 Here's What People Said They Struggle With Most 06:26 What Makes Kobe & MJ Different From Everyone Else 09:43 My 20 Years of the Same Training Movements 11:21 Habits, Evidence, and Identity 15:37 Goals vs. Systems: Why Systems Win 20:47 My 5AM Wake-Up and Morning Run Routine 23:47 Designing Your Environment for Success 28:56 The Meal Prep Story 36:36 Priming My Habits 45:04 Eliminating Decision Fatigue 46:00 The Pros and Cons of Habit Tracking 48:34 Consistently Good Beats Occasionally Great ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠ https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) MB01AQ7ZWU9L2R4

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Nick Bare?

  Today's podcast is all about how to be more consistent.

• 0:12Nick Bare?

  And a lot of this episode, much of this episode is inspired by a book that I'm holding in my hand right now. You have probably heard of it. It is extremely popular. It is called Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you have not read this book yet, I highly recommend reading Atomic Habits. Tiny changes, remarkable results, an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. It's a great book overall. It's a book that you could reread every single year

• 0:51Nick Bare?

  just to respark your habits, your motivation, your purpose behind creating habits.

• 1:02Nick Bare?

  And I'm going to be referencing this book a lot in this episode. Many of the thoughts that I'm sharing in this episode are pulled directly from James Clear's work in this book, Atomic Habits. And then I'll be sprinkling on my own thoughts and experiences and practices that I incorporate into my life to be more consistent. One of the things James Clear says early on in this book, that ever since I read, has stuck to me like glue, like a tick, like a leech. I just cannot

• 1:41Nick Bare?

  get rid of it. He says, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." And before we jump into this episode, I do want to riff on something really quickly, and it's inspired by this quote within the book. "As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy, even if the old one was still working. Perhaps this is why we get caught up in a never-ending cycle, jumping from one workout to the next,

• 2:16Nick Bare?

  one diet to the next, one business idea to the next." That's the problem, is that too many people, and when I say too many people, I'm not excluding myself from all of what I'm sharing today.

• 2:38Nick Bare?

  There have been seasons of my life where I have been inconsistent in certain areas of my life.

• 2:48Nick Bare?

  But as a whole, I consider myself a very committed and consistent person. It is what has led me to where I am today, the success that I have achieved and will continue to achieve, mainly because of the power of consistency. Consistency compounds. But here's the problem, and I'll reference this quote again. "As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy." Too many people, they start something new, and as soon as they lose the motivation, as soon as that initial spark and flame starts to dwindle down

• 3:30Nick Bare?

  just a little bit, they jump to something new. People don't stick with one thing long enough to experience the true power, the true remarkable results that consistency and habits and systems

• 3:51Nick Bare?

  can prove in your life. You have to stick with something long enough, you have to be consistent with something long enough to actually see it turn into something remarkable, beautiful, amazing. But too often, as soon as that motivation dips just the slightest, people jump to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing. Now, he references, in this quote, workouts, diets, businesses. I know so many people, they start a new training routine, and as soon as they become bored with it, they jump to the next training routine. They start a new diet. Maybe they start

• 4:36Nick Bare?

  the carnivore diet, or a keto diet, and as soon as they lose the slightest bit of motivation, they jump to something new, and the next, and the next. I'm sure you have these people in your life, who every time you talk to them, they are pursuing a new business, a new job, a new hobby, a new passion. They never stick with one thing long enough to see it just turn into greatness.

• 5:09Nick Bare?

  And I feel for these people.

• 5:13Nick Bare?

  I've been asking people for years, in person, on social media, I send out surveys, I sent out a survey on my Instagram two weeks ago, and I got thousands of responses. And I asked the question, "What do you struggle with the most when it comes to your fitness, your health, building muscle, losing weight, eating right? What is it you struggle the most with?" And every time I ask this question, 95% of the answers, that's no exaggeration, 95% of the answers and

• 5:50Nick Bare?

  responses is consistency. I struggle with being consistent. I got that flame, that spark for a period of time, and then I lose it, and I fall off, and I have to restart over and over and over again. What makes the most highly successful people in the world different from everyone else?

