The Daryl Perry Podcast

I think real optimism requires us to make room for the heavy stuff too.

Life is going to have ups and downs. Sometimes those shifts happen over months or weeks, and sometimes it feels like our entire perspective can change from one moment to the next.

In this episode, I talk about why I do not think being an optimistic person means constantly trying to feel positive or immediately escaping every difficult emotion.

Sometimes we need to sit with what we are feeling.

How long we stay there is going to depend on the situation and the person. Sometimes we can redirect ourselves relatively quickly. Other times we get stuck, overwhelmed, or simply need more time.

That is part of being human.

I also talk about remembering that we really are trying the best we can.

Your effort is not going to look exactly the same every day.

Some days you are going to accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish.

Other days, simply getting through the day may take most of what you have.

Neither one requires perfection.

Even this podcast is an example of that. There was not an episode yesterday. The goal is not to prove that I can perfectly execute something every single day. The goal is to keep showing up, keep trying, and understand that those smaller efforts can add up over time.

I think it is important to have good outlets, appreciate what is around us, stay present when we can, and look for the positive.

But we can do all of that without pretending there is not heaviness too.

You can be optimistic and realistic at the same time.

You can have a difficult moment without deciding that everything is bad.

You can sit in something heavy without believing you have to live there forever.

And wherever your effort is today, if you are genuinely trying the best you can, that is enough.

What if emotional softness is actually part of what makes us strong?

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast and the Men’s Mental Health Series, I talk about the relationship between vulnerability, emotional awareness, and the version of strength many of us were taught to value.

For a lot of men, the message was pretty straightforward.

Be tough.

Handle it.

Do not show too much emotion.

Keep moving.

The problem is that having emotions was never optional. We were still feeling everything. A lot of us simply were not taught what to do with those feelings once they showed up.

I talk about why being connected to your emotions can actually help you handle pressure, why a productive relationship with a therapist can provide tools you can use outside of therapy, and why vulnerability does not take anything away from focus, consistency, resilience, or follow through.

In many ways, I think the softer parts help hold the stronger parts together.

I also talk about why this can take time. If someone has spent decades suppressing emotions or tying their identity to being the strong one, opening up can challenge the way they see themselves.

That deserves patience.

At the same time, struggling to process emotions never removes our responsibility for how we treat other people. We can give ourselves compassion while still taking responsibility for our actions and responses.

And although I spend a lot of time talking specifically with men about this, the larger message applies to everybody.

Human beings have emotions.

We need room to feel them, understand them, work through them, express them constructively, and sometimes let them go.

If you are in the United States and experiencing a mental health, suicide, or substance use crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also chat through the 988 Lifeline online. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.

A lot of fitness content focuses on what you can see.

The weight loss.

The workouts.

The body composition changes.

The before and after.

What I am much more interested in is the part you cannot see from the outside.

What is driving all of it?

Are you exercising because you are connected to yourself, or because you are trying to run away from yourself?

Are you following an eating plan from a calm, deliberate place, or because you feel like nothing you do is ever enough?

That mental approach matters.

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about what I think is one of the biggest pieces of the Your Level Fitness philosophy, learning to operate from a calmer headspace, move at a deliberate pace, and build a relationship with yourself that supports the actions you are taking.

You can see somebody following through consistently, but you cannot always see the insecurity, fear, comparison, or pressure underneath it.

That is why I keep coming back to loving the body you have and appreciating who and what you see in the mirror.

The physical results matter.

The actions matter.

But if you reach the goal and still feel like you are fighting yourself, there is more work to do.

I also talk about why the people you follow and work with matter, because you often absorb more than just their workout advice or nutrition recommendations. You absorb the way they approach all of this.

For me, the goal is not just to help you become more disciplined.

It is to help you build a forever active lifestyle while becoming more connected to yourself along the way.

New to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

I have been asking a lot more questions lately.

That is intentional.

One of the things that has always bothered me about the fitness industry is how quickly people start talking at you. Do this. Do not do that. This is the right way. This is what you should be doing.

