The Graffiti Machine

It feels like we're in an age of massive distraction. We're being distracted by the media, world events, politicians, etc. Then we're distracting ourselves with social media platforms and other apps on our devices. Today, I talk about these distractions and some ways we can identify when we're being distracted and how to regain focus.

This episode gets into some concepts from Stoic philosophy about there being an order to the universe and other potentially interesting shit.

Find Bus on various platforms linked here: https://bus.graffitimachine.com/

I heard that most of what we do is forgotten. A lot of the day-to-day life stuff comes and goes, and the memories are lost. Do we do something about that? Do we try to create more memorable experiences, or does the fact that a lot of stuff is forgotten make the things you do remember that much more impactful?

When we set big goals for ourselves, they can often feel impossible. One thing that can help put things into perspective is to look at some of the amazing things that have been accomplished by other people. Seeing these great achievements might help put your own goals into perspective.

For me, I had an "If they can do that, I can definitely accomplish this" kind of moment. This episode breaks down some concepts about overcoming limiting beliefs.

For episode 100, I wanted to bring back a full conversation that Kub and I had. This episode was a the one that really set what we're doing in motion. I wish he was here in person for this, but we have a mission and we will just keep pushing forward.

— Bus

If I woke up one day, and there was litterly nothing to worry about—business is running perfectly, no problems to solve at all—I think that would be much more conerning than how life normally is. There's always a problem to solve, always some adversity to get passed.

If everything was good and there were none of those things to deal with, I would imagine I'm not pushing hard enough. I think it's an Ali quote that says "If you're always winning, then you're not fighting tough enough opponents." If shit isn't hard, maybe we need to step up our game.

Find Bus on various platforms linked here: https://bus.graffitimachine.com/

FULL TRANSCRIPT

0:00 This idea has come up in my head quite a bit over the years, you know, you're dealing with some shit in your life, what, in any aspect of your life, and you have this thought, that's kind of like, man, everything's gonna be so much better once this is over this is done or once I finish this or overcome this, whatever that is, and then you get that relief. And then there's something else right after there's like always something to worry about, there's always something to be concerned about, or something like that. So lately, I had this, I experienced that. And it just sort of reminded me of it. So it sparked me in to kind of try to think about how to talk about it, and how to deal with this kind of thing. And so, one couple of examples that I'll give, and this is what sparked this, this whole idea was, for about six weeks, I was dealing with some permit issues at my business, and it was not anything that we did, the building manager, or previous tenant had changed the plans before the fuck before we got there. So when the fire inspector came, he sort of popped into our business one day, and he was like, Hey, your floor plan isn't the same, you guys aren't supposed to be operating.

1:13 And it's like, holy shit, we'd already been like, completely up and running, you know, like, all these printing machines and all this staff and fucking spray paint all this stuff. So it was like, really stressful to have that happen. And just like, I don't know, free for those that have businesses, you'll understand. I don't know, I guess anybody will understand this. But it's like, it often feels like running a business is like the most fucking fragile as the best word I can think of, like shit ever. Like they're like one thing can happen. That could sort of derail a whole bunch of things. Like I remember, in 2020 Everybody was buying up all the bottles for hand sanitizer and shit. So it was like a year and a half or something. We just couldn't get the bottles for drip machines. And we kept trying to get other things. So we had this popular product, and literally no way to sell it. And it was just like, Fuck, man, like something like that can happen. So anyway, so this kind of shit stresses me out just knowing that this stuff can happen. So when, when this happened, I was like, fuck, man, what's going to happen? So we're kind of like operating a little weird, like, the door was shut, but we were in there kind of situation. But at any minute, like the city could come and say, you know, you got to send all these people home all this shit. Anyway, that stuff all ended up getting resolved took about six weeks. And it was on my mind all the fucking time for that whole six weeks, like I wasn't sleeping well. And it was just stressing me out. I was just like, what's going to happen?

2:48 How is this going to affect our business? Like, are we going to they were even he was even like saying stuff about the spray paint like you can't have this in here. So I was like, Fuck man, we've been selling spray paint since 2015. Like we're not going to be able to do that anymore. Anyway, was just like this big thing. And so it was really stressing me out quite a bit. And some of the kind of lessons and action steps I'm going to talk about later. Like I completely forgot all about it had I thought about these things I probably would have had an easier time. So what got me thinking along the lines of You know, once you get over one thing, something else pops up. So I remember I was thinking I'm like man, it's just going to be such a relief when this is done. We're going to be just back open and backup you know, everything's going good everything's done you know, I had all these plans and now we're putting those into motion but literally the day that I had relief like I was so relieved and then this should happen at at the studio and it wasn't like a huge deal but it was like kind of going back to that thing I was talking about how how sort of business is this kind of like weird balance thing where sometimes just a little thing can just disrupt the whole ship. And so for the last several years I've been working towards scaling my business with systems and getting the right people in place in order so I don't have to actually be there to do this stuff.

4:13 So now I don't have to I don't have to print stickers I don't have to do any of the day to day well I have to do very very little of the day to day like outside of ordering product and helping lead the team and having meetings and stuff I don't have to actually go in and print stickers and Phil product all that stuff so this was like a long time coming to get to the point where i i could do this and now I can focus on actually like big vision shit like scaling the business and helping refine systems and marketing and doing all this kind of stuff to actually grow the business. It's hard to do all that stuff when you're printing stickers are doing this in the business type shit. So I'm feeling good that I'm I'm at that point. But that's where this sort of like, kind of delicate balance of shit happens. Like, if something is something happens, then it might end up sending me back into that in the business thing. So we had this, like, this controversial sticker come through. And we, for the most part, we try not to try not to censor anything or do anything and no censorship is like a different issue. Like we have the right to not print whatever we want.

5:25 But at the same time we try to, we try to print anything that comes by, but sometimes some questionable shit happen that happened, a questionable sticker came in, and half the team was really adamant about not printing it, like we shouldn't do this. And the other half of the team was like, we shouldn't censor this or whatever. It's kind of beside the point. But anyway, it got all heated and like, it didn't get too bad. But at the same time, it was like, it was like I said, like, you never know, when sort of something is going to disrupt everything. So my brain just starts going crazy, like, you know, is everybody starting to think different things about each other, like, if the group of people that are adamant about not doing it Are they are they all going to kind of team up and leave and all this kind of stuff? Anyway, I was just blown it out of proportion. But that's what got me thinking about this and got me thinking, like, reminded me of, you know, life is just a series of problems to solve. And that's not all of life, but it's a big, it's a big part of life, you know, you're always having situations and scenarios that you have to find solutions to.

