Getting After It

095: Mastering Focus – How Drew and I Beat Distractions

• Brett Rossell • Season 3 • Episode 95

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In this episode, I sit down with my brother, Drew, for a deep dive into distractions—how they show up, why they derail us, and, most importantly, how to overcome them. Whether it’s battling TikTok rabbit holes, pushing through tough runs, or staying consistent with long-term goals, we explore the mindset shifts and strategies to keep distractions in check and your focus on track.

We also talk about Drew’s journey, from dropping over 40 pounds to training for his first marathon and beyond. Through personal stories, practical tips, and some humor along the way, we unpack what it takes to build momentum, stay consistent, and transform those small daily wins into life-changing results.

Key Topics Covered:

  • The biggest distractions we face and how to manage them
  • Why New Year’s resolutions fail and what to do instead
  • Performing a “distraction audit” to regain control of your time
  • How accountability can keep you on track when motivation fades
  • The role of perspective and delayed gratification in achieving big goals

Whether you're looking to sharpen your focus, set better goals, or simply block out the noise, this episode is your reminder that small, consistent actions lead to big changes. Tune in, get inspired, and let’s keep getting after it!

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I hope today’s episode sparked something within you to pursue your dreams and unlock your true potential. If you found value in it, consider sharing it with someone who might need that same push.

This podcast is built for you—the dreamers and the doers. My goal is to provide a space where you can find inspiration, learn from others, and feel empowered to chase what matters most to you.

Your dreams are within your grasp. All you need is the commitment to Get After It.

Brett:

Distractions are like uninvited guests. They show up, disrupt the flow and leave you wondering where the time went. Today I'm diving into this topic with someone who knows all about pushing through distractions my brother, drew man. They got me into this show and I was like can I have like 15? And they're like here, take a box. And so they gave me a box and ever since then I've been taking them. That's good. They have orange, watermelon, lime is the one I got you. I got you the I like how you can like.

Drew:

It's salty, but there's a hint of sweetness from the coconut yeah, have you noticed that?

Brett:

oh yeah, that's why I like it. Get my phone off the table. Get the phone off the table. What's up? Yo, what's up. Welcome back to the show thank you. I am an expert actually on distractions you are, we both are, I think, yeah, adhd boy over here, growing up, that's what our entire life was was distractions. Let's uh, let's get a christmas update, new year's update on drew. Okay, what's going on? Now you got your big goals for 2025 yes, um, hitting a sub four marathon.

Drew:

That's the goal for uh, for may and you okay, so you found it we found it, we're doing the oc. It hasn't been booked yet, but we will be booking it.

Brett:

Yeah, that's kind of sick though, because we ran the half last year. That was your first half. No, team Tim was your first half, yeah.

Drew:

That was my second half. Second half, but it was my first sub too.

Brett:

Yeah, and then now it's full circle. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Drew:

Yeah, it was nice. I think it would be a good marathon and we had our other Asian running friend, parker, yeah, and now he's not here, no longer a runner, sad days.

Brett:

All right sub four.

Drew:

That's probably the biggest one which should I share. Our 2026? Yeah, throw it out there, let's get it. So the goal is to get the sub four early this year so that the rest of the year we can be prepping for our first 50-miler, first 50-miler 2026.

Brett:

Yeah, I'm looking to do one, though in fall, so it'll be my first 50-miler. But our first race together. Pretty much, that's sick.

Drew:

You'll probably just be walking with me the whole time.

Brett:

No, that's sick. You'll probably just be walking with me the whole time. But no, no, we'll, we'll kill it. Where is it again, sedona?

Drew:

sedona, sedona in april of 2026, perfect.

Brett:

So back to arizona back to arizona can't get away from the ultras in arizona. Nope, it's worth it, though. This one will be pretty, though very good hot summertime yeah, we're not gonna die in the middle of the night, right? Well, very good, anything else, any other goals?

Drew:

I mean other goals, but they uh, they're sitting here other personal ones fair enough. But running wise running while getting after it I mean, and obviously I could say, my aesthetic goal, I want to have a six-pack by the end of the year too you don't just want that.