• 6:21Nick Bare?

  I think about basketball. What makes Kobe Bryant, what makes Michael Jordan so successful compared to all the other basketball players out there? From Atomic Habits, what's the difference between the best athletes and everyone else? What do really successful people do that most don't?

• 6:45Nick Bare?

  I'll add in here, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, what did they do to get to the peak of their basketball career in which they achieved? At some point, it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, do the same lifts over and over and over. Really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. That's the truth. Really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a

• 7:24Nick Bare?

  way to show up despite the feelings of boredom. Mastery requires practice, but the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes. The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom. So what's the key takeaway here? What do people who consistently achieve success, they consistently win? You know, you got someone who always loses, looking at the person who always wins and says, "It must be nice. It must be nice to always win. It must be

• 8:03Nick Bare?

  nice to be so lucky." Yeah, luck might play part of it. But what makes highly successful people so accustomed to winning and succeeding is that they can embrace monotony, the same thing over and over and over again, repetition, over and over and over again, boredom, over and over and over again. When I think about Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, much of their training, while I'm sure there was strength training incorporated, and speed drills, and footwork, it's standing on

• 8:42Nick Bare?

  a line, and throwing a ball into a hoop, through a net, over and over and over again. Do you think they got bored of that? Absolutely. But the amount of repetitions, the monotony that they had to practice, allowed them to be so great. There's so many things that I do in my, my daily life that is so routine and boring, but I show up every day, and I still do it, because I know

• 9:22Nick Bare?

  consistency compounds. Now, much of my training is strength training. I go into the gym, and for the last two decades, I've been doing the same or similar movements. On push day, I'm doing pushups, I'm doing some sort of pressing movement, I'm doing flies, I'm doing bodyweight dips, I'm doing tricep work, push downs, extension. I've been doing those for two decades. Do those movements become boring? Yes, they do at some point. But that stimulus, over extended periods

• 10:03Nick Bare?

  of time, and incorporating progressive overload, more reps, more sets, more volume, more weight, it builds muscle, it improves a physique, slowly, but surely. The most successful people

• 10:23Nick Bare?

  embrace monotony, repetition, boredom. Going back to the text, really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference, do they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom? So if you're bored,

• 10:46Nick Bare?

  and you lose some motivation from time to time in what you are doing, and building, and working towards, it's okay. It's expected. It's part of the process.

• 11:03Nick Bare?

  And one of the things that really stood out within Atomic Habits that

• 11:09Nick Bare?

  I had to incorporate into this episode, in this conversation, that I believe is really important, is the correlation between habits,

• 11:23Nick Bare?

  evidence, and identity.

• 11:28Nick Bare?

  And one of the questions that James Clear

• 11:33Nick Bare?

  challenges the reader in this book

• 11:37Nick Bare?

  is, do you consider yourself what you want to be?

• 11:42Nick Bare?

  And if you don't consider yourself, as in terms of your identity, of who you want to be, it's hard to incorporate the habits to get there. Belief comes before ability. It's something I've been saying for years. And I truly believe it. Belief

• 12:03Nick Bare?

  comes before ability.

• 12:06Nick Bare?

  You have to believe you're already that person that you're working towards to be.

• 12:14Nick Bare?

  Like, do you consider yourself a consistent and committed person?

• 12:19Nick Bare?

  If not,

• 12:22Nick Bare?

  it's hard to implement the systems and habits to get there.

• 12:28Nick Bare?

  If you want to start running,

• 12:31Nick Bare?

  do you have

• 12:34Nick Bare?

  an insecurity around calling yourself a runner?

• 12:40Nick Bare?

  If you want to be healthier, is there an insecurity

• 12:45Nick Bare?

  around saying you live a healthy lifestyle?

• 12:51Nick Bare?

  So it starts with habits. We have to in place these habits

• 12:58Nick Bare?

  that get us to where we want to be.

• 13:02Nick Bare?

  The most practical way to change who you are, your identity, is to change what you do. Your behavior is a reflection of your identity.