6:37 And a lot of times, they're stressful and, and that stress, you know, in the it's a form of adversity, obviously, all these kinds of issues. And, you know, I understand people go through all kinds of crazy shit, you know, like, on top of that, like after the, everything's kind of resolved, and everybody kind of, we found like, a good way forward. And everybody seems pretty chill. But then my dog had an episode, he's a really old dog. He's like, 20, something years old. He'd never had this happen, but like, I guess he he fell over, Jesse was home, he tipped over and kind of lost consciousness for for a few seconds. And he's got a heart condition. And again, he's really old. So I took him to the vet. And they, they were like, they were like talking about putting them down, like right then and there. But I was like, Wait a second, like, I've been down that road, like, I'm not going to keep a dog around living

7:37 a terrible existence, just to make myself feel better. I don't do that, you know, if I feel like the dogs ready to go, and they're given me signs, you know, as hard is it as it is like, that's the path I want to go. But this vet was rushing it, they didn't really take any time to look at him. They didn't take any do any tests or anything, it was just pretty much strictly based on what we said. And so, you know, obviously, that that's, that's, that's not an easy thing to deal with. He's he's doing way better. He's still really old. So I don't know, we're gonna have to deal with this. Soon, you know, at some point, but anyway, so it was just like another thing. And what I was saying, as I keep getting sidetracked, I understand, like, different people's levels of adversity, obviously, these these are in comparison to a lot of different people. These are small, small issues, but that's just what, what I'm handling at the current time. So it got me thinking, and this, this whole thing is what got me thinking about this, this whole topic. And so I started thinking deeply about it, doing some research and kind of refreshing my memory about a lot of things. And it's like, obviously, your life is going to be full of stresses and all this kind of stuff, especially if you're trying to do all kinds of different things. And you know, you're going to be hit with all kinds of different adversities. In life.

9:03 I mean, that's just life in general. So I was thinking about it that, you know, I've heard people tell stories about people that, you know, they're really successful. And then they lost it all in this story is kind of like, oh, well, this thing happened. And then, you know, I really never really recovered from from this bad deal or something like that. And then you know, this happened. And then it's like a series of things happen. And every time that happens, it's sort of chips a little bit away from them, until eventually they kind of feel like they can't get back. They can't get back on track. I've heard this before. And so it got me thinking about the concept of of adversity. And the idea that it could go one or one way or the other, you know, you can allow adversity to tear you down. Or you can actually, you know, utilize it as a form of building yourself up you cuz if you think about it every single time you overcome something, I feel like you get a little bit, you make another deposit in that, like mental toughness bank account, you know what I mean?

10:12 So you're kind of like, every time you overcome something, even if it's small, I feel like you gain a little bit of something. And so it almost seems like that's just a perspective that you have to have in your mind, in order to not let it tear you down. I mean, I'm sure there's stuff that's outside of people's control that, that's going to lead to some kind of breakdown in your mind to where maybe you don't have a choice, I don't know, I think you do have a choice. But I'm just speculating, I think you have a choice to make the decision that these adversities that I'm going through are actually going to be something that, that gives me strength, even though it sucks. Once I get on the other side of it, I'm going to be stronger, I'm going to have more knowledge, I'm going to know that I overcame something, I'm going to feel like I won. All of those kinds of things, I feel like that's just a perspective shift that you can have in your mind, almost no matter what it is you go through, and I try to, I don't know, maybe I don't need to say this, but I understand there's some really terrible shit, you know, that I've never gone through.

11:17 So I'm not trying to say that, across the board. This is just how it is. I'm just this is my perception. So in my opinion, if you have that perspective shift, and you see all of these adversities as a way of building yourself up, and you're seeing that you're actually going to benefit from getting over the other side of them, I feel like that's helpful in itself, just just to help you get through it if you change that perspective in your mind, but you're also building up mental toughness. And so mental toughness, obviously is super important in life, because you need to be able to overcome shit, that's coming your way, especially if you if you believe in this idea that it's just, there's always going to be something over and over again. And so the idea is that cultivate mental toughness. And one of the ways to do that is to have this perspective shift that you're gonna benefit from this. So some of the ways that I found mental toughness to be defined, you know, I'll just go through these resilience, it's your capacity to overcome difficulties, your ability to bounce back from setbacks and things like that, there's a, there's a layer of confidence involved.

12:27 So if you have built up some good mental toughness, when you do go through something, you're going to have confidence that you're going to get out the other side of it, because you've overcome all these things, and you've gained that strength along the way, then there's determination, you know, you're determined to make it through the other side, you're not going to give up you're going to keep pushing through whatever it is, no matter how hard it is, you're going to just keep pushing, there's focus, the ability to, you know, to focus on the task at hand that are the series of tasks that are required to get you on to get you through whatever it is that you're going through, there's control the ability to maintain emotional control. And that's, in my opinion, at least for me, that's one of the hardest things to do. And that's kind of what I was dealing with, when all this shit was happening with the business. I was I was having a lot of trouble maintaining control over my stress levels, you know, some I was allowing my emotions and my What if kind of scenarios to take over. So I was losing, losing control over that stuff. And then another thing is optimism, like maintaining a positive attitude, that you're gonna get through it. And so I kind of had that. So I remember having a meeting with my team when this first happened.

13:42 And, and I was very confident in telling them, like, look, we're going to get through this, you know, regardless of what happens, like, no matter what happens, we're going to find a way, we're going to find a way to make this work. Like I had already started putting plans in place and all this sort of shit for all these different potential scenarios. And so I was often optimistic that that we were going to get through it. So that was, I feel like I feel like over over the years of operating a business and and that's just sort of like par for the course, like you're just always going to have to clean up messes and always going to have to deal with things. So since 2002, I've been running my own businesses, so I've been dealing with all this shit for quite a long time. So I feel like every single time I overcame something that was building all that shit up so that's all these kinds of like mental toughness definitions or or whatever you want to call those. Like dealing with all that stuff over and over again, I felt like it gave me enough to push through like I'm not gonna give up even though I'm fucking stressed the fuck out so. So in my research, I also came across something called cognitive reframing. I'm pretty sure I've talked about this or some aspects of these and it's just about changing your perspective on the situation. And one of the,

15:06 obviously, what I just talked about is like, it's definitely a perspective shift. So if you're getting hit one after the other of shit, you overcome something, and then something comes along and you feel like you can't catch a break, which I don't like that term. I mean, you feel like, let's, let's not use that can't catch a break, that's kind of like a victim sounding term, but you just feel like shit, man, I just want to, I just want a little bit of time between these things, like, let me get a little bit of rest between the shit and you're getting hit one after the other. The the idea of cognitive reframing, it fits into what I was talking about earlier. So instead of allowing that, those adversities to break you down, you can reframe it and think like, alright, that's, this is another another opportunity for me to overcome something, this is another opportunity for me to learn some new skills to develop my, my my resilience and be able to push through this and then I know I'm going to come out the other side stronger, like that's a, that's totally a perspective shift and reframing the situation, you know, that I that I find incredibly helpful, as soon as I can kind of get that perspective at least gives me a little bit of a break until my brain runs through so many what if scenarios that that I have a hard time, you know, I have to kind of push that reframing back in into the front.

16:26 And so another, another thing, and I had completely forgot all about this, I learned it from Marcus Aurelius, Andersen, and he was talking about being grateful for the hardships. And I remember, a lot of times when I was really stressed out, I have this, this thing I do in the morning, and I do this every day. So I get up in the morning, and I have a half gallon water bottle, I'll fill it up. And then I go outside and stay in the sun. And I'll drink a half of that. So like I just chug down a quarter gallon of water, I have a feeling. And I've read and heard somewhere that being in the morning sun, like different neural transmitters, fire, and it kind of makes you wake up and kind of alert your body that, you know, it's time to start the day. And I've noticed that when I was doing that, so. So when I was dealing with a lot of shit, part of that routine was I would go out there and I'd be drinking my water. And I would, I would think about all of the things that were hard, and all of the things that were stressful. And I would, I would be grateful for those things. And I would think in my mind, I'm like, I'm grateful for going through this because I know I'm gonna learn, you know, different things. And I know, I'm gonna, I know, I'm gonna push through this, and I'm gonna get stronger on the other side.