Brett:

You want david goggins body. I want david goggins body. Yeah, do you ever think about David Goggins when you're distracted? Yes, I do. All the time there's a guy knocking on the door. It was a big, loud one. It was a little spooky. He doesn't know we're recording a podcast, so I apologize. Anyways, I do. All the time I think about David Goggins yelling at me. What can you do? Anyways, I do all the time I think about David Goggins yelling at me. What can you do? Anyways, getting into it. The reason I want to talk about distractions today is because I think, with 2025, a lot of people set resolutions, myself included. I think it's important to take a look at how the year went before, see what went well, what could have gone better and how you can improve. That's always an important thing to take note of. And, uh, there's something I heard the other day. So have you heard a quitter's day?

Brett:

it's oh yes it's like the second week of january or something like that. Yeah, on a friday, maybe it's the first friday in january, but um, that's when people tend to like 80 of people abandon their new year's resolutions. And I used to be someone like that. Like I used to probably set too ambitious and like hard goals to achieve for myself and it didn't seem feasible. And so when I got to the point where I was like, okay, well, this is too hard, I'd be one of those guys that throws rings the bell on quitter's day.

Brett:

Yeah, um, but I think, from my own personal experience, distractions are kind of what take you away from? That? Like distracting from the hard thing that you know you need to do, and it's not necessarily a negative thing. Like I still, when I like have a day when I don't want to run and it takes me a while to get out of the door, um, like, no matter what, I know I can do it. It's just I have to push past that feeling of you know, hesitancy and and fight through, and the distraction is is saying you know, don't do it, you don't need this, you need a rest day. Like go do something else, do something productive.

Brett:

Um, but in my head. I know I need to get it done because that's what I want to achieve and I have a goal of doing 2000 miles this year. So last year I ran 1900. It's an extra hundred. But if I want that like, I have to be consistent with running and I can't be distracted when those siren calls come. Do you know what a siren is? Yes, I know what a siren is. It's so good.

Drew:

Classic Greek mythology, the Iliad.

Brett:

Yes, anyways, but I think it's important to like be honest with yourself and understand that like distractions are going to happen to everyone. I think it's interesting because they've always been around. Like distractions have always been around. There was this tweet. I saw where it was like back in 1920. It was all these people on the subway, everyone had a newspaper, and then it was like 2024 everyone was on their phone. It's like the same thing, but it's just a different form of distraction yeah I feel like that's kind of been always.

Brett:

That's just human nature, it seems.

Drew:

Yeah, um, I mean it feels good to clock out for sure it does and not be the person you know that you are sometimes I mean, what does david goggins always say?

Brett:

he's like you know what you have to do, but like you don't want to do it yeah but you got to dig down deep and just get it done yeah, um I don't know.

Brett:

I do it, yeah, cause you got to dig down deep and just get it done. Yeah, um, I don't know, I think it's like people blame it on, like the buzzing of a phone or I don't know. You might have like a nagging thought that distracts you from your work. Um, I even think, like some forms of productivity can be forms of distraction. Like you might think it's beneficial to go and do your laundry. If you work from home, like to help your wife, you know you're telling yourself the story oh yeah, it's gonna be good. Like she'll come home, she's gonna give me a kiss and uh, she'll, you know, be really thankful for the fact that I did the laundry, but really you're ignoring the other tasks that you need to do. Bad example, but I think the principle applies. Like it's hard to um you okay there.

Brett:

Yeah, I'm okay, I'm just kidding, um, but I don't know how do you think we stay focused in a world that, like, thrives on pulling our attention away from from what we want or from what we know we need to do?

Drew:

Uh, I think I mean I we want, or from what we know we need to do, yeah, I think I mean, I think uh distractions are easy.

Brett:

Yeah, it's about choosing the hard.

Drew:

You know, like we did just talk about that, choose your hard, yeah um, but but also just like I don't know, like I feel like the biggest distraction isn't just like our phones. Yeah, um, like you talked about New Year's resolutions, which I think New Year's resolutions are BS. I do too. I think that it should just be like you're always on, you're always setting goals, always doing that.

