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00:00:01
Think Long Think Wrong
6 Plays14 days ago
Another exciting episode where Brian and Dave talk about mindset, small steps, and holding themselves accountable.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Mood Check
00:00:31
David Isaacs
and welcome everyone. it is July 1st, the official halfway point of 2025. We are here live speaking about some stuff and some things.
00:00:53
David Isaacs
And I am joined here by my co-host Brian. Brian, you're just telling me you're feeling good today. What's up with
00:01:02
Big Dog
I just did some coke. No, didn't do cocaine. My boy Dave is drinking some look like Coke Zero though. So we do have coke on this podcast either way. But yeah, man, I'm in a good mood.
00:01:13
Big Dog
How are you?
Gardening Conversations and Therapy Benefits
00:01:14
David Isaacs
Good. Yeah, I just got finished up. I had some cucumbers that I'm starting to harvest. There's going to pickle apocalypse here soon.
00:01:25
Big Dog
Pickle apocalypse.
00:01:26
David Isaacs
Because, yeah, I got so many of them.
00:01:27
Big Dog
Say that 10 times fast.
00:01:30
David Isaacs
But I'm doing between fermenting and regular canning methods. And, yeah, so, I mean, it's been fun. My fingers stink like garlic. Just got back from Kroger.
00:01:42
David Isaacs
going to have to go buy... pretty much all the mason jars in the local Westland area. But yeah, you know, it feels good gardening, ah sense of accomplishment.
00:01:53
David Isaacs
I was talking to my therapist earlier today, and i think we talked a little bit last night too, about the things that you can do that are healthy, that are measurable.
00:02:05
David Isaacs
So with gardening, depending what your harvest is like, how your plants look, that, make you feel good that you've succeeded in being able to garden or going to the gym and some weight comes off the scale if you're dieting or you're able to put more weight up or able to run longer or faster whatever so really just trying to fold that in every day and ah kind of helps to break things up when i'm working from home to get up for five minutes go check on the plants
00:02:39
David Isaacs
see my war against the cucumber beetles and yeah, just, um, yeah, keep an eye on that stuff. And then there's obviously the more abstract things that we deal with, um, as far as internal motivation, how we feel about ourself, how we feel about what we accomplished accomplished that day.
00:03:00
David Isaacs
And yeah, I mean, I think it kind of just comes down to more work, but really journaling or, setting out a plan for what you wanted to accomplish that day and seeing what you were able to do.
00:03:13
David Isaacs
So just kind of planning in on that. I'm going full Larry David mode with a little pocket handbook that I'll be writing in and looking at. Um, and we'll see, we'll see how that goes.
00:03:28
Big Dog
Hell yeah. With your gardening, you get to measure your cucumbers and spread your seed, man. You do it. You're doing God's work, and I love it.
00:03:35
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:03:37
Big Dog
But yeah, ah measurable goals. That's like what our our episode is about today. So
Motivation, Goals, and Self-Care
00:03:44
Big Dog
I have plateaued a little bit on my diet, but I'm not beating myself up.
00:03:51
Big Dog
um You know, I've noticed myself that I've been kind of eating tortilla chips and Like that never really stopped, but like, you know, I've just been kind of like gording. So plateaued that my hunger's come back a little bit. So i'm kind of adjusting and adding more protein to my, to my diet. Right. So, you know, I was pretty sad that I, you know, I've kind of been in and out the last few weeks, but sometimes it just takes a little spark and a little motivation. Sometimes just need to take a step back and be like, whoa, like, what am I doing right now, man
00:04:29
Big Dog
It's not good. So, I mean, that's a little but it's a simplistic, but, you know, overall, you know, I so i took a step back and I said, you know, I'm a chunky little boy.
00:04:31
David Isaacs
Yeah, it's
00:04:43
Big Dog
Like, I don't want to be like that anymore. i want get gains. want to look like Eric. And, like, and not me. So, and that's a put down.
00:04:55
Big Dog
i shouldn't do that. But, um, I want to be in great shape. I want, you know, I've been going to the, I have been going to the gym. Uh, you know, it's nothing special.
00:05:03
David Isaacs
nice
00:05:07
Big Dog
Like I kind of just get on ah a treadmill and watch TV for a little bit, but you know what? Hey, like I'm doing it. Like, you know, it sounds stupid and I'm sure there are, there bros listening out there and they're like,
00:05:21
Big Dog
you know He's got to work on his X, Y, and Z. I'm not there yet. I'm not there for motivation yet. but you know Baby steps. Treadmill.
00:05:29
David Isaacs
Yeah. Yeah. No, I and talk about it all the time. You got to find something that works and taking those steps and building that base, you know, legs feed the wolf, strong base, strong legs, the wolves get fed.
00:05:46
Big Dog
I ain't the wolf. Okay, I'm a wolf.
00:05:49
David Isaacs
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, sometimes maybe looking at yourself and, realizing you're not where you want to be and hoping that's the motivation for where you do want to be. But if you can also fold in what it takes, because I think for me, I have that all or nothing mentality. I can either do it all or I can't do it ah at all.
00:06:12
David Isaacs
And yeah, breaking down those steps and getting more of an understanding of, what What does it take to get to the gym? What does it take to be able to do what I want to do at the gym?
00:06:23
David Isaacs
What does it take to stick to my diet? You know, what works best? And sometimes it's a lot of give and take. And there's going to be those times. I think it's probably one of the more important times when you fall off. How long does it take you to get back up?
00:06:37
David Isaacs
How long does it take you to realize I fell out of it because of X? I'm not going because of Y. And now I need to figure out Z to get me back up and motivated because.
00:06:50
David Isaacs
Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I found is, you know, I'm pretty motivated to do things that are easy and measurable or do things for other people and be there for them.