17:43 So being grateful for the adversity is a really great way of reframing the situation's you're going through. I know a lot of people talk about gratitude all the time. And it's kind of a, it's a little bit cliche sounding. And it's kind of like a buzzword these days. But I don't know that that's the kind of gratitude, they're talking about being grateful for the shit, for the stuff that sucks. I don't know, it's something interesting happens, like when I'm out there, and I'm doing that. And I really am not just going through the motions, like I can actually find a way to be grateful for it and actually feel that gratitude. It makes me feel way better, like way, way better about the scenario. So that's one of the best things that I've found to be able to deal with this kind of shit. So the other thing, and I haven't been doing this very much lately, and I need to, I need to get back into it. So all of this stuff, sort of sparking these kind of like old tools that I that I kind of forgot about. But you know, and some of these may sound kind of silly, because we're talking about building up mental toughness, which is like a big deal thing.

18:48 And it's something that's going to over help you overcome shit when I when I lift list off some shit, and may seem like small stuff, but the reason and I think everybody knows I'm not a fucking neuroscience, neuroscientist and all this shit, but what I've read about all this kind of stuff, and just what I feel like I've experienced myself like the brain is very adaptable. You know, there's like the neuroplasticity. So the more you expose yourself to certain things, certain knowledge, certain scenarios, your brain rewires ship in order to be able to either do those things better or overcome that shit and all that kind of stuff. So these little exercises in order to try to force yourself to build up mental toughness, I find incredibly helpful and I feel like I've kind of fallen off of doing those things. So I'm going to start doing that shit again, but a couple of like really simple things. One is take a really cold shower, and I've talked about it before but but it really is like such a good practice because unless you're like somebody that is not bothered by Super Cold water.

20:01 You know, if you set a timer on your phone, for example, like for five minutes and say, I'm going to take a five minute cold shower, and I can't get out of here until that timer goes off. For most of us, me included, especially like in the wintertime, in the wintertime when the water is cold as fuck. All I want to do is get out of there like it's, it's really, really uncomfortable. And so every minute that you stay in there, and then especially when you stay in there until the buzzer goes off, don't you think you're building up some kind of resilience, you're building up some kind of some kind of skills, you're getting reps in and not quitting? You know, it's a small thing, it's like five minutes of your life. If you do that regularly. Some people do cold plunges, like I might want to try that sometime. It's very popular these days, but cold showers. I feel like it's definitely worthwhile. So you're gonna build up some kind of mental toughness. And this isn't about like, you take one shower, and then all of a sudden, you can fucking overcome anything. It's just about getting the reps in and doing these kinds of things over and over again, other small things like choosing harder options, and all these different kinds of scenarios. So a couple of really easy examples, just stop taking elevators like take the stairs. I don't really take elevators that much anymore.

21:27 Well, I guess I do. But I know Jesse and I we like to take the stairs when it's when it's an option. I almost feel like that one's not even very good. But I guess just to different people. It probably is. I mean, it's just about, you know, like you could park far away or something like that. Or you could do you could do a work, you could do your workouts and like the most unfavorable conditions like so, you know, maybe it's hot outside, you know, be safe about it and everything, but I don't know, kind of struggling coming up with these. I had some some written down, I don't know, try to think of ways to take the hard way. You know what I mean? talk yourself into it. And I think for me, also, you know, talking myself out of eating certain things and talking myself into doing my workouts and do it, especially doing my workouts when I really don't want to, like this morning. This morning, I was going to do my my kettlebell thing. And, you know, it's like 45 minutes long, it's kind of intense. And I was putting it off until I was sort of at a time like I was either going to do it or I wasn't going to do it because I had to get to the I had to get to work so so I ended up doing it. And like the whole time I was like, I even had to talk myself out of stopping early. And so I feel like I probably all of those kinds of things are are contributing to it, to building up mental toughness. So a large part of life is just overcoming, you know, a series of different problems to solve. And every time you solve something, there's going to be something else. It's almost like a fucking video game. Like you get to one level, and then it gets harder and then the next level gets harder. I think life is like that. And building up mental toughness is definitely gonna be a good tool to have at your disposal

23:26 All right. appreciate each and every one of you guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up

Sometimes it can feel like we're all in, or all out. Slip off your program in any area of life, and things start heading in the all out direction. Every now and then a season of all in commitment, very little "balance" can help to get the momentum going.

Find Bus on various platforms linked here: https://bus.graffitimachine.com/

FULL TRANSCRIPT

0:00 So after recording the last episode, I was talking about the slippery slope and compromises and kind of leading down the path of, you know, getting off track with the things that you want to do. And so I'm still in the process of like, figuring out what it is that I want to do. Well, that's not right. I'm still in the process of, of regaining momentum, and, and getting myself back to where I want to be I'm, I'm on a good path now. But at the same time, I'm trying to think, what exactly do I need to do to achieve these goals that I'm trying to achieve in all these different areas. So I have all these different moving parts, and, and all this kind of shit that I want to do.

0:44 You know, so I'm trying to scale machine studio, also trying to get back into graph and sort of, you know, not relive the glory days or anything crazy like that, I just want to, I just want to be active again, and, and progressing. And I want to see, I just want to see progress in that area. And you know, so I'm trying to get more active in that. And then super serious about personal development and learning. And like I said, in other episodes, I'm trying to learn about spirituality and shit like that, try to get myself better, trying to make sure I'm the best possible person, I can be in my relationship with Jesse. And then on top of that, I want to I want to do more for the graph culture, when a consistent, more consistent on this podcast was, there's all these moving parts, and it's kind of like this weird, this weird thing where like, I could be excelling in one area, and then another area is falling off and shit like that. But then, after the last episode, I realized, one of the things that I had said was, when you compromise in one area, it makes it easy to compromise in other areas. And that's kind of what happened.

1:53 I mean, I was getting complacent in a lot of areas of my life. And I'm not trying to beat myself up about it. I'm not trying to make this like a fucking pity party, because I don't, I don't operate like that. And, and I know, I'm working hard. I know, I'm doing a lot of things. And so I do cut myself some slack. But at the same time, when I really evaluate myself, and I do it, honestly, and really audit my time and like, how am I spending my time? How am I spending my energy? Who am I? Who am I giving my energy to, and all these kinds of things. I see a ton of holes in in my game, and I think that's healthy, you know, to, to audit yourself and just see if you're, if you're honest with yourself, there's probably so much shit going on that that you you just know, you know, you're doing so anyway, when he got me to thinking about was kind of along the lines of something that Mark is a really, as Anderson said, when he was on the show a little while back, I believe it was, there's only one level of commitment. And that's total. I thought that was just so cool.