Brett:

I think New Year's resolutions is like a review time. Yeah, you take a look at what you did the past year and be like, okay, well, this went well, I'm doubling down on that. This did not. I'm going to remove that from my life or whatever that is. Yeah, but it's like a reflection time. Um, because you're right, like you should always strive to get just a little better every day.

Drew:

Yeah. So I think I think New Year's resolutions are are kind of yes, but you talked about like new year's resolutions, people fall off. Um, I I think a big problem. And who was it that talks about this? I can't remember. I don't know if it was goggins or it might be uh, it might be someone else, I can't remember. They're talking about how, when you start to like make serious changes about yourself, the people around you that know you for being that person yeah they tend to hate you for it have you seen?

Drew:

that I think you've talked about this. What is that from?

Brett:

no, yeah, that is david goggins, is it david goggins? Yeah, but like they, it's kind of funny. Um, I'm gonna throw ally under the bus for a second, but she just launched a podcast yesterday. It's all true crime stuff. Yeah, no-transcript. Yeah, um, and I think not. People don't necessarily get angry. I think it's a jealous thing. Yeah, because they see the potential that you're bringing to the table and it's like, well, that guy's doing it, whatever, like it's probably not gonna last, but they're just sad because they're not doing anything, but they're hoping you do I feel like that's like a huge distraction, though like I think that's probably why a lot of people tend to like quits, because no one believes in them.

Brett:

The distraction of like people, like naysayers. Is that what you mean?

Drew:

yeah, like naysayers or like I mean just people who don't care, maybe, but I think for me, the biggest way to to get rid of distractions is to have some sort of accountability. That's where I was. Tell me more, that's where I was going with that like. Tell me more about that. I mean, I've talked. How many times have I brought up you and me right, like that's like probably the biggest way for me to get rid of distractions, because I know if I don't run, I'm gonna hear it from you or and it's never negative, in fact, it's the opposite. Yeah, and that's what I hate. Like I hate when I tell you that I, I did like, oh, I only got five miles in, you know this, or whatever, and you're just like it's okay, get them next time. I'm like screw you, you know like that's.

Drew:

I hate that, but why is that?

Brett:

why do you hate it? I just, I just, you know what you can do.

Drew:

Right, I know I could do it, yeah and or I could have done it or I should have done it. You know so, but I think I think that's like a big piece that helps remove some of the distraction is having some sort of accountability, whether it's through someone else or it's yourself, which your self accountability is a lot harder than it sounds You've talked about that where it's like it started out as being accountable to me Like when you started working out and stuff and you're like, yeah, I don't want to tell him I didn't get my 10 miler in or whatever the situation was.

Brett:

But now it's like turned inward and now it's you are disappointed because exactly what you said, like you know what you can do, like yeah, I'll hold you accountable and be like, hey, well, you're getting lazy, or if that ever comes up. But I think it's more of a personal thing now for you because it is for me.

Drew:

Yeah.

Brett:

And that's I don't know. That's painful sometimes. Yeah.

Drew:

So I think I think that's probably like especially like with the new year, new me, like going on, like that's probably like. In my opinion, I think the best way to start is get some sort of accountability, like even if it's like I'm going to videotape myself saying I'm going to do this and then I'm going to set a reminder to go watch it.

Brett:

I was just telling you, my and I we do that we pretty much sit down and videotape ourselves talking about our goals for the year and then at the end of the year we watch that video either happy or sad, right, depending on what we did. Yeah, so I think that's a good idea, like, obviously there's people out there who love and care about you. Hopefully there is. Yeah, um, but if there is someone who like, loves and actually cares about you, it could be your mom, your spouse, your dad it could be siri it could be siri you can chat.

Drew:

Actually I had great conversations with that I mean no, I'm saying like with, with siri, you could use keep going, you could use um it to. Basically, you know set reminders so that like oh yeah, you can be. Like hey, you know, set a reminder for me to go run and then you could set a reminder for the next day like hey, did you run yesterday? Yeah so it's always on your mind, yeah it's true if you don't have someone which hopefully everybody has somebody yeah, but I like that too.