00:07:02
David Isaacs
But I don't treat myself the way that I would treat a good friend. I don't speak to myself in a and ah in a very positive way. I mean, I'm not down on myself all the time, but a lot of the times that fleeting, shameful feeling that might be able to get you up off the couch might be able to get you to eat healthier, but establishing more of that relationship to, you know, how would you, how would a ah good friend talk, talk to me about this, about how I'm feeling, what I'm doing and
Accountability and Goal Tracking
00:07:36
David Isaacs
realizing like, well, you're doing a lot better than you were before.
00:07:39
David Isaacs
And sometimes it's hard to look at ourselves internally or really have that love for ourselves to give ourselves grace. And I think it's kind of up to, you know, your own determination. I plan to do these things today and I did most of them. That's good.
00:07:57
David Isaacs
um Some days if you don't plan anything and you don't do anything, I think that's kind of an easy way to avoid kind of the goals and the things you set out for yourself.
00:07:57
Big Dog
you
00:08:08
David Isaacs
But for other people, if you start off and you just kind of realize you got to learn by doing. And you continue to learn, i love learning. That's why i try different things. I try different exercises, look at studies, what works best. ah gardening has been quite a big experiment. There's a lot of things I didn't realize that I would have to manage and look out for, but you know, you just got to keep going and, um,
00:08:37
David Isaacs
Just, yeah, keep keep going, keep learning, not only about what you're doing, but how you're doing it and how it makes you feel.
00:08:48
Big Dog
Yeah, it's all about building a strong foundation. um You know, you don't want to build a house on quicksand, right? I think is the old ah old ah old term for that. So, um yeah, for me, I mean, even though I've been a t chunky little boy lately, i still have the understanding because I i have an app and like it sounds dumb too, but like that's been holding me accountable. And I noticed that like when I don't track things is when I really go off track.
00:09:18
Big Dog
add a little pun there. Um, it, you know, cause it's not holding myself accountable. Same thing for me at work. You know, there's times where I'm like just doing like an Excel sheet and I just want to like throw myself into traffic.
00:09:29
Big Dog
But like, I know that I have to do that. I know I have to get that work completed.
00:09:35
Big Dog
Um, and sometimes, yeah, I'll, I'll slack off, but you know, I gotta to tell myself like this, no one else is here to do this. Like you're here to do this. Like you have to do that. And so I am trying to keep that mentality,
00:09:48
Big Dog
as like my base of like, no one's going to pick up the shirt on the floor. no one's going to pick up the, you know, no one's going to clean the plates. Like my wife and son are out of town right now. So I'm going to have to be a little bit more dependent on myself to like get household chores done.
00:10:07
Big Dog
Cause this, you know, this carpet's not going to get wrung out. Like these laundry is not going to get thrown and into the washer. Like there's things that,
00:10:19
Big Dog
have to be done on a daily basis, number one. um but number two, um
00:10:27
Big Dog
you know you know, having a strong base of just, it depends, it it depends on your situation, right? Like I was over the weekend, I literally did nothing. Like I, ah sat on the couch and munched and those were the days that I weren't, wasn't tracking. That's when my base wasn't good. But now that I've kind of have seen what I had done for two days,
00:10:48
Big Dog
And just like kind of get completely got out of sunk or out of sync. um You know, i i didn't like that. So I had to like kind of recalibrate and be like, okay, like you had a bad couple of days, but like now it's time to get back to normal.
00:11:02
Big Dog
where We're going to be at work. So we're going to be around other people. know, we're going to be a bit more social. And then it's just going to be like our batteries going to kind of recharge themselves, so to speak. So.
00:11:16
Big Dog
Getting back into that routine um and the swing of things, you know, sometimes it might take a minute and sometimes it might be even slower than that. But it's just consistent have being consistent
Stress Management and Incremental Progress
00:11:30
Big Dog
and having a strong foundation of accountability for yourself.
00:11:36
David Isaacs
Yeah, that's the that's the wrench that got thrown, right? no Your wife leaves town, got no one around in the house, and you got to keep yourself from going full goblin mode.
00:11:48
David Isaacs
I mean, going around, walking you better have pants on. You better not be Winnie the Pooh-ing it right now on me, but...
00:11:54
Big Dog
i I was this weekend, but I have pants on. I ah you know got back to society.
00:12:01
David Isaacs
Yeah, once the the work came back around and then you had to
00:12:07
David Isaacs
You had to come out from your cave.
00:12:11
Big Dog
yeah Yeah, I had to remove all the jelly stains and put some slacks on.
00:12:18
David Isaacs
Like, yeah, I get it It's tough, especially when I think it's easy enough to realize there's things you want to work on. And for however long it's it's gone one way negatively, and then you want to move towards something that's positive. But think if I can take all this on at once.
00:12:37
David Isaacs
ah It's not going to be able, I'm not going to be able to keep up with it for forever, or I'm not going to see results right away, but I'll see those results in the future. If I want to be more motivated for the gym or diet or cleanliness or sleep schedule, or there's this book series that I haven't really got through and all these other things, but I think just the amount of choices that you can make every day, it's it's hard to stay true so what you want to do, what you want to accomplish. So, yeah, it it's a lot easier to think about where you want to be, why the things that you're doing that are negative instead of taking a step back and thinking, OK, well, let's let's work on this first. Let's develop this as a habit.
00:13:23
David Isaacs
I had um kind of a disgusting habit, but I chewed my nails. up until I was like 25 years old. And eventually.
00:13:33
Big Dog
ah was this That was the age that I quit too, funny enough.
00:13:36
David Isaacs
Yeah. You know, I still pee the bed. I don't know what to do about that, but the.
00:13:40
Big Dog
I pooped the bed, so we're in the same company.
00:13:42
David Isaacs
Yeah. Well, it's not a competition anyways. I don't. And sometimes I look back and think it's hard to think about why I broke that bad habit or how I've been able to maintain it all this time.