3:00 Because it's like, I find myself, you know, when I'm doing something I'll commit to it, but but but at the same time, I find myself kind of more dabbling a little bit. I don't know if that's the right word, but had this idea in my head, I'm like, am I dabbling in this shit? Or am I doing my best to dominate in that area? So it was like, if I look at graffiti, obviously, I'm not. I have had times in my life when dominating, was what I was trying to do. But at the same time, it's like realistic, what you're up against, you know, so like, in my day, when I was the most active, I'm never going to be as active as somebody like GK or, or some of those kinds of people. Like, that's not really. So I guess when you when I think about dominating, it's like, Am I pushing myself as hard as I possibly can to the, to the best of my ability within the sort of boundaries that I have set for myself. So when I was in the bombing, and all that sort of stuff, there was certain boundaries that I wasn't going to do. Like, I wasn't going to hang off of bridges. I wasn't going to do any of those kinds of Daredevil spots. I tried a couple of them and I I just knew on the last one, I was like, This is not for me, this is for some other people. And I think if I try to keep forcing myself to do this stuff, it's gonna kill me.

4:21 There's a there's an episode, where can I talk about this? And he has, I think it was called gut feeling its way back. But he he tells a story about something like that too. But anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk about. But so what I'm trying to think of now is like, I need to sit you know, I'm throwing this whole idea of balance out out the window, outside of like, I'm not going to ruin my relationship to achieve the things I want to do but outside of that, I need to go into like a season of complete and total imbalance meaning I gotta be so fucking hyper committed to to be dominant and all those areas that I listed, and pour as much resources as I possibly can into those things, and I have a feeling that that's, I have a feeling that that's what I need to do, at least for the next three months or something like that. I remember Alex or mosey said something like that on one of his episodes. And I took a bunch of notes on it, he was talking about, he went into like this season of no where he was like, hyper disciplined on, on really not saying yes to anything that was outside of what he was trying to do. And so that's kind of the, that's kind of along the lines that I'm thinking I'm trying to create a system that, that I can be hyper disciplined, and making sure everything gets handled in all of these areas.

5:46 So I'll just run through, I didn't write anything down. So this may be a little jumbled. But I'm going to run through sort of what I plan to do. And maybe that might help some other people that may be struggling with this. And maybe you can kind of create your own sort of hyper discipline kind of plan for yourself. So I did a, I did a lot of thinking about graffiti and all this kind of stuff. And like, what is it that I'm prepared to do? And what is it that I could I could actually commit to doing that won't fuck with my other stuff. So I mean, now, so what I've done is I've committed one, one day a week, every Sunday, I'm going to paint something and I've told, I've told Jesse, this, I put it on my schedule, that I don't have to be at the studio on Sunday. And I've, I've sort of imprinted my brain that that's something that's just going to happen. So if I do that every single week, then that'll be significantly more painting that I've been that I've probably done in the last decade, or maybe even more, I don't know, I don't I don't know that I ever stuck to like a really strict schedule. So that's, that's what I plan to do if I paint every single week, and I'm also trying to sketch something every day. So if, and it doesn't have to be this new brand new thing, I don't have to spend all this fucking time like, I just have to draw something every day.

7:05 So if I do a sketch of some letters that I've already drawn, I'm good I, I, I've achieved that commitment. And then on Sunday, I gotta paint something. And so if I don't have any time, I'll just go somewhere and do a throwaway and get that in. And whatever it is, I'm committed to doing that, then for health, I was working out six days a week, because I'm doing this program. But I'm noticing, that's kind of a problem for me, I really need to be doing something seven days a week, because I have this like, it's like all in or out all out kind of thing like that one day off, it fucks with me, and I know there's benefits to it. So I think on the seventh day, I'm probably just gonna take take that day, and I'll walk or something to where my body can still have that recovery day. But at the same time, it's like that, I just need to go all in. Like that's how it works. That's really how my brain works, especially in that area. So like, if I say, I'm going to work out six days a week, and I don't have I don't know, what I end up doing is I kind of move that, that day around, I don't know, it's stupid, it's like, one day, I'll take Tuesday off. And then next week, I'll take Sunday off. And it just, I don't know, it just leads to compromise for me. So I'm just going to work out seven days a week. So every single day, I'm gonna get something, get something done.

8:34 And the goal is to knock that out first thing in the morning. So that it's done, because something that I've learned about myself is I do have a tendency to not want to work out in the morning. And then I say, Well, as soon as I get home, I'll do a workout, then I'll get home and then I'm hungry or some shit anyway, it doesn't get done. So I got to either commitment is seven days a week, of six days a week of a workout. And the seven day will be sort of like resting recovery, which is like walking or, or something like that. So seven days a week of work. I gotta commit to the diet. I mean, I don't want to call it I mean, it is a diet technically, but commit to the kind of eating habits that I that that I normally do, and not deviate from those, at least for the next three months. So I'm talking about like, what have you set up a hyper discipline, three month timeline, that's three months in the course of your whole life, you can change so much shit in that amount of time if you if you get hyper disciplined. So with work and scaling my business, it's the power list. I got to do five critical tasks every day and I'm gonna be much more committed to winning every single day because the slippery slope thing hits there too. So like

9:57 I remember I had I think I had this really long story because if you get your five critical tasks done, then you can write a W next to the next to the page. And so what I was doing to kind of see what my streak was, every time I get a, when I write the number of the streak that I'm on, and I ended up ended up at one point, I think I'll have to go through my book. But I think I ended up having a streak of like, 30 Something days in a row, where every single day I was, I won. And then there was one day where I compromised and I was like, I don't remember how it came up. I don't know, maybe I sort of forgot a task. And I realized that the next day, but anyway, I got a loss. And ever since that happened, it was so much easier to take another loss because the streak was, you know, by the time the streak gets long, like after 510 days in a row, you know it, it implants, some shit into your mind, you're like, I really don't want to break this streak. So you're more, at least for me, you're more, you know, on top of it to make sure you get all those tasks done.

11:07 And so I found, after getting that one last for the day, it was just so much easier to you know, if I get to the point where, you know, it's getting kind of late, and I still have one more task, and I'm like, I fuck it, I'll just take a loss. And every time you do that, it just chips away at your discipline, like it just pushes you further down the slope, you know, and so I need to, I need to get committed to winning every single day. And, and not compromising. And if I do happen to lose like it happens. I got to make sure that that's not opening up the door to to allowing more losses later. And so for this podcast, I mean, if you're a regular listener, I don't know, I don't know how people consume content these days. So if I don't know, if you expect it to come out a certain day, I don't know, maybe let me know, send me email or hit me up on social because I'm actually kind of curious about that. Like, do you guys listen? I know this show is very inconsistent. But like, if you have a show that is consistent, do you expect it to come out at a certain time, like, at a certain time, every week? Or do you just sort of listen to it whenever you get to it, that's how I consume content. So I think that's part of why that's part of why I've, I've allowed my mind to let it be easier to sort of put this shit out whenever I get to it. So for this, this podcast is really important to me.