Brett:

Like jordan peterson has this rule where you treat yourself like your own best friend, and you should also treat yourself like someone who you aspire to be Like I want to be this person who changed their life and goes and runs.

Brett:

If this is someone who's like setting a goal to change their diet or fitness, whatever, and like it is hard to get up off the couch and go for a run, especially if you haven't done in a long time, but you have to know like doing those hard things will get you further in life and teach you more about yourself and make you feel better, and do all these like great benefits for your health, um, and so, in the end, like that decision to get up and go do the hard thing is better for you and you're treating yourself like your own best friend, like someone you care about, right, so it's kind of interesting, but I think, yeah, that's a, that's a huge thing. Yeah, uh, just be accountable to someone or something like Siri or yourself filming yourself. Um, yeah, what's the biggest distraction you face on a daily basis? Tiktok man.

Drew:

Being straight up, we have some good ones though.

Brett:

Dude like Come on.

Drew:

The problem with me with social media is like I'm not on it like the way most people are on it, like I'm not sharing stories, I'm not talking about my runs, I'm not like posting about my journal of my family.

Brett:

Like I used to be like that where I'd post like happy birthday stuff every time for everybody that I love.

Drew:

And now I'm just like you're, like whatever. If I love you, I'm gonna text you or call you or be there on your birthday. You know, like um, but I use tiktok for the freaking memes and they are they're so good they're so good, and they just pull you right in can you tell me about funky burger? No, I can't dang it that one's gonna have to be searched on your own go search funky burger, but like you know I uh, I definitely struggle with it.

Drew:

Yeah, like I'll catch myself even when I'm around my kids, like scrolling on tiktok or like laying in bed, like oh yeah, going on tiktok. Or going to the bathroom scrolling on tiktok like it is so hard and I've. I've gone through phases where I delete it and then I'll get text messages like hey, did you see those 14 message?

Drew:

or tiktok messages I saw from me yeah from you, from blake, from everybody, and I'm like no, so then I'll re-download it, go look and then, and then I'm back in but yeah, but like that's, that's probably like the biggest one is is just those dang tiktoks man yeah, I'd honestly say, just like.

Brett:

For me, social media grabs my attention and throws me in a rabbit hole. Yeah, um, I even realized myself like I'm in sales and so I spent a lot of time on linkedin, right, work, like trying to reach out to people. But even like that is a form of social media and I can find myself like distracting myself from what I actually need to be doing. Right, and it's not a bad thing, but it is a bad thing actually, and I've been catching myself the same thing and be like, hey, snap back, like let's go, um, but the reason I bring that up is I think this is a helpful thing. I read this about, uh, like, how to crush your new year's resolutions, and I know we're talking about like news. Resolutions are kind of fads, yeah, but I like this idea of performing like a distraction audit. So you pretty much just spend one day trying to identify what distracts you. So you wake up if you reach for your phone. I think that's a form of distraction. Yeah, like, put it away, but make a note of that. Be like, okay, well, in the mornings, my phone is a distraction and now I mean you have a good tip on that, put in the other room. Yeah, put your phone in the other room, but go throughout your day and try and figure out what's pulling your attention from what you need to be doing or being with the people that you need to be with. Like, if you're spending time with family but you're on Tik TOK or you're on another social media, like, is it actually spending time with family? I don't know. Um, no, no, you heard it here, but I think that's like an important thing to do is, and it requires honesty. You have to be honest with yourself and sometimes it's ugly, yeah, but it's beneficial for you, your goals, those around you. It's going to make you a better person. So that's why I would say it's the first thing to do perform a distraction audit. I like that.

Brett:

Um, I also think it's important to think about, like, where do distractions thrive? Like you try and understand the origin of these things, and I think it's distractions. They feed off of our discomfort, either with slow progress or mundane tasks. Like how many times have you ran? And I don't know, maybe it's like a 12 or 13 mile run. You might start getting bored. I don't know, maybe it's like a 12 or 13 mile run, you might start getting bored. How hard is it to stay in the game at that point? Like your legs are hurting, they're distracting you from the run.