00:13:58
David Isaacs
But It's I the only thing that I have to do is do something else and kind of come to that realization. Gardening is easy enough because there's times that I finish something at work or send an email and I have time between a meeting that I can get up and, you know, just go outside, take a break from mundane and what you're doing.
00:14:19
David Isaacs
But, you know, some of this other some of these other things like, yeah, getting up and getting to the gym is hard. Some days it's going to be harder than it usually is. And i think those tests and when we fall off and everything else, like how long it takes to get back up, what you had to deal with, and then you continue doing it.
00:14:39
David Isaacs
And i think it just kind of comes down to, yeah, if there's no structure like there was when I had sports, when I had school, when we had the boot camp where you have, or even with work where you have to get these things done or you have to learn these new things or you have to practice or however,
00:14:58
David Isaacs
you're you have to kind of police yourself into doing that. And yeah, it might take a little bit more work, but at the end of the day, it's five minutes of your time just to think about things from a high level. All right. At 7 p.m., I'm going to go to the gym.
00:15:11
David Isaacs
I'll be there for an hour, an hour and a half. Get home, um maybe cook food or maybe you schedule out time to meal prep or something. You're going to come home and eat that and maybe wind down before bed by watching a TV show or reading a book.
00:15:28
David Isaacs
And then before you go to bed, you think about what you have to get done the next day and things that you want to get done at work and the priorities on what those things are and to say, okay well, I'm going to bring a lunch to work tomorrow or say, know, one of these days, ah one day out of the week you eat out or something, or I'm going go for a walk at lunch or I'm going to do this or going to do that. I mean, the, so many options that you have.
00:15:55
David Isaacs
So just trying to figure out, small things to fold in every day that are healthier than what you were before. And you just got to build off that.
00:16:07
David Isaacs
It's kind of the same thing with long-term investments will net you a lot more money than it will options trading or trying to gamble or sports betting or anything like that.
00:16:18
David Isaacs
Because that's when you get yourself into trouble. but staying the course and being patient and patience pays is one of the better phrases that I've heard recently.
00:16:31
David Isaacs
And it's true. The patience and the persistence to do something, but that persistence means that you're going to continue doing it, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing. doesn't have to be all at once.
00:16:46
David Isaacs
And you just, you know, make those decisions and
Self-Love and Personal Boundaries
00:16:50
David Isaacs
keep it small.
00:16:53
Big Dog
Yeah, you said something very interesting earlier. It kind of sparked things that we've we've obviously talked about, but you said you know taking it all on at once. It wasn't necessarily in that context, obviously, but I used to... I mean, I still am in in some regards, but I used to be like all or nothing. like I had to take it all on or I can't do like anything.
00:17:18
Big Dog
But like kind of like working with my wife in the kitchen, like trying to do all of that by yourself is going to, you're going to kill it yourself eventually just from pure exhaustion.
00:17:30
Big Dog
And i think I was definitely like that up until a couple of years ago. um I find myself just kind of, I was finding myself just, you know,
00:17:47
Big Dog
if I couldn't do everything that I wanted to, like the wolf the lone wolf mentality, then it wasn't good enough for me and I wouldn't do it. So I ah had to teach myself and I definitely had to learn that even a small piece of, you know, whether it's cutting up fruit or chopping in an onion or just taking out the trash, like you're part of a team and that definitely comes into effect even with your own brain, that if you break up everything into small components, then everything else is you know, um, less overwhelming like you with gardening and and and learning, you know, it's not necessarily just putting soil in, you know, bulbs or plant air, um, like seeds in, like, there's a lot more intuitive to that. You have to, uh, you know, you have to have topsoil, obviously you have to have the right amount of water and sunlight. Like you can't just put a garden anywhere you have to, any and there's a whole different science behind it, but
00:18:47
Big Dog
it's baby steps, it's increments. And was going to that's just like, i mean, we've talked about this a thousand times on, you know, or probably not that many, but we've talked about a lot of just like breaking things down.
00:18:50
David Isaacs
Yeah, that's... Go ahead.
00:19:02
Big Dog
um And like he said, like writing things down or staying organized too. Right. But like, this all kind of just goes back to like my point of when you have a strong base like that,
00:19:15
Big Dog
um nothing seems impossible. So, you know, I think
00:19:26
Big Dog
going, you know, going forward, i you know, I've obviously learned that like, I've learned to make like a Mexicali dip instead of so using sour cream, I use Greek yogurt. It's going to be a little bit more tangier, but it's way less calories.
00:19:40
Big Dog
you know, you know, substitute this for that. Like, it's just like the little things that add up at the end of the day, that's going to make you feel a lot better. And, you know, i mean, this could be, this mentality can be applied to anything, the gym, gardening, work, um, just in life, you know, and over communicating. I mean, and but even if it's yourself, like I have a pretty over-erector brain, so I feel like I talk to myself a lot and possibly overthink things, but um
00:20:12
Big Dog
you know, and I i feel like i have to understand every scenario that could possibly happen for me to make a ah relevant decision. But, you know, I'm getting to the point where I'm talking myself down and I can kind of just like singularly focus on the ah pros and cons of a situation faster rather than have to go through like the whole spectrum of the sinking process.
00:20:33
Big Dog
And, you know, it's just building my brain to so it's in a healthier place. So my my highs aren't always as high and my lows aren't high where I'm kind of just like a middle wavelength type deal. So,
00:20:46
Big Dog
um yeah, I mean, I feel better, you know, if I were like on keto and i you know, was to start or my, when I was losing weight while ago, you know doing keto at night, you know, just all of a sudden started snacking on chips, then yeah, I'd probably would beat myself up. But now I'm like, you know, had a good time, sat on the couch, like,
00:21:10
Big Dog
Let's get back to it. You know, like it was fun. A couple of days were fun, but now I get get back to reality and put pants on, put the chips away and big dog. got to do big dog things. You know what mean? So
00:21:25
David Isaacs
Yeah, exactly. i think it's, um, I'm just, at least for myself, I'm just stubborn. Uh, and it's, it's very weird.