I think most areas of life are far more nuanced than that.

Fitness is actually a really useful place to practice this because so many of the lessons apply elsewhere. Instead of immediately looking for another answer, another rule, or another person to tell you what to do, what happens when you start asking better questions about your own experience?

Your situation matters.

Your history matters.

The way something affects you matters.

You are the person who has lived your life, and I think learning to trust your own observations is incredibly important.

That does not mean outside perspectives are useless. I am still going to share my thoughts, opinions, and experience. But I want those things to help you think more clearly about your own life, not replace your own judgment.

In this episode, I talk about why I am leaning harder into questions across the topic-focused podcasts and social media, why nuance matters so much to the Your Level Fitness philosophy, and why becoming more at ease with yourself can help you make better decisions inside and outside of fitness.

If you want my deeper thoughts on loving the body you have, head to YourLevelFitness.com and download the free e-book.

And if one of these questions gets you thinking, email me at [email protected].

You are going to get where you need to be.

That does not mean every day is going to feel productive. It does not mean your thoughts are always going to cooperate. And it definitely does not mean you have to keep pushing at full speed all the time.

In this episode of the Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about trusting yourself when life feels heavy, taking the breaks you need without treating them like failure, and staying connected to yourself when your brain starts running toward fear, insecurity, and self criticism.

There are going to be moments when you feel like you are behind.

There are going to be moments when you feel like you should be doing more.

There are also going to be moments when slowing down is exactly what you need.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is learning how to move through all of it while staying rooted in yourself.

I also talk about why I keep coming back to being in a calm headspace and moving at a deliberate pace. You do not need to live there one hundred percent of the time. You just need to keep returning to it.

You have already made it through everything that brought you to this point.

Keep pushing forward when it makes sense.

Take the break when you need it.

Trust yourself enough to know the difference.

New to Your Level Fitness?

https://yourlevelfitness.com

We hear some version of “trust your gut” all the time.

But what if your intuition is wrong?

I do not think intuition should automatically be treated like an answer. I think it is better understood as a hypothesis, something built from our previous experiences, the patterns we recognize, and what we expect to happen next.

Sometimes that hypothesis is going to be right.

Sometimes it is not.

And sometimes what we call intuition may really be familiarity.

In this episode, I talk about why familiar situations can give us a false sense of security, especially in areas of life where we have repeatedly had similar experiences. If something feels predictable, we may assume we know exactly how it is going to play out.

That can make intuition feel incredibly convincing.

It can also keep us exactly where we are.

I also get into the difference between intuition and fear. Sometimes saying, “My intuition told me not to do it,” sounds much better than admitting, “I was afraid to do something different.”

That does not mean we should ignore our gut feelings.

It means we should be willing to question them.

When I have a particularly strong feeling about something, one of the questions I like is:

What if the exact opposite is true?

If my original intuition is strong enough to guide a decision, it should be strong enough to survive being challenged.

That allows me to look at the situation from more than one angle and make a decision that includes both emotion and logic instead of simply assuming my previous experiences already told me exactly how the future is going to unfold.

There is one important exception. If your intuition is telling you that a person, place, relationship, or situation may be unsafe, prioritize your safety first. You can analyze the feeling later from somewhere safe.

Intuition can be useful.

I just do not think we need to romanticize it into something that is never wrong.

If you’re brand new to Your Level Fitness and want to explore more of my approach to mindset, self-connection, and building a life from the inside/out, start here:

https://yourlevelfitness.com

No matter what you are working toward, I think pace matters more than speed.

There are times to move forward.

There are times to push.

And there are also times when the best thing you can do is step away for a while.

In this episode, I talk about why moving at a deliberate pace can be more useful than trying to move as fast as possible.

Sometimes that means taking a few minutes.

Sometimes it means a couple of hours.

Sometimes it means a few days, a few weeks, or even much longer.

I have had things that I picked back up years after I thought I was completely finished with them.