Drew:

I mean, everyone has those things right. I was about to say that never happens to me, but then I was like, no, it definitely happens to me.

Brett:

I was going to say whoa Impressive.

Drew:

I mean like, yeah, I feel like with running, like you just focus on, like the end game.

Drew:

Yeah, that's what I do.

Drew:

It's like I think about, okay, I'm going to feel so good when I'm done, yeah.

Drew:

Or like another thing is like if I'm feeling a pain in my knee or my leg, like I try to think about that pain, like to bring me back into it, and then I usually then that pain goes away, yeah, but um, yeah, that's probably that's what works for me on those and like even with um, like with work, and I have mundane things I need to do, yeah, like get a need to get a ton of stuff done and if I need to stay focused, like I try to that same thing, like remind myself like I'm either gonna go home feeling stressed out like I didn't get anything done, or I'm gonna go home and lay my head on my pillow and be proud of what I did proud of what I did yeah perspective yeah, that's uh something ally, and I've been talking about a lot is like perspective, and I think, with whatever goal you have, whether it's to have a six six pack by the end of the year or run 2000 miles, like you need to have perspective in mind and understand that there's going to be hard days.

Brett:

There will be days when you don't want to do your ab exercises. Or for me, like, go and run yeah, not saying you got to do ab exercises, but I have to if I want a six pack. That's true. And creatine yeah, take some creatine, yeah. And creatine yeah, take some creatine, yeah. Um, but I don't know. I mean, it is unappealing to like not see an immediate reward and you have to delay gratification because I don't know we are so focused, or so what's the word? So, uh, we have instant gratification what's that exposed to?

Brett:

yeah?

Drew:

maybe experience it. We experience all the time, all the time amazon.

Brett:

It's like oh, I need something, it comes yeah. Like oh, I'm hungry, I don't want to cook, I'll just go to a restaurant, like whatever.

Drew:

Yeah, um but or like oh, I need energy, energy drink boom that's true.

Brett:

I used to drink a ton of those things we both used to. I still do. I drink a lot, but maybe one a day. Yeah, Used to be like two three.

Drew:

Sometimes I do one a day, three if you include pre-workout.

Brett:

Yeah, now I don't even take pre-workout. That's impressive. I need to take it again. I miss it.

Brett:

But anyways, like you have to be okay with the fact that you're not going to see an immediate reward and you're going to need to delay your gratification for that end goal, whatever it is. And so, having perspective, everything helps with that. Yeah, because you're aiming at a higher point, to where it's like okay, that's where I'm going. I know bumps are going to come up and when they do, it's like I just know it's part of the process. Yeah, you got to trust the process and keep it going.

Brett:

There's this quote you can do everything, or you can do anything, but not everything, and I think what the guy his name is David Allen is trying to say. There is like focus your attention on what actually matters most to you and so like, if you have a New Year's resolution, throw fitness, whatever you want, out the window and it's just like I want to spend more time with family, then do that and try and be the best person you can be in your job or whatever. But like, realize you can't do everything at the beginning. Um, it's gonna lead to burnout. Yeah, it's gonna make you want to distract yourself a lot faster, uh, and anything like that.

Drew:

So, yeah, that makes me I hate bringing this back up, because I please I talk about this probably too much, but like when I first started losing weight, yeah, I was training for the first team tim, um, my first half marathon, which I had never run before, right, but what'd you? Weigh before, if you don't mind me asking.

Drew:

I was 255 when I started running. I might have been 250, somewhere around there, but I started training for Team Tim. I started loving running and then Team Tim came along and just from running and training for that half marathon, I lost 10 pounds. That's crazy and that was huge for me, because that was, I think, two or three months of training. Yeah, it was fast, it was.

Drew:

Oh, it was I started in december technically, my first few runs were in november but, like, started december, it was february, so was it three months? Three months. So I did three months of training and I lost 10 pounds. And that was when it was like like it first clicked for me that it's not instant, yeah, and it's going to take a long time. And so that for me was you know what instigated me and me working together? Cause I saw that and I wanted to pick another goal and then work towards that goal. So, um, but then that made me, kept me focused and kept me running, cause I knew that I had a race coming up. But then by the next race I was 225, you know. So I lost 25 pounds between when I started running to that and now. Like, now I don't care really about my weight and more focused on performance and, like you know, obviously I want a six-pack.