00:21:35
Big Dog
I think we all are in our own way.
00:21:38
David Isaacs
Yeah, well, it's really weird to have
Cultural Challenges and Foundational Habits
00:21:40
David Isaacs
the stubbornness of thinking that I can take things on. i can take on more than needed, but I usually you know get into these phases of yeah with gardening or house projects or the gym.
00:21:56
David Isaacs
you know that That takes up like a lot of my mental space. So with gardening, I'm constantly looking, constantly worried. do these leaves look good? Are they growing as fast as they need to be?
00:22:08
David Isaacs
What can I do to help these plants out? Are they getting enough sunlight? What's the watering schedule? and And in that sense, it works out. With house projects, it works out because you look at all the possible different variables that you can think of. If a wall is not even before you put mortar on it for backsplash, what do you do to keep it level?
00:22:31
David Isaacs
What do you do to make it look Uh, the same, you know, do you even it out with the mortar? Like, what do you do with, uh, molding? Um, like how do you get everything to look more uniform and that? So sometimes it does work out in that sense. And other times, uh, say with golf,
00:22:50
David Isaacs
when I was getting golf lessons and I'd be up there for 30 minutes to an hour and they would only be making me focus on one thing and they would go through and make sure I did that one thing right, regardless of how I struck the ball, because a lot of times I wasn't striking the ball really great. And they're like, well, don't worry about that.
00:23:08
David Isaacs
But it was something that made me worry about it because I wasn't hitting it well. And they're telling me to do something and it doesn't feel right. And it feels weird. And, um, Same thing with when I went and did acupuncture and I felt like they're just trying to sell me on more lessons or they're trying to sell me on getting more treatments or um these other things.
00:23:30
David Isaacs
So I think there's like that difference between You know, work, ah it's easy enough to know you have to get up at a certain time. You have to show up. You have meetings. You have things that you have to report on. You have projects and you have your own learning. How can I do things to make things easier on myself, easier on other people? What can I do to help the company out or the team out?
00:23:54
David Isaacs
And with house projects or gardening, eventually there's going to be a time where you don't have to do anything or the projects completed or the season, the summer's over, everything's canned, everything's pickled. Everything is, you know, done in that sense from the gardening perspective. Whereas going to the gym or eating healthy or cleaning up around the house is something that you have to do. You have to fold that in every, uh, every day, every week, same thing with mowing the lawn, doing laundry and those things. So,
00:24:30
David Isaacs
It's kind of like that that's the difference that I get into, and I'm trying to kind of look through the fog and try to understand these things because, yeah, if you – old saying in poker, think long, think wrong.
00:24:44
David Isaacs
So if I can get to just like my first instinct of what what can I do to make things better in any sense, okay, I want to go to the gym.
00:24:56
David Isaacs
Let's start it once a week.
00:24:56
Big Dog
Thank
00:24:58
David Isaacs
Like let's just go. And that should be full stop. That's what you start with. Or eating healthier. Okay, one meal a day, I'll track.
00:25:11
David Isaacs
And it'll be healthy in a sense, or healthier than I usually. Okay, full stop, start there, and then we'll build up to more other things.
00:25:22
David Isaacs
But there's a lot of variables that happen in between that. But I think that's where I've been trying to go to therapy and trying to get and more understanding of how do i feel good about myself doing it?
00:25:33
David Isaacs
Because with gardening, if you're off on pH in the soil, if you're off on sunlight, if you're off on water, the plant won't thrive. Whereas me, I'm not thriving.
00:25:45
David Isaacs
But if I wanted to just sit in bed all day or just watch TV all day and eat like crap and never work out or anything like I would still survive.
00:25:56
Big Dog
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Take it easy there, pal.
00:25:57
David Isaacs
Well, what I'm saying is that
00:26:01
Big Dog
No, no, I'm joking.
00:26:02
David Isaacs
Yeah, there's certain things that and with gardening that you have to do to make sure the plants thrive. Whereas, you know, our basic needs of food, water, sleep is really all you need to survive. But you're not exactly thriving. And it's hard to kind of look at that and and feel that without getting that interpersonal love, that interpersonal feeling that I can do better.
00:26:32
David Isaacs
And not, you know, so much of the negatives that kind of come along with like, oh, you said you were going to go to the gym today, but you didn't. You said you were going to do laundry, but you didn't. You know, and full stop there and be like, it's OK, I'll go tomorrow.
00:26:49
David Isaacs
I'll do it tomorrow. I'll handle it tomorrow instead of, you know, doing things because I feel like it needs to be done or something or somebody is going to come after me if it doesn't get done.
00:27:09
Big Dog
Yeah, I mean... Definitely trying to love yourself and just have like... Loving yourself is hard. Loving... Sometimes loving other people is easier than loving yourself because it's going to something else to focus on rather than like the ah loud kind of chaotic brain that you have.
00:27:33
Big Dog
um
00:27:35
Big Dog
But like, yeah, I mean, you have to give yourself... grayson situations um you know if you're not your garden's not coming along how you want it to if your diet's not coming along that shit sucks at the end of the day but like it's not a big deal i mean there are people who you know the chances of you kind of just like if you're oh you know obese and you take a day off to you know, you in your dieting and you take ah a day off, like it's, it's not going to be a big deal if you munch down on some things, but like, that can't be a consistent thing. Cause then that's like one, you're not respecting yourself enough to quit and, and do the heart, the harder thing.
00:28:22
Big Dog
You're just going for the easy, the low hanging fruit.
00:28:26
Big Dog
And, and two, it's like not part of like, youreuning You're attuning. You're not loving yourself at that point. You're just you're just trying to manage a a situational stress.