• 13:14Nick Bare?

  You can't say your identity is this, X, Y, and Z. You are this type of person. You can't say your identity is being a good dad, a good mom, a good husband, a good wife. But then your behaviors do not reflect that identity.

• 13:33Nick Bare?

  So it starts with our habits. What is it that we do on a daily basis?

• 13:39Nick Bare?

  And when we practice those habits enough, that then creates evidence. And that evidence then proves our identity.

• 13:51Nick Bare?

  Are you someone who says you are healthy? You are an athlete. You are someone who cares about your nutrition, your diet, the food you put in your body? If so, your behaviors have to reflect that identity.

• 14:07Nick Bare?

  James Clear says,

• 14:10Nick Bare?

  "Every action you take, every habit you create, is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs. But as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity."

• 14:33Nick Bare?

  What you do, your habits, your actions, your behaviors, the more you do that, the more reps you get in, the more often you show up. Those votes build up. Those votes, that's evidence.

• 14:49Nick Bare?

  Evidence that says who you say you are is actually who you are because you're doing what it takes to become that person. Habits create evidence. Evidence is a reflection of your identity.

• 15:08Nick Bare?

  As I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, I quoted, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." I've written this down in many places that I look at on a daily basis, in my phone, in my notebooks. It's on a sticky note by my computer. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Goals versus systems. Let's talk about that.

• 15:43Nick Bare?

  Goals are important. I just released a podcast episode talking about the importance of why you need goals that scare you. Jim Collins, in the book Built to Last, talks about BHAGs, big, hairy, audacious goals.

• 16:05Nick Bare?

  Goals so big, they scare you. They intimidate you. They own you.

• 16:13Nick Bare?

  They scare and intimidate people outside of your world more than you yourself.

• 16:21Nick Bare?

  Goals are important. I love having goals. I always have goals. It's my mission. It guides me. It's directional. But systems are critically more important.

• 16:39Nick Bare?

  From Atomic Habits,

• 16:42Nick Bare?

  "Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results."

• 16:53Nick Bare?

  You see, a goal-first mentality continually delays joy.

• 17:01Nick Bare?

  It operates on the assumption that, once I reach my goal, then I'll be happy.

• 17:08Nick Bare?

  So we rush the finish line in hope of achieving happiness, but the daily processes and habits should be the focus. Joy should be found in the practice, not just the result.

• 17:22Nick Bare?

  We need goals.

• 17:24Nick Bare?

  Goals are good for setting the direction, but systems are best for making progress.

• 17:32Nick Bare?

  You know, my goal, when it comes to my fitness,

• 17:37Nick Bare?

  my training, I want to be fitter. I want to be faster. I want to be stronger. I want to be more durable. I want to have a better,

• 17:52Nick Bare?

  hardened, more chiseled physique. That is why I train. That is the goal. That is what I'm working towards.

• 18:01Nick Bare?

  That's the overarching vision. If I break it down into smaller sub-goals of that,

• 18:10Nick Bare?

  I might be training for an Ironman at the time, or a high rocks like I am right now, or a marathon, or a bodybuilding competition. All of those, though, lead to the big vision goal: fitter, faster, leaner, stronger, more endurance, more hybrid.

• 18:33Nick Bare?

  But it's the systems, the daily practices, that we have to fall in love with to make this a sustainable approach.

• 18:45Nick Bare?

  I have these goals, but these goals aren't necessarily finish lines.

• 18:50Nick Bare?

  They're milestones. They're my markers.

• 18:55Nick Bare?

  I love training. And maybe you don't love training, and this applies to something else in your life, but I'm really passionate about working out, eating healthier, and getting fitter, and helping people reach their goals when it comes to health and fitness. I love going into the gym and throwing down.

• 19:13Nick Bare?

  I love the lifestyle that comes with that. Eating healthy, staying hydrated, sleeping well, making smart, intentional decisions around my lifestyle. I love my early morning run. Right now, I'm really loving my high rock sessions that I do twice a week. It's a process that I fall in love with, the systems that I built out.