Drew:

But yeah, I mean like that's a good mind shift, but that that's like. For me, that was probably the biggest mind shift that I had, and like it finally clicked was when I saw the result. But I wasn't necessarily doing it to lose weight, I was doing it because I wanted to support Team Tim. And then, looking back, I was like, oh, I actually had, because I've been wanting to lose weight. You know, at that point I lost 10 pounds and I realized that it's gradual rather than quick, and so that was a huge mind shift for me. It was just realizing it's going to take time, but then having other goals that were helping me reach that, while not getting discouraged Because how many times have I called you and been like bro, I'm doing the no food diet for seven weeks, I'm going to try only protein.

Drew:

Yeah, like there's so many things where, like I've tried that and it lasted two days, yeah, and it was because it was unrealistic and unattainable. I mean, there might be some crazy people out there that could do only meat for oh yeah, long, but there's anomalies everywhere.

Brett:

But it's like, yeah, I don't know what would you say to someone who sees their long journey ahead of them and might be a little discouraged. What would you tell that person?

Drew:

Focus on the here and now and just focus on being consistent, like I was actually talking to Emily about this last night. The way my brain works is like I prioritize and organize things in my head, like lists as a to-do, and if it's not important and if it's not time sensitive, it gets pushed out of my brain completely. That's why I forget about a lot of stuff. Like I realize this. It's a fault of mine. I legit forget about stuff all the time, yeah, but um, if you treat things like a, it's easier just to be like okay, boom, boom, boom. Like, for example, I know tomorrow I'm going to have back day cardio for 45 minutes and then I have work and then I have a bunch of lists of items to do at work and then I'm coming home and I'm going to be a dad and then I can chill. That's just how my brain works. And so focusing on the here and now, focusing on just like what do we need to do right now, I think kind of makes it a little bit easier.

Brett:

Yeah, that's a good segue into, kind of the next thought that I had on. That is like, for me, the best defense of combating distractions is having clarity, yeah, and being intentional with what you're doing. So, kind of what you said with staying in the present, and you pretty much said, like you know exactly what you're doing, which is clarity, yeah, and you have to define your vision, like where you want to go, and then align it with daily actions. Have you heard the quote from Aristotle where he talks about habits? Excellence? No, he says we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit, and your daily actions should reflect your goal.

Brett:

I saw this other clip on tiktok. My tiktok is wild. It's like memes and then inspirational, random motivational speakers can't kind of thing, um, and this one lady I don't know who she was, but she was saying that, um, if you want to become the person you like dreamed of, then you need to start with your daily actions, like act like the person you want to become. Um, it doesn't go the other way around. You can't become the person that you wanted to be if your actions are, you know, if you're like, hey, I want to be david goggins. But the couch looks nice and you go and you sit and you don't go do what david goggins does, whatever um but you can't lose weight if you're not watching what you eat exactly so.

Brett:

you got to be like what those people do, like learn from them, read books about them, do whatever you need to do to figure out what they did differently that you can apply to your own life. Yeah, um, you said it too. Like being grounded in the present, like you can only influence the moment that you're in. You can't live in the past because that leads to regret. Can't live in the future because then you're anxious. Yeah, and so just be where you are now and do what you can to make it the best situation you possibly can. Um, and when pain comes, you have to embrace it, like you said, with your knee, like if you're running and your knee starts to hurt, just be like oh yeah, I feel that it's part of the process. You got to get it done and it'll go away. And it'll go away.

Brett:

And I think when those times happen, when you realize that you're sitting in discomfort, like, be proud of yourself for being there. It's not an easy thing to do. That's why people have Quitters Day, that's why they stop their New Year's resolutions, because it's too hard for them. They either set their goals too high or and weren't honest with themselves about where to start, or just got too hard for them. Throw in the towel. And here's another stoic quote. I say it all the time, but you suffer more in imagination than in reality. Seneca, but that's a yeah, a hundred percent.