00:28:41
Big Dog
I'm speaking from personal experience here. like You're just managing a ah situational stress um that's going to have long-term negative effects. so If you don't with it the correct way. That's why kind that's why i kind of like have spent a lot of time over, like especially last year of just like, and it's hard, like, don't get me wrong. It's, it's not an easy process of just being able to love myself so that I can love other people and also just respecting myself enough to know what I want and and what I need in every kind of given scenario. So,
00:29:20
Big Dog
um Oh man, it's, it's hard. Don't get me wrong, but it's something have to, you have to work at just like everything else in life, gardening, going to the gym, finding your diet, everything else is these, the, the things that you want in life aren't, shouldn't be easy. You have to work for them.
00:29:40
Big Dog
And like, and I'm kind of sounding like a sales, like a sales mantra right now, but, um, it's true. You know, it's,
00:29:54
Big Dog
if, if dieting and gardening were easy, then they're, you know, this would be a strange place in hindsight. Um, you know, and i know there's a lot of, and and that's the other thing too, is there's, you know, between AI, Google, the internet, whatever, there's just a lot of resources out here for, to better yourself.
00:30:16
Big Dog
Um, and we can get into like the, the bias of the writer and all that, but like, Whatever. like if And if anything, maybe your may hear point from earlier, then read more multiple articles. Get different angles on things.
00:30:33
Big Dog
you know and like I don't want to turn this into, but without getting into like the political part of it its just you know
Technology, Accountability, and Balance
00:30:40
Big Dog
do you do the research. We have the resources to to better ourselves, and yet we choose not to sometimes. Because that's the easy part.
00:30:52
Big Dog
we should be using the the internet to, to be bettering ourselves and to be better human beings in service to others. But instead we choose to use this device to argue with people about, you know, the theme of 28 years later, the, or our opinions on the Kardashian, whatever, you know,
00:31:18
Big Dog
We need to be using our resources better to to better ourselves. I guess that's kind of the point of this long-winded rent that i kind of gone on. so um But there's always things that we can do and we have the resources. We just need to take take advantage of them and use them in Spirways.
00:31:36
David Isaacs
yeah Yeah, exactly. i think the the consumerist um and consumerist revolution, really, with Amazon, with AI, with streaming, social media, that they really sell you on convenience.
00:31:59
David Isaacs
But there's there's give and take always with convenience, with social media, that it causes a lot of anxiety for people or fear of missing out. Um, the AI people aren't learning anymore. the students are just using it to finish their assignments instead of learning kind of like the main thing that they're supposed to learn about.
00:32:22
David Isaacs
um DoorDash, you can get food quickly anytime that you want. You can, uh, You can do a lot of these things that the most common thing is like, yeah, if it's easier than it's not healthier, if it's more convenient, then it's probably not healthier.
00:32:41
David Isaacs
And i do wish we didn't have all of these sirens, these sirens out on the the cliffs trying to lure us in to, oh, but it makes life so much easier.
00:32:56
David Isaacs
Oh, it's so convenient to be able to do these things. And yeah, it, yeah the more convenient things are. And if you get into the habit of doing those instead of cooking for yourself or getting off your phone, going into nature or actually sitting down and learning what it is to make things or things that have happened in history or how to do math or whatever.
00:33:22
David Isaacs
So i think we continue to move on that path and it's what they, a lot of what these companies are trying to get you to do. And it's tough.
00:33:34
David Isaacs
it It's tougher nowadays to be healthier. There's obviously a lot of companies that do things that are trying to make things healthier for you and also with the same convenience of offering organic products or maybe process products that have something good in them instead of just sugary garbage.
00:33:56
David Isaacs
But I think um you're always going to, there's always going to be those temptations in any era, any facet of life and the temptations that,
00:34:06
David Isaacs
and kind of try to lure you away. And i have done pretty well at keeping away from some of these temptations. I don't really use social media that much anymore. I do use, uh, chat GVT to help me figure things out or, um, you know kind of help with learning in that essence.
00:34:27
David Isaacs
Um, but yeah, I think there's a healthy balance, a healthy relationship when it comes to things that are convenient, but yeah, It shouldn't pull you away from what you're actually trying to accomplish. If you are trying to accomplish having a good diet, well, to be able to do that, you're going to have to go to the grocery store and maybe get a cookbook or learn more about how to be able to cook and prepare these meals for yourself or meal prepping or some of these other things. So that's going to take some of your time to be able to go to the gym.
00:35:01
David Isaacs
That's probably going to take, depending on how often you want to go, four or five hours a week out of your time. That was probably spent doing things that were unproductive, but were easier. And sometimes you do have to, well, you do have to plan out what you want to do that day, but other times you have to look back and realize I did have a stressful day at work.
00:35:23
David Isaacs
I did manage to get some of these things done regardless of that fact. But I'm not going to be able to get everything done and that's okay. I can move that towards tomorrow. i can move that towards this weekend or what have you.
00:35:35
David Isaacs
So I think, at least for me, being a perfectionist and being stubborn, sometimes it's hard to you know do those things because I am pretty self-critical of myself. I do want to do well. I do want to be better than am currently.
00:35:52
David Isaacs
But it's kind of like that fear of not exactly failure, or the fear of falling off again. And kind of like the fear of what I'm going to have to deal with next, what's coming down the pipe.
00:36:05
David Isaacs
And yeah, I've worked away from that. I've been working away from that. But at the end of the day, it's just making small improvements, small efforts that compound.
00:36:18
David Isaacs
The interest compounds. And when you're looking at things like, yeah, I can't take on more. So I will take on more at this point. trying to do everything all at once with different, uh, like new year's resolutions, or maybe one day you have one of those crises and you feel like you got to get back and you got to do this. And you're just trying to jump in and take on as much as you can at once. And you eventually burn out.
00:36:47
David Isaacs
And that's not a good way of doing things, not being able to manage stress and eventually get burnt out in that way. So, There's like the small things to do every day to look at and identify. There's the kind of larger, higher level goals that you may have, but you have to have patience and being able to do it.
