The Daryl Perry Podcast

I think I have finally built the free version of what I have been trying to create for years.

Something simple.

Something you can use on your own.

And something that can help you work through the softer side of life without always feeling like there is another shoe about to drop.

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about how the Your Level Fitness podcast network and the journal prompts are starting to work together as a system.

The goal has always been bigger than fitness.

Yes, I want you to build your forever active lifestyle. But I also want you to feel more comfortable in your own skin, trust yourself more, calm the mental tug of war, and feel more at ease with who you are.

That is where the podcasts come in.

I now have a growing library of shows that cover different areas, including fitness, cerebral palsy, men’s mental and emotional health, mindset, and everyday life. Some have new episodes Monday through Friday. Some are weekly. Some are active with less predictable schedules. And some are archived.

Not every podcast is going to be for every person.

But I believe each one can be useful for somebody.

Then there are the journal prompts.

Those have evolved quite a bit over the last couple of years, and I think I have finally landed on a structure that is simple enough to use consistently while still helping you connect with yourself.

When you combine the podcasts with the journal prompts, you can start working through these ideas on your own.

You can listen to the reinforcement.

You can write through what applies to you.

You can slow things down.

You can start building more trust in yourself.

And you can figure out how all of this fits into your life at your level.

None of this replaces having a productive relationship with a therapist when you need one.

But I am excited about having something available that can support people in different areas of life without requiring another program, another promise, or another thing you have to buy just to get started.

Check Out All of the YLF Podcasts:

https://yourlevelfitness.com/podcasts

Living with mild cerebral palsy can sometimes feel like living between two different worlds.

In the non-disabled world, people may immediately see me as disabled. They may notice the way I walk, make assumptions about what I can do, or even question whether I belong in certain spaces.

Then there is another side of the experience.

Within the disabled community, I have also had people minimize my disability or suggest that I am not disabled enough because some of the things I struggle with are not immediately obvious.

That can leave you in a strange middle ground.

In this episode of Living with Mild Cerebral Palsy, I talk openly about what that experience has felt like for me. I get into wanting to fit in sometimes, feeling guilty because other people have greater physical challenges, constantly feeling like I need to prove myself, and wondering whether the drive to keep accomplishing more can sometimes come from a lifelong fear of being behind.

I also talk about something I think is especially important.

Your experience does not have to be compared to somebody else's before it becomes valid.

Someone else having a different experience with cerebral palsy does not erase yours. Your ability to adapt does not mean things have always been easy. And appreciating what your body allows you to do does not mean you are never allowed to feel frustrated, exhausted, or weighed down by it.

Sometimes you can appreciate yourself and still wish you could blend in.

Sometimes you can be optimistic and still acknowledge that this is hard.

Sometimes simply giving yourself permission to recognize those thoughts is part of learning more about yourself.

If any part of this episode connects with you, spend a few minutes writing about your own experience. You do not need a perfect journal practice. Write a few sentences, make a list in your phone, or simply put the thoughts somewhere outside of your head.

You deserve to know how you feel about your own life.

Get the journal prompts that will help you to continue to unpack your thoughts and feelings:

https://yourlevelfitness.com/email

I think we are capable of changing far more than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

That does not mean you can simply think about something, believe hard enough, and magically make it happen.

But I do think change starts with believing that another direction is possible and trusting yourself enough to begin figuring it out.

A lot of our patterns go back a long way.

We grow up around certain ways of thinking, reacting, working, resting, eating, communicating, and living. For a long time, those things can simply feel normal because they are what we know.

Then at some point, we realize there may be another way.

That is where curiosity becomes incredibly valuable.

What if you are wrong about something?

What if the way you have always handled a situation is not the only option?

What if there is another way to move forward, another way to respond, or even another way to slow down?

In this episode, I talk about why change can become both easier and harder as we get older. We have more life experience and more evidence that we can handle difficult things, but we can also become deeply attached to familiar patterns and beliefs.

I also talk about false starts, stopping and starting, and why that does not automatically mean you are incapable of changing.

Maybe you simply were not ready yet.

When you are ready, I think the first step is making the decision and declaring it to yourself. Not because saying something out loud makes it happen, but because you are acknowledging that you believe enough in yourself to take the first step.

You do not need all the answers.

You do not need every skill.

And you do not have to figure everything out alone.

You can find support, resources, people who will encourage you, and people who will help you see the blind spots you cannot always see for yourself.

You can change direction.

You can change your patterns.

And you can do it when you are actually ready to begin.

New to Your Level Fitness? Start here:

https://yourlevelfitness.com

I launched another podcast.

This one is called Living With Mild Cerebral Palsy, and unlike some of the other shows I do, I am not committing to a rigid posting schedule.

The goal is simply to have a dedicated place where I can share more of this part of my life.

Some episodes will be solo conversations where I talk through my own experiences, thoughts, frustrations, and perspectives around living with cerebral palsy. Others will feature conversations with people who have cerebral palsy and want to share their own experiences.

I also talk in this episode about how this new feed fits alongside The Cerebral Palsy Perspective Podcast, which I co-host with Chad Williams. I really like the way Chad and I approach those interviews and the way he helps people tell their stories. But coordinating three schedules can sometimes mean waiting weeks or even months to get somebody on.

This new feed gives me another place to share conversations in the meantime, especially when someone’s story or perspective connects directly to cerebral palsy.

There is already a trailer episode out, along with upcoming conversations with Zach and David, plus a solo episode where I get into my perspective on ableism within the cerebral palsy community.

I have a lot of podcast feeds already, so I do not add another one lightly.

But this is a part of my life I think is worth talking about more openly, and I wanted a space where I could do that without forcing it into a set schedule.