12:32 So I'm going to get a lot more discipline, I'm going to record on the same day, I'm going to edit on the same day, I'm going to release them on the same the same day, every week at the same time. Like that's the goal. That's the level of commitment that I'm getting to. So I know those are all like, personal to me. But I think those kinds of things can be applicable to other people, I just, I don't know how else to explain it other than giving examples. So it's just like, if you have a goal and you want to get to a certain place, I personally don't see anything wrong with having a period of time, with absolutely no balance or very, very little balance. A lot of people talk about balance. And I feel like it tends to sort of allow too much too much compromise and too much too much balance in the wrong direction. And it's not, it's not I don't know, a lot of times it doesn't seem to be balanced. You know, you hear people talking about Balanced eating, but they're 100 pounds overweight. And it's like, that's not that's not balanced. And like for me, I haven't been balanced eating, I don't even know what the fuck that means. Like, I don't know what I'm talking about. So I don't know, I think that I think that a period of time of imbalance in terms of being hyper disciplined, and focused on the shit you want to achieve.

13:52 And, and spending as much of your resources as you possibly can to make that stuff happen. I can see that being beneficial for a period of time. I mean, I understand that committing to doing that shit every single day for the rest of your life and never taken a break and all that kind of stuff. I understand that's not that's not really healthy. I understand that but but maybe you could do that for a period of time. Enter enter a period of time where you're just like, you tell everybody around you just like look, I need this amount of time to fucking get this shit done. Whatever it is, for me, I need to get my my body to a place where I'm happy my mind to a place where I'm somewhat satisfied, I guess in a better place than it is now. I have to get my business to a certain place I have to get consistent on this podcast. I got to get consistent on graffiti, and all all. While doing all of that shit. I need to make sure that my relationship with Jesse is strong. That's actually the top priority. But if I get All of this other stuff in order that's automatically going to help in that area to I'm going to be a much better person. So I don't know if that's helpful. I hope it is. So I'm out. I don't know. I don't know what else to say later

15:22 All right, I appreciate each and every one of you guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up

A lot of compromises can be a slippery slope. One compromise leads to another, then another, then next thing you know, shit can get out of control. It happens to all of us. The key is to keep an eye on it, and if you do fall off track, get that momentum going again. Even if you have to force it.

Find Bus on various platforms linked here: https://bus.graffitimachine.com/

Full Transcript

0:00 I want to talk about something I'm dealing with right now. It's like this fucking slippery slope. Like when you compromise on one thing, how it kind of leads to more and more compromises. And I got a bunch of shit written out here. But I want to start just kind of defining what I mean by that. So like, let's just say, you're trying to live a different kind of lifestyle than you normally do. And this could apply apply to a lot of different things. I know I talked about like health and fitness a lot. But this is where I'm dealing with it right now. But a little later on. I'm also going to talk about some other some other things where I've seen this happen and other things, other examples where it might might apply. But in actuality, it can apply to just about anything, but let me get into it. Because I'm already rambling.

0:49 What I'm talking about here is like, like, for me, for example, what's happening right now is, as I mentioned, I broke my toe, and it kind of threw off my exercise. And then I think that was a worthwhile thing to sort of, I don't even know if that would fall under the category, but it was a worthwhile thing to sort of step away from just temporarily until my my foot healed up, it was like, but what I'm talking about are the times when you call something off, when you know, you should, and you don't really have a good reason to.

1:24 So for example, like, I like to be healthy. So that requires eating healthy. And it requires exercise and moving around and shit. For the most part, I don't necessarily enjoy all of those things, you know, I, I do like the food that I eat, you know, I've been eating healthy food for a long enough period of time to where I've found a xqlot of recipes that I like, and I've learned how to cook in season things in the way that you know, they really do taste just as good as the shitty food. But there's still kind of like a draw to like those sugary things or, you know, stuff with extra fat or kind of like fast food type of shit, there's always that kind of draw to want to eat that stuff.

2:06 So that's kind of what I'm talking about. So. So even though I want to live that life, there's always like, times when I have to kind of talk myself out of doing something that I'm not supposed to do, and when it's when it comes to exercise. For most of the time, I have to, I have to really talk myself into into doing that, because it's not something I really enjoy doing. But and so like a good example of a compromise would be, you know, I wake up in the morning, I'm all tired. I do my kind of basic routines have a cup of coffee drink, read, read my 10 pages. And then after I read my 10 pages and get a meditation session in, that's when I'm supposed to work out. So a lot of times, when it gets to that point where I'm supposed to work out, I really have to kind of tell myself, Hey, man, it's time to get this done.

2:57 And so if I, if I choose not to do that, let's say, right now I'm on a good kind of pattern, I guess you could say I'm working out six days a week, not doing 75 hard right now, I'm just kind of like working out six days a week and kind of doing everything else I'll get back on 75 hard a little later. But right now I want to try this thing I read this book called simple and sinister. It's worth checking out. It's pretty cool. It's like this kind of kettlebell workout. So I really wanted to try that. So that's what I'm doing six days a week. And it's pretty easy to get myself to do that, even after a few days in a row because you get a streak going. And I'll talk about that a little bit later. But let's say you know, I'm on a good path, and everything's going well. And then one day I'm like, You know what I just really don't feel like working out. And that's the kind of compromise I'm talking about.

3:50 So it's not the kind of compromise where I'm like, You know what, I got some lower back pain, I think it probably be better to rest today. So I can get after it tomorrow. That's not the same thing. It's when you when you know you should do something, but you make a conscious decision to not do it simply because you don't want to do it and you let that sort of inner dialogue when that little battle with yourself. And so anyway, back to like what what I'm dealing with currently, like I'm back on the exercise, but over the time while I was waiting for my, my foot to heal, and I was kind of taking it easy. I sort of compromised a little bit too much on my food.

4:31 And so I'm never ever going back to where I was. And that was quite, I mean, I was never like massively overweight, but I was probably I'd probably say like 60 pounds overweight was like the heaviest I ever got, which is just, you know, it's not healthy and I don't I don't ever want to go back to that. But that being said, I did compromise quite a bit over these last few weeks. And I really see the the effects of it, you know, so now I add these workout shorts that I wear all the time. And they're, they don't fit, they don't fit as good as they used to, they're kind of tight, and there's certain shirts I can't wear right now. I mean, I'll get it back together pretty quickly, with, with clean food and exercise, I didn't go that far off the rails.

5:19 But the fact is, is this is what I wanted to talk about, it's a slippery slope. And, and the further down the slope you get, the easier while I would say the harder it is to get back on track. So like I said, it starts with like, one compromise, right. And maybe that was like, me deciding not to work out. Because I had broke my big toe, I probably could have worked out. So I don't know if I should or, or shouldn't have, and I talked about that already. So I'm not gonna get too far into it. Maybe I could have and maybe that was the compromises started leading down the path.

5:23 And so. So what's interesting about the slippery slope is like, not only when you compromise in one area, it starts making it easier to compromise in other areas. So the not working out anymore, sort of gave my brain a little bit of a free pass, so to speak, to compromise on my food a little bit more. And then, you know, I'm kind of, in sort of a mental rut a little bit with work and the things that I'm supposed to be doing with work, like I'm working all the time, but like, I'm not being as productive as I should be. I think that's also kind of tying in, in a way, like, compromising in one area, allows compromises in other areas.