00:37:10
David Isaacs
You know, you won't shed 20 pounds overnight. You won't be able to put up 40 pounds more on the bench press or be able to run 10 miles overnight. So you got to look at and you got to plan for it. And if setting goals to run a marathon and that's what motivates you, then great.
00:37:28
David Isaacs
Or setting goals to get below a certain weight, say before a wedding or some other event, then great. But not only those goals that to keep in mind, but also developing that identity to say, this is who I want to be.
00:37:46
David Isaacs
not because i think it's what I should do because it's what other people are doing, but I want to do it because I want to be healthier. i want to be around longer um for the people around me, or if I want to be a ah better friend or sibling, son, or those things, because I feel like that's something that I can improve on or better communication or
Sustainable Health Practices and Adaptability
00:38:10
David Isaacs
whatever, you know, go down the list, go down the line, but it's up to you you kind of put these things under priority and work to be able to do it.
00:38:19
David Isaacs
It's the same thing at work with these projects. They take steps. It takes time, takes communication. Same thing with gardening, same thing with going to the gym and same thing with breaking bad habits or developing good, good ones.
00:38:36
Big Dog
Yeah, exactly. And you should be... at the end of the day, you should be doing everything for yourself. You should be...
00:38:46
Big Dog
Because if you can't take care of yourself, how are going to take care of other people or your garden or other things? Self-love is a real thing. And I think taking care of yourself and knowing when to set up boundaries and to um give yourself grace and give other people grace are very important characteristics that we kind of take for granted.
00:39:06
Big Dog
yeah, so yeah i
00:39:12
Big Dog
I lost weight for my wedding, um six years ago. and then it wasn't for the right reason necessarily. I, I did keto because I was going to be able to lose, in my opinion, the fastest weight in the shortest amount of time.
00:39:26
Big Dog
It took me, i set a goal from August, my wedding, or, um, I set a goal of in August of 2018 that I was going to spend a year losing weight in, cause my wedding was September 1st, 2019. Um, and I lost 120 pounds in that year stretch, but I didn't, the pandemic happened. So that's one excuse. I'm not going to keep making that, but I didn't, it wasn't really a longterm like healthy choice that i was making,
00:40:01
Big Dog
and I've gained all of my weight back since. So, um, I beat myself up a lot, but I learned from my mistake, um, you know, during caloric deficit. So I'm getting back to ah healthier mind, healthier mind, or ah healthy, healthy body, healthy mind, and just overall a happier mindset.
00:40:23
Big Dog
And like, my wife went on a vacation um that I didn't want to go on. I just didn't think that we had the money for it. She worked hard and she was able to do that. That was her reward for completing all of, you know, putting up with other people at her restaurant.
00:40:37
Big Dog
It was for, you you know Just to reset the mind. um But she's doing that because that's how she feels that. I wasn't going to go on it because there's also unsavory people who I don't particularly care for at this moment. And I didn't want to go on that. So I set up with the boundary. i made a decision. it was a hard one. i made it. But here we are.
00:41:01
Big Dog
um Sometimes the right choices aren't the easiest ones. So you're... You're going to know for yourself what that choice is going to be and the path that you need to take.
00:41:14
Big Dog
For me now, um three days ah or two days of sitting on the couch eating eating chips, not the path. It was a ah step on our journey and i'm moving forward with going to the gym tomorrow after work.
00:41:31
Big Dog
um One, I get to avoid traffic, which is cool, but three in the, in addition to that, I'm going to make an attempt to hit some of the weights and not just go there and sit at TV for an hour and a half on a treadmill. So, um, small measurable goals, but we're building. Um, I had a setback, but we're, we're moving forward. We're marching forward, hands up, and we're going to strike the target.
00:42:05
David Isaacs
Yeah, I think still too with, um you know, people that compare and deal with that, like they never totally know the full story.
00:42:16
David Isaacs
And I think there's definitely people out there that do things that are beneficial, but they're only doing it for unhealthy reasons. So if you can marry doing good things for yourself for healthy reasons, that's kind of where um at least I want to be at.
00:42:35
David Isaacs
And yeah, the the whole idea of starting off small and thinking small to start with is that it won't take up so much of your time.
00:42:47
David Isaacs
It won't take up so much of your energy. So if you have something that should be a small stressor in your life, it's not going keep you from um staying on that path.
00:43:01
David Isaacs
So if you continue to build, because sometimes it'll be If you start off, say, going to the gym and you're only going once a week and you make it up to three or four times a week and something happens that makes it so that you can't go as often, then maybe you fall back to like maybe only two times a week and then you ramp that back up.
00:43:22
David Isaacs
So it's not only about, you know, kind of the patience that you have with it, but it's really, i think, just the persistence to continue doing it long enough that it's harder for you to fall out of it.
00:43:37
David Isaacs
Whereas I've had the falling out, not being able to get back on, um, before. And I feel like that might be one of the fears I have, uh, before I restart again, but this time I'm starting from, you know, a healthier mind mindset thinking, you know, I've, I've been out of it for a long time and I'm doing it for me.
00:44:03
David Isaacs
So I can become healthier. So I don't have to worry so much later on in life about, you know, my overall, say, flexibility or well-being to um be able to do certain things.
00:44:17
David Isaacs
And in that sense, like I am looking towards the future and I'm not so worried about what's what's going on tomorrow. So I do have my. little Larry David pocketbook that I'll be writing in and planning out what I want to accomplish tomorrow. And I'll see how far I get into it.
00:44:37
David Isaacs
And if there's things that I wasn't able to get done, then I'll put them on the docket to get done the next day or over the weekend or something else. But that's kind of the habit and just doing it without any judgment.
00:44:53
David Isaacs
You know, I plan on doing these things and I'll see what I can check off. And then you got adapt because you can make plans as much as you want, but you're never going to know all the different variables that are going to come with it, what you're going to have to be dealing with.