That does not mean the time in between was wasted.

I think we are all trying the best we can, and it is very easy to become hypercritical of ourselves when we feel like we are not moving quickly enough.

But there really is not a race.

Time is simply continuing to move forward.

You do not need to rush yourself through every season.

You do not need to force something when it feels off.

And you do not need to treat rest like failure.

Sometimes stepping back is part of moving forward.

Trust yourself to figure out the pace.

Give yourself a break, figuratively and literally.

Then keep going when you are ready.

You already have what you need to move forward.

To start the new thing.

To pick up the old thing.

To finally follow through on something you have been thinking about for a long time.

A lot of the time, you have not really quit. You may simply not have been ready yet to push things forward in the way they needed to be pushed.

And when you are ready, the first step is not something mystical.

You believe in yourself.

You trust yourself to figure things out.

Then you take action.

From there, you keep adjusting, evaluating, and moving forward one step at a time.

That does not mean you speak something into existence and everything magically changes.

It means you make the decision.

You say it out loud.

You hear yourself say it.

Then you start keeping promises to yourself.

That is where the reinforcement begins.

But I also think there is another important part of this.

Go after what you want from a place of appreciation.

A lot of people spend years chasing goals because they are trying to get away from who they are now.

They believe they will finally feel comfortable with themselves when they lose the weight, make the money, build the business, change their body, or become some different version of themselves.

Then sometimes they get there and realize they still do not feel the way they thought they would.

So go after the goal.

Go after the big one.

But learn to be at ease with yourself while you do it.

Appreciate where you are.

Appreciate where you have been.

Trust yourself to figure out the pace.

You do not have to rush.

You do not have to burn yourself out.

You just have to keep moving.

You have everything inside you that you need.

I’ve been simplifying the Your Level Fitness website, not because everything needs to look the same, but because everything needs to have a clear purpose.

In this episode of The Almost Daily Podcast, I talk about why I’m moving away from large topic based guides and turning many of those areas into living blogs that can evolve as the conversations around fitness, weight management, GLP-1s, food noise, body image and lifestyle continue to change.

I also break down how the different parts of the YLF ecosystem are starting to fit together.

There is the Love the Body You Have book as a starting point for the philosophy of appreciating who and what you see in the mirror.

There are ongoing blogs around body image, building a forever active lifestyle, GLP-1, food noise and my personal experience of being as active as I can while navigating life with cerebral palsy.

There is also the Body Noise Guide, where I explore the connection between the mental noise we experience around food and the thoughts and feelings we can experience around our bodies.

Then there are podcasts that continue many of those same conversations through audio, personal stories, interviews, observations and real time discussion.

The goal is not to make everything uniform.

The goal is to make it easier for you to find the format and topic that works for you.

I also talk about why I want the GLP-1 and food noise content to stay practical instead of clinical, why lived experiences matter, and why I believe the conversation around body noise is going to become increasingly important.

At the center of all of it is the same idea.

Choose to love the body you have, build a better relationship with yourself, and create something you can actually live with.

Check out everything I’m building at:

https://yourlevelfitness.com

Gratitude can help us stay grounded, present, and connected to what matters.

But I think there is an important part of the conversation that gets overlooked.

Sometimes, before you can genuinely feel grateful, you need to let yourself sit in the heavier emotions first.

In this episode, I talk about one of those moments for me. I was tired, frustrated, physically worn down, and feeling like I should be getting more done. Eventually, I realized that what I really needed was recovery.

That shift helped me recognize how far I have come, what I am capable of now, and how much there is to appreciate.

But I do not think I could have gotten there by immediately forcing myself into gratitude.

Sometimes you need to feel frustrated.

Sometimes you need to feel sad.

Sometimes you need to acknowledge that you are spent.

Then, when those feelings have had some space, gratitude can help you regain perspective.

You can appreciate your life and still have difficult moments.

You can be grateful and still need rest.

And you can allow yourself to feel what you feel without letting those emotions become the entire story.