6:39 So, you know, when you compromise, also, it could kind of impact like your perceived failure, so to speak. So like, let's say, you're on a diet or your, you've decided, I don't really like that idea of, of a diet, like the temporary sort of, like, I'm gonna eat like this for this amount of time and lose this much weight. Like I, I never really did well with that stuff. But for me, it was always like, I need to make a lifestyle change and, and do something like when I was young, I was in high school, and I started working out. And I was, remember, I was working out three days a week, my dad had bought some weight set or some shit. And he was like, hey, you know, that's good. You're working out. And he's like, You got to do this for the rest of your life. I was like, Oh, shit, like, I never thought about it like that. I was pretty young. And so I was doing really well. I guess this is the first time I can remember this happening. So I was doing really well. Had I had I stuck with it, I would, I would have a lot better habits. Well, maybe I don't know, maybe my body be all jacked up or something. Who knows. But the what ended up happening back then was I was doing really well. And I think I was working out steady for free a few weeks or something. And then I got the flu real bad. And I think it knocked me out of commission for a few days. And then I never really got back into it.

8:00 And so it's almost like, I don't know, it's, I guess that's not really a good example. But like, when you when you say you know, I'm going to skip this workout, because I just don't feel like doing it. That is, in my opinion, that's kind of a failure. That's when you and maybe that's a strong word. That's that's the way I look at it. I'm not saying you failed, I'm saying that for me, I failed. If I know I should do something. And the only reason I'm not doing it is because I want don't want to I see that as a failure. So what I think it happens psychologically, is your perception of that failure may lead to, you know, oh, well, I already fucked up that. And so I might as well just stay off track. In fact, I heard I had already wrote this all out. And I was listening to Alex Hermozi podcast episode this morning. And he was talking about something like this, where he was saying, if you're on a diet and you, you eat fucked up, a lot of people will say something like, Alright, I'm off my diet, because you fucked up that one time. Whereas the better way to go is to course correct. And get back on track.

9:12 So one example that he said, is like, let's say you're counting calories and you went 100 calories over, it doesn't mean you're gonna give yourself a free pass to eat 15 pizzas because you're like, Oh, I missed my calorie point. I might as well just Just fuck off this whole thing. He was saying, you know, just do 100 calories less the next day, and then you're maintaining your goal. And those are the kinds of things I think I don't consciously think about that stuff. But I think that's sort of how it leads in the direction of, you know, the slippery slope, like where I'm at right now. Like, I'm pretty disappointed in myself. That my shorts don't fit me right now. I'm pretty fucking disappointed that I have shirts that I don't want to wear because they don't fit All right, so I want to get back to that as quick as possible,

10:04 I'm also going to be 50 and three months, and I'm like, man I got, I really gotta get, I gotta get, I want to enter my 50s in the best shape I've ever gotten. So I got three months to get my shit together. And I kind of wish I didn't compromise as much leading up to now. So if I had been starting this three months where I was before, I don't know, maybe a couple months back, you know, I'd be enduring 50 Probably a lot better, but we'll see. I'm gonna get it together. But it's very important. Like I was saying what Alex Hermozi said, to recognize these little slips as a temporary thing. It's not, that's, that's where I think a lot of people fuck up is like, you know, when you when you start sliding down that slope, and you're like, Well fuck it, you know, and you start saying, fuck it to too many different things.

10:53 What's more healthy is if you fuck up. And the next day, maybe you're disappointed, and you're like, you know what, I totally fucked up. Instead of like, thinking, Well fuck it, I'm just going to do whatever, the better way to go is, is to course correct. And maybe go a little harder that next day make up for it, I don't know, whatever it is you have to do to get back on track. So it sort of comes down to creating this sort of personal rules for yourself. So for me, they're not really written down. But it's like, things that I've sort of developed over time. There's certain things that I do, like I eat healthy, I exercise I meditate, you know, I make sure I'm not getting complacent in my relationship and things like that. So I don't know, maybe I should write these things down. And maybe that would be a healthy thing, healthy thing to do. But if you have these rules, you can always go back on. So if you do fuck up, you're like, you know what this isn't.

11:46 This is just, you know, I fucked up this day, and I'm going to get back on track. You know, it's interesting, too, because if you think about failure, and kind of overcoming the failure, you're still, you're still benefiting from, from that if you bounce back from it, because you're building up mental toughness, you're building up resilience and all that kind of shit. So that might be another mindset shift, to where when you fuck up. Instead of beating yourself up about it, you might think of it as an opportunity. And this isn't like giving your self a pass to fuck up to keep trying to build up this mental toughness.

12:20 But let's say you, let's say you fuck up on on whatever it is that you're doing. And I'll give some other examples. I know, I'm kind of talking about diet and shit. But this is sort of where I'm at right now. But if you fuck up, and you, you recognize that you fucked up, and then you course correct, and you get back on track, you've kind of made a deposit in your sort of mental toughness bank account and your resiliency bank account, if you want to think of it like that. So every time you overcome a failure, you get a little bit stronger. So that's not it's not all bad. When you slip off track, I mean, you actually have a little bit of an opportunity to kind of build up a little bit of a little bit of that was something that I was doing a little research on this topic.

13:03 And something that I I came across that I thought was pretty interesting that I might try to do is, is create, you might have heard of it. It's like an if then planning type of thing. I think it's like, it's also in like a programming language. Like, if this happens, then do this, if this happens, then do that. So what have you kind of created sort of an if if then system for yourself, for the things that you want to stay on track with? So if you're a graphic writer, and you want to say paint, once a week, or maybe more, I don't know, X amount of times a week? Let's say if you fall off, then what are you going to do? So let's say you fuck up, and you skip a week, then what? Okay, so then next week, I have to make up for it, I got to do two or three things, or whatever that is, your goal is if you if you fuck up on your exercise, then what? I'm gonna do my normal workout Plus, I'm gonna walk for 45 minutes, something like that, like what have you created a system for yourself? So that you're already sort of ready with, with a response, you have like a sort of a pre programmed response, for course, correcting yourself.

14:15 I did, I wanted to kind of give some other examples of things that I've kind of noticed this slippery slope happened, just so that so that it's not just about this diet and exercise, obviously, that that's the one that I'm talking about right now. And like I just mentioned with graffiti, this is something that happens to me all the time. And a lot of graffiti writers can probably relate to this, especially the older ones. You know, when you when you have momentum, and I'm going to get more on, talk more about that in a little in a little bit. But have you noticed that like, let's say you're you're sort of off your game and you haven't painted for a little while, and then you go paint and then you just want to go paint again the next day, and you know, it kind of fires you up. but a little bit. So that happens to me all the time. And, you know, in the 90s, I was I was all about painting, that's all I thought about that I went to college. And that sort of put some distance between me and the scene.

15:12 And then I took another few years off, so I was off for quite a while, maybe eight years, or I think it was like six years, because I still painted a little while I was in college. But I think the break between the 90s and the 2000s was about six, six years from well, not the 90s Fuck, it was like 2000 to 2006 I think I didn't paint at all. And then when I got into it, like I like, pretty quickly got momentum going. But that only lasted a few years. And then I remember the last time I painted something, something kind of frustrating happened with another crew. And just it was kind of a kind of a weird situation and kind of, I don't know, politics now with my current crew, but just some some other shit. So then I didn't feel like painting, you know, after that, and I was painting every weekend, pretty much. Maybe not every weekend, but I was painting, when the weekends would come around, I would, the plan was to paint, you know, so. But after, after I, I sort of compromised and I was like, am I gonna go this weekend, next weekend came around as sort of ideas sort of popping in my head, like, ah, you know, I don't want to drive all the way down there.