00:45:09
David Isaacs
So with starting small, I feel like you can develop that good base and continue doing it after a few months of, you know, steadily
Teaching Patience and Personal Growth
00:45:20
David Isaacs
increasing frequency.
00:45:25
Big Dog
Yeah, um for sure. agree 100%. um
00:45:33
Big Dog
Baby steps. Talked about it. Tindy talked about it. ah You're never going to to have that giant leap. In content creation, it's always... you know Sometimes youre you're looking for that moment to go viral, so you get like all these...
00:45:52
Big Dog
additional likes and traffic to your page and all of this, but it's steady growth, you know? Um, and that goes for SEO for all my, ah my data nerds out there, you know, it's always about steady traffic, steady, just steady moving the needle up.
00:46:12
Big Dog
You're going to hit a dip and like your traffic, your AOV, but
00:46:18
Big Dog
you figure it out and you just keep going steady and steady and steady. um Just keeping like that graph chart moving forward.
00:46:29
David Isaacs
We are now a podcast for s people dealing with SEO.
00:46:35
Big Dog
Hey, that's my business. That's what I've been working for for like the last decade. So, you know, hey, we got to hit. We got to hit all of our points, ah you know, go outside of our our demographic. You know, that's what we got to do. Right. But, ah you know, steady growth. That's what we need. That's what every person needs. That's what every business needs. Organic, concurrently.
00:46:59
Big Dog
you know, non, I don't know what the fuck the term is. Just whatever, just organic growth, just keep going up. And like ah that's, that's the same thing with us in our everyday lives.
00:47:11
Big Dog
yeah We have relationships that we need to keep steady. We have a job that we have to show up for and you know, we have to wipe our ass every day and and hop in a shower or or whatever.
00:47:24
Big Dog
We have to stay cleanliness. There's different variables that, throughout the day that are always going to throw you in wrench. If I don't get in the shower on time, if my wife hits it before, then I'm probably going to be late to work. But you know what?
00:47:38
Big Dog
That was on me because I slept in later than I should have. That happened to me a couple of nights ago and i was late, you know, 20 minutes to work. Luckily, we don't really have a, we kind of have like a soft start time. So I just had to stay, stay late, but I got bailed out in that situation. Right. But Um, all these extreme examples are kind of just to say we have one life to live.
00:48:04
Big Dog
And make the, make the for at least for me, and make the best of it. um Love yourself so that you can love others. Like I'm learning to and I've said this before, you know, love myself to to teach my son skills that he's going to need.
00:48:19
Big Dog
and yeah I mean, I could, obviously I'm teaching him to fend for himself, but I also have to put the why behind things so that he understands.
00:48:32
Big Dog
And it's difficult when it comes to emotions and things like that. he The hardest thing that they say to teach toddlers is patience. I don't know patience, but I'm learning it because I'm going to have to teach him.
00:48:44
Big Dog
Because he'll sit and hover over like the TV until I hit the right thing the right channel for him to watch. and it's like Or if I'm like trying to open a toy for him, he's you know he's getting all impatient. So I'm learning to deal with that.
00:49:02
Big Dog
like teaching myself patience as well. And I have to give myself the grace that I don't always know that, but I'm doing my best effort to to complete that task or to teach my son new skills, you know, and knowing that I'm doing the best job that I can do giving myself enough grace is all that I kind of need to feel good about it and just keep moving forward.
00:49:35
David Isaacs
Definitely. ah Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's different for everybody. It's different for what you want to accomplish. It's different for the different stressors that you're going to have. And I know, um it's not one size fits all.
00:49:51
David Isaacs
People have a lot more that they have to deal with than do. And, um, yeah, so it's kind of like just the gratefulness I feel for being, having the opportunity to get better that I,
00:50:10
David Isaacs
might not like exactly where I'm at right now, but I have my health. I have some financial stability and there's more than I can do. So I just got to get a little bit more structured and how I want to accomplish that and how I want to do it.
00:50:27
David Isaacs
So, i mean, I, I set a goal, uh, for the next week. So before we meet again, I'll have, you know, kind of my daily and my weekly goals that I've set and also, you know, putting down what I did accomplish. What did I not exactly put on my list for the day that I went out and did?
00:50:49
David Isaacs
So that's kind of where I'm going to hold myself accountable. So I don't want to have to come back here and tell everyone that I failed at a lot of that. But yeah, just try to do it, you know, starting off without any judgment.
00:51:08
Big Dog
Yeah. um It's the saying, you have to eat a shit sandwich sometimes um and learn to like it. um Maybe a bit extreme for this conversation, but sometimes things aren't going to also work out how it was the plan, but your ability to adjust on the
Reflecting on Progress and Final Thoughts
00:51:30
Big Dog
fly too is also going to be important kind of trait because there are times where it's all playing out For my wife and I go to date night.
00:51:39
Big Dog
Well, we'll keep it simple. and And, know, I'll plan it out. We usually plan it out two weeks in advance. So that's the only real time is like every other weekend.
00:51:50
Big Dog
There's times where it's like my wife has to take like a catering or a bakery order and like we just can't go on it.
00:51:58
Big Dog
I mean, even now I'm still kind of annoyed when that happens because it's like just tell them like. Just tell them whatever. Like, it's either you're going on an important trip and you can't miss it and, like, you can't do it. Or just be like, hey, sorry, you know, kind of backed up, whatever.
00:52:12
Big Dog
Lie, tell them the truth, whatever. um
00:52:18
Big Dog
But we ended up going, like, the next night. I think we planned for Friday. We went on on Saturday. Like, 2025, Brian, is okay with us missing something by, like, a day.