• 19:36Nick Bare?

  And if you can fall in love with the systems,

• 19:40Nick Bare?

  and it comes down to a personal responsibility to finding and experimenting with ways that you fall in love with. You know, the concepts are few, but the methods are many. You can apply this to anything. I want to get fitter. I want to get faster. I want to get stronger. I want to get leaner. That's the concept. There's so many different methods you can incorporate to get there. And it's up to you to test, experiment, and find a method that you enjoy, that works for you, and that is fun.

• 20:18Nick Bare?

  Your goals should and will determine your systems. I can't reinforce or

• 20:27Nick Bare?

  or harp on this enough because I've had conversations, I've met so many people before

• 20:36Nick Bare?

  in the past, currently, and I know will in the future,

• 20:42Nick Bare?

  who are pretty clear in terms of what they want to accomplish and who they want to be, that identity, that goal.

• 20:52Nick Bare?

  But they continuously fail to create habits and build systems that get them there.

• 21:08Nick Bare?

  I have systems and routines and rhythms

• 21:13Nick Bare?

  built out through my entire day and week

• 21:20Nick Bare?

  that lead me to the directional goals that I set.

• 21:26Nick Bare?

  These systems, these routines, these are habits.

• 21:32Nick Bare?

  Some examples.

• 21:35Nick Bare?

  I wake up at 5:00 AM every day.

• 21:41Nick Bare?

  And six out of the seven days a week, I go for a run and I'm running by 5:30 AM.

• 21:50Nick Bare?

  One of my goals is to get fitter, to build endurance, to get faster.

• 21:57Nick Bare?

  So I wake up as part of my system

• 22:01Nick Bare?

  at or before 5:00 AM so I can be running by 5:30 AM. And I'm wrapped up with that morning run before the family is awake for the day.

• 22:15Nick Bare?

  I build out these habits, I build out these systems

• 22:19Nick Bare?

  that I stick to, that I'm consistent with, that compound over time to get me to where I want to be, the person I want to become.

• 22:30Nick Bare?

  But it's focusing on the systems, not just the goals. They're going to get you there.

• 22:37Nick Bare?

  One of the best ways to be more consistent is to design your environment for success, or at least as much as you can. From Atomic Habits. Disciplined people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control.

• 23:03Nick Bare?

  They spend less time in tempting situations. It's easier to practice self-restraint when you don't have to use it as very often. Yes, perseverance, grit, and willpower are essential to success. But the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.

• 23:31Nick Bare?

  Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.

• 23:41Nick Bare?

  This deserves a second to really reinforce.

• 23:47Nick Bare?

  I think we oftentimes think that very disciplined people,

• 23:53Nick Bare?

  they are only disciplined because they have this crazy amount of heroic willpower and self-control.

• 24:01Nick Bare?

  And don't get me wrong, that is definitely part of it.

• 24:05Nick Bare?

  I consider myself a very disciplined person. I have a crazy amount of self-control, self-restraint, and willpower.

• 24:20Nick Bare?

  But that is not the only reason I am disciplined. I am disciplined because I spend less time in tempting situations. I structure my day, my environment, my life in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control all the time. I create a disciplined environment.

• 24:44Nick Bare?

  Some examples.

• 24:48Nick Bare?

  Within our house,

• 24:51Nick Bare?

  when we go to the grocery store or the farmer's market, we buy healthy, nourishing food. It's lean protein sources, dairy, fruits, vegetables. We buy sourdough, we make sourdough.

• 25:13Nick Bare?

  It's just quality fuel and nutrition and nourishment that's in our house. We don't have all this junk food. We don't have a lot of unhealthy options. Yeah, we got a pint of ice cream in the freezer, but that thing is going to last six months in there.

• 25:34Nick Bare?

  We got a bag of chips that, you know, we might use for guacamole when we're having taco night, but we never finish it because it goes stale because we just don't eat enough of it in time.

• 25:47Nick Bare?

  We fill our environment in our house, our pantry, our fridge, our freezer with the foods that are going to set us up for success.

• 25:58Nick Bare?