16:24 And maybe it's like, it's hot. And I don't want to be out there all sweaty, and just all these kind of like, you know, that shit that goes on inside your mind that sort of talks you out of doing something you think you should do. And for me, it was important that I maintained my sort of, I don't know what you would call it, like, I wanted to maintain my skills. And I wanted to sort of, after that time off, I wanted to make sure I maintain my name and the scene and all that stuff. So. So the more I compromised, the easier, the easier it became to talk myself out of it until I wasn't even thinking about painting anymore. And I took another few years off. So between like 2010 to 2014, I don't think I painted at all, maybe 2013. I don't know what it was, but it's the same shit. Like I just kind of talked myself out of it. And the further you get away from it, the easier it is to stay away from it.

17:20 And so I'm kind of in that mode right now. Like, I don't remember the I think the last time I painted was at that MSK thing. And that was, I don't even know, like, couple months ago already, it's times flying by and I still haven't even done anything. And that same fucking dialogue goes on in my head. Every time I think about painting. I'm like, Man, I don't want to drive all the way down there. It's starting to get hot again. Gonna get all sweaty and like, what colors am I going to use and just letting myself like, it's not like it used to be for me, you know, it's like, I didn't think about shit like that. When I was younger man, I just I was looking at some old photos. And it was like, some of the color schemes like we're just so fucking out there. Like, it's almost like, I wasn't even, like, I just put the cans together and like, ah, yeah, that'll that'll work.

18:09 You know, there's pieces, I just looked at a piece that was like outline is outlined in white, the highlights were read. The fucking background was was brown fucking Krylon Leather Brown. And the inside of the Fill was like a color scheme that I would just never come up with. Now it was like a beige. And like a hunter green and there was some fucking gold in there, like literal, metallic gold, you know, it was just like some, it was obvious. I just like painted with what I had. And I think I need to get back. Like, I need to get back on that. Like, that's probably one of the things that's kind of, you know, it's like, what colors are we gonna use when I go and stand in front of like, because, I mean, I have a graph shop. So there's like, so many fucking colors, so hundreds of cans, it's like, it's not like it was before where you open your bag, and you're like, Ah, I'll make this work.

19:06 You know, so I don't know, kind of getting off track. But it's, it's, it's applicable, it's relevant to what I'm talking about. Because it's one of those things that allows me to talk myself out of going and painting and that's what's really important to me. So it's like, your hobbies are important. You got to think of them. Or, I mean, not so much hobbies, but like things that make you happy. Like you got to do that stuff. Like if you put off that stuff. I think it's just as bad as like putting off work and putting off anything else. Like if that's where your happiness is and like I don't like painting as much as I used to, but like, I love having that shit in existence, if that makes sense. Like it's not so much the process anymore. For me, it's the when it's done and it's up there and it's out there in the fucking scene like that brings me happiness, so I should be doing that. But I fucking talk my myself out of it, and I'm so far down on the slippery slope with putting off graffiti that it's, it's going to be challenging to try to get myself onto a schedule, but I really need to do that.

20:12 So another thing Another example might be relatable to you as a, like I used to play bass when I was younger. I don't know if anybody's familiar with this, but I used to play in hardcore bands and sometimes people are really surprised like, I used to play guitar for this band called stripe, I was in there for like a year and a half or something like that. Did some tours with them. And it was, it was all a good time, I didn't really contribute to that band. I was mainly just like, they put me in as a guitarist when they needed a guitarist. But then after that, I started a band called eyelid and I played bass and I was that band and graffiti was like my whole fucking existence for several years. Well graffiti for much longer, but I think I was in that band from like, maybe 94 to 98 or something like that. And it was like everything to me, you know, playing bass and all that shit. And then after the band broke up, I just didn't play bass anymore. Like, almost never like for fucking 20 years. Like it just didn't even I didn't even pick it up. Like I still sit in here like I got pieces and shit. And so I I bought a bass like the Slayer fucking signature. It's the Tom Araya signature bass. So I'm like, I'm gonna buy that if I can. That seems cool. So I bought it thinking that it was gonna get me all hyped up to play again. And it fucking it didn't like I needed. I needed a mindset shift for that.

21:40 Then my girlfriend was always asking me Hey, when are you gonna play bass again? And it got me thinking I'm like, Yeah, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna commit to doing this. So I I started playing bass again. And I committed to being a being able to play this one classical fucking song because like, playing a classical song, I think it's the, I don't know, when I was younger, I learned how to play the prelude on the Bach, Prelude, I don't know how you say it. On the base, it was so fucking hard to do. I was like, I'm committed by the end of the year, I'm gonna, I'm going to learn how to play this again. And I was on this like, good momentum, you know, I had a good streak going, and then all of a sudden, I compromised. And then I just fucking never picked it back up again. So I'm back on that, again, like I just I haven't played bass. And I don't know, like a year now.

22:31 So the other thing I do, as I've talked about in previous episodes, it's a thing called the power list, you write down five critical tasks that you need to get done. Super powerful, it's very highly recommended, I would, if you want to look into that a little further, I don't want to take up too much time talking about it. But it's, it's basically just breaking down these five critical tasks that are going to move your life forward. So it could be anything from fitness to business, a lot of minor business. But if I start to compromise on the power list, and I start to get too many losses. For context, if you finish all your five critical tasks, then it's considered that you won that day. If you don't, then you lost that day. So the more losses I start putting together, the easier it has to be like if I could I'll just take a loss for today.

23:22 Probably the biggest one for me, the biggest realization was reading. Like I was on this path of reading 10 pages every single day. Like it was tied into another morning habit. As soon as I would start making coffee, I'd grab my Kindle. And I thought that habit was so locked in that it was unbreakable. Until I decided not to read one day. And it was it wasn't because like anything happened or like my schedule was all fucked up. And I had to wake up and just go somewhere, and I wasn't able to do that. I just didn't feel like it. So I didn't do it. And then that made it easier and easier to not read again. I mean, like I haven't been on like a no reading. But I definitely compromised that one time, and started slipping down the slope. And to where I still haven't quite got it completely back. So like now I still read every day. But sometimes, like I'll be on like, oh, like my goal is to read 10 pages every day for my whole life. And so right now like even though I'm still reading every day, like a lot of times, I'll be like alright, that's six pages. That's good enough. And it's all it all started from that one compromise. It's so crazy. Like you would think that after like having something so solidified as a habit that you'll you'll never have to really use willpower to get yourself to do it again, but I'm finding that that's where I'm at now.

24:55 It's pretty crazy and like even with that, even with that idea that like I've started to slip down the slope, I even noticed, like my reading comprehension kind of slipped a little bit. Because if I'm using willpower to, you know, like, like on times where I'm like, You know what I just don't feel like reading, but I'll grab the Kindle anyway, I'm like, I just got to do it. Like, I gotta make sure I do this. I think it's because I've, I've had to pull some willpower and kind of force myself to do it. I'm not quite as into it. And whereas when it was like a complete habit, and it was like, this is just what's going to happen. Like, everything just was fine. It was like flowing reading, everything's cool. Like, obviously, I'm not like me, retaining every single thing I read. That's not really how it works. But it was like, I was still in the flow of reading. And a lot of times, like, I'm like, Oh, shit, that's 12 pages. I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop now. Like, I'm having to build that habit back up. And it's just interesting, that it all started with one compromise. Like, it's just so weird how that works.