00:52:32
Big Dog
2024 brand would probably flipped out and started drinking. But so we we have to measure our, our growth in that way too. Um,
00:52:47
Big Dog
is it, it's a good positive reinforcement for ourselves, um, to know how far we've come. Um, yeah, I mean, there's still an incredible gap of things that we could be doing,
00:53:02
Big Dog
more but that's why we space it out and you know whether it's a week a day we write down what we want to accomplish in that and that time period we might have to push things back but it's all about being flexible and I think that's the biggest growth of Brian 2025 is somewhat more patient or maybe just going with the punches better you know weaving and bobbing or when I should have been bobbing and weaving that type of thing. So, um, take life with the punches, you know, you only, we only get one of these things, but don't fill it with positive intentions, but actually do with actionable, actionable goals.
00:53:52
David Isaacs
Yeah. I mean, it might be a good idea for an app just to have something put together that when are you do write these things out or you start to label them, um things that you want to accomplish or maybe feelings that you have about yourself throughout the day that are ah more negative and they should be more positive or something that can help you track. Cause I know,
00:54:17
David Isaacs
um At least for me, when I was doing the app and trying to get 10,000 steps a day, it was a good way to keep myself accountable because I wanted to see that bar over the 10,000 line each day.
00:54:33
David Isaacs
So maybe it would be helpful for... some way to develop an algorithm that people can kind of rank their priorities and what they're accomplishing and also, you know, kind of what they're folding in and can give them some sort of direction for, you know, well, I see you on a diet. Let's start with this, the small thing, and then we'll, you know, see how you feel about working it, working something else in there. And it can give you sort of a graph or,
00:55:03
David Isaacs
kind of that positive reinforcement to say, you know, while you've, you've come a long way, um you haven't, uh, you might've fallen off or something, but maybe let's try to start, you know, somewhere near the middle again.
00:55:20
David Isaacs
Um, but I, that's probably, uh, don't know. There, there, there's something, there's something to it. I, I gotta think about it a little bit more, but yeah, at the end of the day, it's, um,
00:55:33
David Isaacs
know, it's up to you to think about and determine. And at least for me, that's been the biggest thing. You know, am I doing this thing for me? Do I want to do this for me? up am I doing this for other people or am I just doing this for to get validation from other people? And I think that's you know really where the motivation kind of lives and dies.
00:55:55
David Isaacs
And, you know, the sometimes the basis isn't. doesn't start off with doing something small, but understanding why you want to do something.
00:56:08
David Isaacs
And if you can, you know, figure out your why, figure out that specific why, then I think you're more often than than not able to continue on with it. But sometimes we just need reminders and sometimes stuff happens and, um,
00:56:25
David Isaacs
once that's done and over with that, you can, uh, you know, continue on, on that upward trajectory.
00:56:34
Big Dog
Yeah. um Again, it's just taking the time to kind of fully understand the situation you're in, whatever the case is, and just
00:56:52
Big Dog
knowing that you're doing the best of intentions, the best of
00:57:00
Big Dog
um, what's best for maybe not necessarily everyone, but especially yourself, which is, which is a hard thing. Like, I'm not going to sit here and prop out that I didn't go on a vacation. Like, that sounds ridiculous. Just kind of saying out loud, but I knew that i just wouldn't have a good time.
00:57:17
Big Dog
um there's just some kind of explosive personalities that I would have went on vacation with and all that. And, you know, my wife didn't, wasn't in love with the fact that I didn't go, but I think she understands that I was kind of just doing it for myself and my sanity, because I know that I have a tendency to respond to things in negative ways. So ah just, you know, did it kind got to live with it, move forward. And i think that's maybe part of the reason why i was sitting on the couch for a couple of days. Maybe i was depressed and still haven't, still haven't fully processed that whole thing, but
00:57:57
Big Dog
Um, you know, I'm here now talking about it on this podcast, so doing something about it. Um, talking to my good friend here and, you know, we're, I'm figuring it out, but I know that I'm, I'm doing that, that inch by inch, that inches all around inches that we need are all around us. We just have to be able to, to find them and,
00:58:26
Big Dog
um i I'm moving up by an inch today.
00:58:30
David Isaacs
Yeah. Some days it's, uh, some days it's more, some days it's less, but yeah, I think it's good to, you know, have that presence of mind to think about these things.
00:58:43
David Isaacs
And yeah, I mean, some of these, uh, some of these thoughts, some of these actions, uh, might not be popular for everyone, but, um, at the end of the day, and keep saying at the end of the day a lot, but, um,
00:58:59
David Isaacs
at the conclusion of the evening, it's, it's that balance that you have to find, you know, is it really going to be a vacation if you're not going enjoy yourself?
00:59:03
Big Dog
Here we go.
00:59:12
David Isaacs
And I think that's a ah question that, uh, it's a good question to ask.
00:59:19
Big Dog
Yeah. Um, I just knowing what I know now, i mean I obviously she's having, they're having a great time. They saw an alligator today. They saw,
00:59:32
Big Dog
And like they went to the beach and my son got a bunch of new stuffed animals and he's in love with it. So I think it, it's one of those rare occurrences where like, it's a weird situation to be in but I think it just worked out the best for everyone, um which is a rare occasion. But I think that it's kind of just an example of, think,
01:00:01
Big Dog
knowing that i I did the best for myself and i guess having the reward almost that my wife and son are having an amazing time. So, um, you know, again, our decisions are not always the easiest, but that's why we re rely on building a strong foundation to where it doesn't hurt so much.
01:00:24
David Isaacs
Right.
01:00:27
David Isaacs
Kind of nailed it with that one. And I think we're at an hour. So I'm good.
01:00:33
Big Dog
yeah
01:00:34
David Isaacs
Any last thoughts?
01:00:37
Big Dog
No. ah Stay beautiful, everyone. And we'll see you next week.
01:00:43
David Isaacs
Alrighty.
01:01:04
David Isaacs
Now if you're after credits trailer or scene, I'm just kidding. Goodbye.