  Just trying to eat foods in our house requires little self-restraint and willpower because we put healthy options available.

• 26:10Nick Bare?

  In every house or apartment that Steph and I have lived in since we started dating and then got married and then started a family, we've always created a space to work out. Yes, we've had gym memberships and we've always had a gym at BPN. But for the days we couldn't make it to the gym or we're not going into the office, we've always had some sort of place to train where we're living. Whether that's a room that has a few dumbbells and bands or a squat rack in the garage or we fill the whole garage with gym equipment. You know, we've gone to all these different extremes where you always had a place in our home, in our environment,

• 26:54Nick Bare?

  that allowed us to act on the systems that are going to lead us to the goals that we want to accomplish.

• 27:04Nick Bare?

  Your environment is everything. It's what you're surrounded by.

• 27:11Nick Bare?

  Opportunities, things, food, people.

• 27:17Nick Bare?

  The people you allow in your environment.

• 27:21Nick Bare?

  Consuming and occupying your time and your family's time. Are they positive, challenging, good, hardworking, value-driven, mission-focused people

• 27:36Nick Bare?

  that are helping you be more consistent

• 27:40Nick Bare?

  and help you get towards the person you want to be, the results that are driving your systems? If not, it might be time to audit your environment. But you have to design your environment for success, or at least as much as you can.

• 27:58Nick Bare?

  I shared this post a few weeks ago. We were traveling from Austin to Nashville with the family. And something that I do every time we get on a plane, every time we travel, is I carry this, this small cooler that I got on Amazon. I throw a small ice pack in there and I have a Ziploc baggie, a gallon Ziploc baggie, that I put 300 grams of jasmine rice, eight ounces of 93.7 ground beef, some Primal Kitchen's buffalo sauce, and every once in a while I'll throw some pickles in there.

• 28:35Nick Bare?

  And I'll close that Ziploc bag up. I'll throw it in my cooler with a spoon. And I will eat that meal, whether it's on the plane, right when we land of where we're traveling to. I like to travel with a meal.

• 28:52Nick Bare?

  It is controlling the controllables that I am in control of.

• 28:59Nick Bare?

  I don't want to have to eat airport food or be tempted by something that is quick and convenient. I want to design my environment for success.

• 29:13Nick Bare?

  And that requires forward thinking and backwards planning and prepping my foods and putting them in a Ziploc bag and throw it in the fridge. So when I wake up at 4:00 AM to get the family ready to go hop on an early morning flight to go to wherever we're traveling to, I just grab that bag out of the fridge, throw it in my cooler, and I'm good to go. I posted a photo of me eating a bag of beef and rice in the Nashville airport. And there were a lot of people who were motivated and encouraged by it. There were also a lot of people who said, "That's unnecessary and stupid," and I get it. I'm not saying you have to do that. I'm just sharing that it's one of the things that I do

• 29:58Nick Bare?

  to design my environment for success. It's a system, it is a routine, it is a habit that I do every time we travel so I can be more consistent with my diet, my energy levels, the way I feel, the way I recover, the way I'm prepared for my next training session, or just to travel with my family throughout the day.

• 30:26Nick Bare?

  I like the way I feel when I feel healthy and I'm in control of the foods that I'm consuming. People become food-focused

• 30:37Nick Bare?

  when their times, their mind, and their purpose aren't fulfilled.

• 30:46Nick Bare?

  You know, I've never, never been someone personally who forgets to eat. I hear this from people all the time. "I just, I forgot to eat. It's 5:00 PM and I just, I haven't thought about it all day."

• 30:57Nick Bare?

  I unfortunately can't relate or resonate to that.

• 31:01Nick Bare?

  As soon as I'm done with one meal, I'm thinking about the next meal.

• 31:05Nick Bare?

  It's fuel for me. I look forward to eating, I like eating, I like food. Tasty, nourishing, fuel-focused food.

• 31:17Nick Bare?

  But I hear it from people all the time. And they say, "I just forgot to eat."

• 31:24Nick Bare?