25:59 So another thing, and I really only have one action step. Before I get into that, I want to talk about another thing that I that relates to this that that I came across in my research, it's a phrase called ego depletion, I should have wrote the guide that guy's name down, but I'm sure if you searched ego depletion, you probably could probably find some information on it. But the concept is that your willpower is like a limited resource. So the more you have to like, convince yourself to get something done. So in the case of any of the stuff that I talked about, the more I have to say, sit there and try to go to battle with that voice in my head, like when I when I need to get my workout done. And I don't want to and my brain is telling me, oh, you know, you could take a day off, it's not a big deal, you know, fucking whatever all the shit that goes on in your mind.

26:55 So the amount of self control and willpower that it takes to talk yourself out of that inner voice, this concept, kind of talks about how that's a limited resource. So the more you have to force yourself to do something, the more you're sort of depleting that resource. So what happens is, and how it relates to this is, so let's say, let's say you're on a good path, and you've created a good habit of doing whatever it is, every day, let's say you're on a habit of, of playing whatever musical instrument every day, or eating healthy food every day, whatever that is for you, it starts, it becomes easier and easier to stay on it, the more you're on it. But then when you start to make those compromises, then all of a sudden, you have to start, you have to start pulling into that resource to get yourself to do it. Because like, if you eat some shitty food, when you've been on a good path of eating healthy, maybe not the one time you eat the shitty food, but like if you kind of let yourself slip off track, then you really have to, like next time the opportunity comes to, to eat something that you know you shouldn't eat, you really have to kind of draw on that, that willpower in order to keep yourself from doing it.

28:11 Whereas when you're on a streak, and you're you're on a habit, you kind of don't even really think about that stuff, you're like, Ah, now I'm not going to eat that I'm going to eat the shit that I've been eating, you know, you don't even really think about it, it doesn't doesn't require any willpower. So it's kind of an interesting thing to think about if your willpower is a limited resource. And so the only real action step that I have is, is in order to avoid this in order to overcome this, if you slip off of it, is to build and maintain momentum. So I'm probably going to redo this re revisit this subject, but I did. I did do a whole episode on this a while back. But I think it's due to, to kind of revisit because I probably have some new shit that I'm thinking about. But here's the thing. We've all experienced this when you when you have that momentum, you don't actually need your willpower.

29:07 So your willpower is in there on reserve. And what I mean by that is like let's say, let's say you solidified something into habit. Every day you get up, and you don't have to talk yourself into doing that anymore. Every day you get up or whatever it is, every day, you know, this is going to happen. It's not even a question. That's momentum. That's, that's, that's how you get out of this shit. That's how you avoid this shit. And once you have the momentum, that's where it's sort of critical to maintain it in some way. The thing is, like there's always going to be some reason to get off track. But if you have momentum, it's very important to try not to get off track in order to maintain it. Because as you've noticed, when you're in that state, it's just so easy to stay on track. Like it's whenever I'm doing 75 hard once I'm in it Once I'm a few days in, I got all the momentum in the world, there's nothing outside of something completely out of my control that's going to stop me from doing those tasks. There's not even a question of whether or not I'm going to do both workouts whether or not I'm going to read 10 pages, it's not a question at all. So I'm not pulling on that resource. So you're I don't even know, I don't know, I'll probably read more about it.

30:24 But according to this ego depletion thing, if you have momentum and all the areas that you want to have momentum in, and you're moving forward, you have all that willpower on reserve for if something goes wrong. So imagine if, if you're sitting there just cruising along, you're doing all the shit you're supposed to do, and everything's kind of working out. And then all of a sudden, something happens, you have to do some emergency trip, or you break your toe or some shit like that, you have all that willpower sort of stocked up and just sort of waiting for you, you know, because you're not having to use it. So let's say you do fall off track, like what happened to me, I fell off track. So now I got to build up the momentum. Again, I'm on my way there. But I'm still needing to, to pull on that willpower reserve, you know, so I'm not quite out of the woods yet. But I'm on my way out. So for me, just knowing this whole thing, like, once I get once I get to the point where I'm on a streak and I have momentum, it's going to be so much easier, like right now is so much harder, because I have to kind of talk myself into these behaviors again, once I once I don't have to do that anymore. Everything's easy. It's easy to work out every day, when you're on a streak. It's just it. That's just what it is.

31:44 And when I tell people when they say something like, Well, I can't do that, because I like to put sugar in such and such. And I'm like, Well, that's what you like now, but you can train yourself to not like that, like an example, that people say all the time is like, I can't do I can't do 75 hard or I can't do this, whatever it is, because I really like to have a lot of cream and sugar in my coffee. And yeah, I used to that's when I used to drink coffee early on. That's all I would have it like like this creamy, disgusting, sugary shit. That's gross for me now to think about, like, I can't even drink that shit anymore. But like, I couldn't imagine drinking black coffee at that time. But at one point, I made a decision. And I was like, Look, I'm gonna learn to like black coffee, like it's tastes disgusting. But that's all I'm gonna allow myself to have. Because I gotta get off of this fucking sugary cream bullshit. Like, I gotta be done with this. And so now it's the other way around. Now, I prefer to not have anything in my coffee. That's a weird example. But it's it makes sense.

32:51 The further away I get away from that sugary shit, the more I sort of get trained to crave the other, you know, so like, the more I stay away from unhealthy foods and stick to only healthy foods, that's what I crave. That's what I want to eat, I want to eat the healthy food when I'm on. And I've talked about it a bunch how I hate working out but like, that's only when I'm when I'm off track. When I'm on track. Like I don't necessarily love it, but it's like, it just happens. It's just, this is what I do so. So that's pretty much the only action step, build and maintain momentum, you can use streaks to do that, like so, try to set yourself up with like, you know, track how many days in a row, you did the thing that you're supposed to do, let's say for my, for my shit. Like if I wanted to start doing graph once a week, I could start tracking that and say, I'm going to do a piece every single week and five weeks and I got a good streak going six weeks, and I got a streak going by the end of the year. If I've painted 52 times, that's quite a big, it's quite a serious streak for me that I don't want to break. I mean, I know just so many young people it's like oh shit, only 52 pieces a year. That's nothing I understand a mold. So give me a break, you know.

34:13 But in the same thing with like any any other thing you want to you want to play a musical instrument, you want to practice 20 minutes a day, you get a good streak going, it becomes harder and harder to get yourself to not to it becomes easier and easier to stay on track. And it actually becomes harder to that that little voice in your head kind of goes away. So build that momentum. Maintain it when you have it. That's pretty much all I got. One thing I wanted to ask if you don't mind if you're getting anything out of this show, you don't mind sharing it trying to grow this thing. Really appreciate it. You can throw it up on your Instagram or go leave me a review on whatever platform you're listening on. It'd be very helpful. We also still have that discord community so if you're getting any anything out of this and you want to have conversations with like minded people send me a message at bus 166 on Instagram. And as I mentioned before, I've been fucking with Twitter. I've been enjoying it over there. So if you want to follow me on Twitter, bus 166 MSK over there. Alright, appreciate you guys and I will see you soon

35:27 all right. appreciate each and every one of you guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up