Brand new to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

Do you ever stop and think about how different life is compared with 20 or 30 years ago?

In this episode, I reflect on how quickly technology has changed the way we work, communicate, socialize, and move through everyday life.

I remember when AOL and instant messenger felt new. I remember Encarta on a CD-ROM. I remember when Facebook was still something most people in the room did not use, and when the first iPhone barely felt like a big deal.

Now everything moves in real time.

Work has changed too. Meetings are virtual. Communication is constant. Project management tools, social media, email, Slack, Teams, and everything else have made it possible to get more done from almost anywhere.

That can be incredibly useful.

It can also make it very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every open space in your day needs to be filled with more productivity.

I also talk about how much my own work life has changed, from driving around to advertising appointments to now being able to create, communicate, record, meet, and build from home.

There is a lot of good that has come from all of this. We can stay connected with people we never would have known otherwise. We can work differently. We can access information almost instantly.

But I also think many of us are still adjusting to just how quickly everything changed.

Maybe that is worth thinking about once in a while.

Not just how technology changed your life, but whether the way you think about work, productivity, communication, and time has caught up with the world you are actually living in now.

Brand new to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

Knowing your worth sounds simple until you have to act like you believe it.

In this episode, I talk about the difference between knowing who you are and actually communicating that value to the people around you. It is one thing to understand what you bring to a relationship, conversation, job, or situation. It is another thing to be clear about what you will tolerate, what you will commit to, and how you expect to be treated.

That part can get uncomfortable.

Different people may respond differently when you start enforcing those expectations. Some may adjust. Some may resist. Some relationships may change completely. But I think all of that gives you useful information about the dynamics you are in.

I also want you to think about what you already bring to the world.

It is easy to focus on what you could be doing better or what you still need to improve. But do you actually recognize the value you are already bringing into your relationships, your work, your conversations, and the lives of the people around you?

You get to decide what your value means to you.

And once you are clear on that, the next question is whether you are willing to live in a way that reflects it.

Where in your life do you have too much tunnel vision?

Most of us have areas where we get locked into one path, one solution, one routine, or one way of doing things. We convince ourselves that this is the best option, sometimes simply because it is familiar.

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about how easy it is to get stuck in that kind of thinking, both personally and professionally.

Sometimes the interesting part is that we do not even discover a better option because we were intentionally looking for one. Something changes. We try something different almost by accident. Then we realize the new way actually works better.

That does not mean every routine needs to be replaced or every plan needs to be questioned constantly.

But it is worth asking where you may be so focused on one direction that you are not even noticing the alternatives around you.

What is one area of your life where a different approach might actually serve you better?

Brand new to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

We only get one life. That sounds like a cliché, but I think there is an important distinction between using that idea to pressure yourself and using it to remember that your life is worth participating in.

You cannot simply logic your way through anxiety, guilt, shame, uncertainty, or whatever else is making the next step difficult. Those feelings are real. Sometimes they are overwhelming. Sometimes they can make something that looks simple from the outside feel almost impossible.

But you have also figured things out before.

Maybe it was messy. Maybe you made the same decision over and over before finally recognizing what needed to change. Maybe you needed to hear the same idea fifteen different times before it finally landed differently. That is part of being human.

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about trusting yourself to navigate what is in front of you while still giving your emotions the attention they deserve. I also talk about the value of having a productive relationship with a therapist who can help you recognize blind spots, work through difficult emotions, and better understand what is happening underneath the surface.

You do not need to have your entire life figured out today. You may only need to recognize the next step.

Be patient with yourself. Learn what you can from what is happening. Stay connected to yourself. And remember that you have navigated every version of your life that has brought you here.

New to Your Level Fitness? Start here:

https://yourlevelfitness.com

You can change direction.

Even if your life has gone one way for years, even if certain thought patterns feel deeply ingrained, and even if some of those beliefs started in childhood, your current story does not have to be the final version.

In this episode, I talk about why the hardest part of change is often not the action itself. It is getting there mentally.

Old thoughts do not simply disappear because you decide to move in a new direction. They may show up when you are tired, discouraged, stressed, or in the middle of the night wondering whether anything is actually changing.

That is why I think it matters to declare where you are going and keep reminding yourself.

You are not going to be perfect. You may backslide. Some changes you thought would take days or months may take years because you are working through patterns that have been reinforced for a long time.

That does not mean you are incapable of changing.

Part of the process is learning to trust yourself to navigate it, recalibrate when you get pulled off course, hold yourself accountable without constantly tearing yourself down, and keep moving in the direction you chose.

The old script may still exist.

You are allowed to start writing another one.

Brand new to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

There is a popular idea that nobody is good the first time they try something, and nobody is bad after doing it a thousand times.

I do not think that is always true.

Yes, practice matters. Repetition matters. Action matters. But simply doing something over and over does not automatically mean you are improving.

In this episode, I talk about the part that often gets left out of the grind harder, work harder, keep pushing message. You have to evaluate what you are doing.

You have to be willing to step back, look at the process, make adjustments, and ask whether the thing you are repeating is actually moving you in the direction you want to go.

Sometimes repetition helps you improve. Sometimes it helps you realize you are more interested in something slightly different. Sometimes it helps you discover that you do not actually want to keep doing that thing at all.

That information matters too.

I also talk about the discomfort that comes with being new at something. Sometimes we say we do not like something when what we really do not like is the feeling of being inexperienced, awkward, or unsure.

Over time, that feeling can change. What once felt like failure can start to feel like evidence that you are stretching yourself and doing something new.

The goal is not just to keep your head down and push forward forever.

There is real value in taking an active role in your own life, being present with where you are, evaluating what is working, and giving yourself permission to adjust.

Brand new to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com