  If you struggle with being consistent with your diet

• 31:28Nick Bare?

  and if one of the reasons is because you are food-focused,

• 31:32Nick Bare?

  which is a lot of people, myself included, but

• 31:38Nick Bare?

  I have willpower and self-control and self-restraint to make smart decisions when it comes to consuming food. But if you're someone who struggles with being food-focused all the time,

• 31:51Nick Bare?

  I would encourage you, find something to fill your time.

• 31:58Nick Bare?

  Establish a purpose. Have a mission.

• 32:03Nick Bare?

  Fill your time, fill your mind with something you're working towards. Cause I know when I am working on something and I'm focused and I'm dialed in, I'm not thinking about the next meal.

• 32:16Nick Bare?

  I'm not walking into the kitchen looking for a snack in between my meals. I'm head down, I'm working, I'm striving, I'm focused. But I know when the time comes to the next meal, I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna fuel my body, I'm gonna fuel it right. You know, I've been on a James Clear kick lately. And I was listening to a conversation and an interview he did with Stephen Bartlett from the podcast Diary of a CEO. And one of the things James Clear said in this podcast interview

• 32:55Nick Bare?

  was that you can't have the outcome without the lifestyle.

• 33:03Nick Bare?

  If you say you have a goal, there's an identity of who you want to become.

• 33:11Nick Bare?

  If your lifestyle, if your behaviors, if your actions, if your habits don't reflect that identity, that outcome, it's never gonna happen. You can't have the outcome without the lifestyle.

• 33:34Nick Bare?

  A lot of people have told me before, they want to lose weight. They only lose 20, 30, 40, 50 plus pounds.

• 33:46Nick Bare?

  But their lifestyle, their behaviors, their habits,

• 33:51Nick Bare?

  their routines, their systems do not reflect the outcome they hope and desire to achieve.

• 34:02Nick Bare?

  So if you're not getting to where you want to be,

• 34:07Nick Bare?

  it's probably because you are not consistent enough with the habits, the daily habits to get you there.

• 34:16Nick Bare?

  That's the harsh truth. If you're not making progress, it's probably not a goal problem. It's a systems problem.

• 34:27Nick Bare?

  One of the things that James Clear was also talking about in this conversation, in this podcast, he said, you gotta prime your habits. This resonated with me so well.

• 34:40Nick Bare?

  Prime your habits. Prime your systems.

• 34:46Nick Bare?

  I'll give some examples of how I prime some of my habits, my systems.

• 34:53Nick Bare?

  My morning routine, for example. As I told you, I'll wake up at or before 5:00 AM and I'm running by 5:30 AM. The night before my run, I lay out all of my stuff that I need. I lay out my running shorts, my shoes, my socks, my hat. I set my alarm at night before going to bed.

• 35:21Nick Bare?

  As soon as my alarm goes off the next morning, there's a few things I do to prime my habit. That habit is the morning run.

• 35:31Nick Bare?

  I bounce on a bed, I never snooze. I go straight into the pantry and I mix up my run fuel, which is one scoop of G1M Sport, one scoop of G1M Sport Plus. I add that to water, I shake it up and I drink it. That for me, that's the prime to my habit.

• 35:53Nick Bare?

  I'm like, now that I consume my fuel, I have 40 grams of carbohydrates, 700 milligrams of sodium, 150 milligrams of caffeine and no tropics. There's no turn of back. I have to go run at 5:30 AM, no matter what, because I've primed the habit.

• 36:15Nick Bare?

  Before I go into my strength training session,

• 36:20Nick Bare?

  I know I'm gonna have my pre-training meal at a certain time, about two hours before I work out. And when it's about 40 minutes before going into that training session, I am mixing up my pre-workout. If it's a strength training session, I'm mixing up one scoop of pre, one scoop of pump. I'll mix that up, I will drink that, like I said, 30 to 40 minutes prior to my training session. That is the prime to my habit.

• 36:49Nick Bare?

  The pre-workout meal, the pre-workout supplements, getting in the zone, going to train.

• 36:58Nick Bare?

  These are systems, these are routines, these are habits

• 37:03Nick Bare?

  that set you up to act on that behavior. What do you have to do to prime

• 37:11Nick Bare?

  these habits?

• 37:15Nick Bare?

  A lot of times throughout the week, you know, Steph and I will go back and forth between who makes dinner. And if it's my turn to make dinner in the evening when I get home from work,

• 37:27Nick Bare?

  I'm a big fan, like I said, of forward thinking and backwards planning. Today is a good example.

• 37:35Nick Bare?

  Tonight for dinner, we're having chicken thighs. We're having sweet potatoes and we're having broccoli. So this morning, after a morning run, the kids still didn't wake up.

• 37:51Nick Bare?

  I buy bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Cause we like the crispy skin on the outside of the chicken thighs. Sometimes. What I like to do is I cut the bones out so it's easier for us to eat it. And the kids really like eating the meat off the bones. So this morning, I cut all the bones out of the bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I separated the bones with some meat on them from the chicken thighs. Two separate bags, put those in the fridge. I cut the sweet potatoes up, put those in a bag, put them in a fridge. I trimmed the broccoli, put it in the fridge. So I know now that when I get home from work this evening,

• 38:36Nick Bare?

  prepping for dinner, when the house is chaotic, the kids are running around everywhere, I've set myself up for success. I've primed the habit. Now our family is gonna have a healthy, high protein, nutrient-dense, nourishing meal because the habit was primed by forward thinking and backwards planning.

• 39:03Nick Bare?

  Part of creating habits and routines and systems is having a plan.

• 39:10Nick Bare?

  It's making a plan. It's scheduling out your day, making time, allocating time for when you're gonna act on these habits and then following through.

• 39:26Nick Bare?

  I share this all the time, but I have the same lunch every day.

• 39:32Nick Bare?

  And there's different seasons where that changes, you know, every couple of months I'll switch up my meals. My breakfast will change, my lunch will change slightly. My before-bed meal will change slightly. Dinner is where we personally have the most variation in our diet.

• 39:48Nick Bare?

  Like last night, we had salmon, rice and asparagus. The night before that, we had chicken salads, arugula, spinach, chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin seeds, olives, olive oil, balsamic dressing. Dinner's always a little different for us. But right now, the last couple of months, my breakfast has been the same. It's been a protein smoothie. My lunch is the same. It's beef and rice. And what I eat before I go to bed is the same. It's dried figs. It's cottage cheese, it's creek yogurt, it's berries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries.

• 40:31Nick Bare?

  But right now, my lunch is 300 grams of jasmine rice, eight ounces of 93.7 ground beef, some Primal Kitchens buffalo sauce, some organic ketchup and pickles.

• 40:47Nick Bare?

  So every couple of days, I know, when I go to the grocery store, I'm buying 93.7 ground beef, rice, Primal Kitchens buffalo sauce.

• 40:57Nick Bare?

  Every couple of days, I'm prepping three pounds of ground beef at a time. I'm putting rice in the rice cooker. I'm weighing out eight ounces of meat, 300 grams of rice, I'm putting them in my meal prep containers, putting them in the fridge. So the next morning, before I go into work, I grab one of those containers out of the fridge, I put it in my cooler, I go to work.

• 41:26Nick Bare?

  There's my lunch.

• 41:28Nick Bare?

  I don't require a lot of variation, I can eat the same thing day in and day out. But I'm setting myself up for success to be more consistent, to be more consistent with my diet and my nutrition and my chloric intake. The opposite of that is not forward thinking, backwards planning, not designing your environment for success,

• 41:55Nick Bare?

  not building out these systems that lead to your goal.

• 41:59Nick Bare?

  And what does that look like? It's not meal prepping. It's waking up with no plan. It's getting in the office, getting right into work, putting your head up, realizing it's 12:00 PM, you're hungry. You don't have any food prepped. So you hop in your car, you drive to the quickest convenience store, restaurant, fast food chain, you grab something quick, unhealthy,

• 42:30Nick Bare?

  get back to your office, eat on the go. And there you just lost momentum.

• 42:40Nick Bare?

  There was an opportunity which you could have seized, but you didn't because you didn't plan, prepare or lean on a system that was leading you towards your goal.

• 42:56Nick Bare?

  There's a lot of things I do day in and day out. An example is my lunch. 300 grams of jasmine rice, 8 ounces of ground beef. Why do I eat this every single day?

• 43:11Nick Bare?

  I know what I gotta buy when I go to the grocery store. I know what I need to prep every couple of days. I know exactly what I'm gonna eat for lunch. It eliminates decision fatigue.

• 43:25Nick Bare?

  It helps me stay on track with my diet. Fuels my training, my recovery. There's less to think about. So I can spend more time on the things that actually move the needle in my life. They're gonna help me get to my larger goals.

• 43:51Nick Bare?

  Some people could benefit from habit tracking. And it's one of the things that James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits.

• 44:01Nick Bare?

  Whether this is having a calendar and for every day you work out, you put a check. For every day you stayed on track with your diet, you put a check. Maybe you log into a food logging application on your phone. You log your food. You hit your calorie goals, you hit your macro goals. Habit tracking can be extremely beneficial.

• 44:32Nick Bare?

  But there's also downsides to habit tracking.

• 44:38Nick Bare?

  As James Clear says, "The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it. We optimize for what we measure. When we choose the wrong measurement, we get the wrong behavior." Examples. We care about getting 10,000 steps more than we do about being healthy.

• 45:03Nick Bare?

  Another example.

• 45:06Nick Bare?

  If success is measured by a lower number on the scale, you will optimize for a lower number on that scale. Even if that means embracing crash diets, juice cleanses, and fat loss pills. The human mind wants to win whatever game is being played.

• 45:27Nick Bare?

  So I would encourage you, if habit tracking works for you, great.

• 45:33Nick Bare?

  As long as there is a purpose behind the habit. There's a purpose behind tracking that habit.

• 45:41Nick Bare?

  And you don't get caught up in just the measurement and the action of tracking that habit.

• 45:49Nick Bare?

  Certain habits are meant to be abandoned.

• 45:54Nick Bare?

  There are seasons for some habits. And that season ends and it's time for a new and different habit. If the purpose of that habit stops serving you, it might be time to adopt and build a new habit.

• 46:13Nick Bare?

  The habits and routines and systems that I had in my life looked different before I had kids compared to my life now, being married with two young kids. The habits, routines, and systems I had before my business is as large as it is now were much different than they are today.

• 46:39Nick Bare?

  So I love habits. I love systems. I love routines. As long as the purpose continues to serve you.

• 46:47Nick Bare?

  And I'm gonna end it with this.

• 46:50Nick Bare?

  A few years ago, I had my running coach, Jeff Cunningham, on the podcast.

• 46:58Nick Bare?

  And something he said not only rung true with me, but so many other people. He said, "Nick, it's better to be consistently good rather than occasionally great."

• 47:13Nick Bare?

  When we are consistently good,

• 47:17Nick Bare?

  what that means is that we are building up votes.

• 47:24Nick Bare?

  Just like James Clear in Atomic Habits said, and I referenced this earlier. "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance, that single instance is being occasionally great, will transform your beliefs. But as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity."

• 47:48Nick Bare?

  It's better to be consistently good, day in and day out. Showing up over and over and over again. Showing up is an action.

• 48:00Nick Bare?

  That is a practice, that is a process. And every time we show up consistently good, we get a vote. And that vote, as they build up and we accumulate more votes, that is more evidence of our identity, of who we say we want to become. We wanna be healthier. We wanna be stronger. We wanna be wealthier. We wanna be more successful. We wanna be a better husband, a better father. You need the votes to add up, to prove, to say, "You are who you say you wanna be."

• 48:36Nick Bare?

  It's better to be consistently good rather than occasionally great.

• 48:43Nick Bare?

  That's how you become more consistent.

• 48:48Nick Bare?

  You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

• 48:56Nick Bare?

  Appreciate you, guys. Love you. And as always, go one more.