Drew:

I see it. I see it a lot in my running. Yeah, like you like sometimes, like you get overhyped on how bad it's gonna be and then you get out there and it's just gone. Yeah, like there's no pain.

Brett:

That was me today. I had a 10 miler. Yesterday was one of the heaviest leg days I've had in a long time because I'm trying to focus more on lifting. And then I ran five miles after that and I like got to the the gym and I was like there's no way I can do this today, like I'm dead, yeah. But then I started and it was like, oh, actually it's not that bad at all. So be honest with yourself and if you are suffering in your imagination, I would just say, just start.

Drew:

Yeah.

Brett:

Like, the 10 minute rule for running is a great one to try, Like if you don't want to do it, you don't want to run. You can apply this to anything, but if you don't want to do it, do it for 10 minutes. And if it's hard enough, like if you get to that 10 minute mark it's too tough, then fine, you can stop.

Drew:

But if you get there and you realize that you can keep pushing, yeah, um, I think I also think everything in life is a choice, like um I talked to emily about this like even even your emotions, like it's a choice to to feel that way. Yeah, uh, I mean, in in some cases, I think obviously there's medical data that shows that, like some chemical imbalances make you feel certain ways you can't control like things happen, like a loved one dies, like that's gonna be hard to control right.

Drew:

But, like, um, I think everything's a choice and any of you choose not to quit like that's that that could be super beneficial because, like for me, when I make the decision to run, I make the decision not to quit. Yeah, I'm like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna finish halfway through unless I sick, right, and I'm throwing up or something. But there's always, you know, anomalies. But yeah, like I just make that decision not to quit and then, like, by the time, I'm like, oh, I got two miles left, like if I wanted to quit, I can't quit now because I only got two miles left.

Brett:

Yeah, you know, it's easy.

Drew:

Yeah, it's easy now we're downhill, so I think I think that's like another thing, too is is to just realize that everything in life is a choice. Yeah, and, and you know, and we talked about this last time choose your heart, all that stuff, but like it's, it's a choice to feel negative about something.

Brett:

yeah, you can change the way you feel about it, just by making that decision it's exactly what, like all the Stokes teach is like you have the choice to either get angry or like even people like Jesus talk about it Like if someone strikes you on the cheek, give him the other one. Yeah, it's your choice, you don't have to react the way that you want to. Yeah, you just be in the moment and um, yeah, exactly Like you have a choice to to influence whatever it is. Yeah, Um with, or like what does patience with your goals tell you? Kind of talked about it a little bit with like it's more of a process. You got to stay present. Is there anything else? Cause I think that's where a lot of people fall off.

Drew:

The um as part of my new year's review. That I did. I told you this before we jumped on but I wrote down my flaws of last year and my strengths, and one of my strengths was consistent as a mother ever, I mean you could say it. No, I'm not gonna say it, but like that's, that's, uh, I don't know like consistency, like we talked about it so many times, but it's literally just doing it. Wow, over and over again. Even if you're going through the motions like I was reflecting um, looking back on 2024, we're coming up on what week 45 of yeah, next week will be 45 and so, like I was thinking about that, I was like during those trainings, I think that I maybe missed 10 workouts, maybe, maybe, I would say probably less.

Brett:

The only times you did were like when you were didn't have access to anything or you were sick.

Drew:

Yeah, yeah that's it and so, anyway, like I just um, I think it's just consistency and having that mindset of you got to continue, and even if you have those days that you miss or you have setbacks, it doesn't matter, it's about just keep pushing forward.

Brett:

I know I used to think this advice was total BS is when people would say usually it was with nutrition goals and it was like oh man, I fell off the wagon like and then you're beating yourself up the next day because you're like I ate so much yesterday. It's like really the best thing for you to do is just do it better today. Yeah, like realize it's like okay, yeah, I might have messed up.

Drew:

Learn from that and be like okay, well, I can give you a perfect example let's hear it came back into the office on Monday, there was toffee with chocolate on the top of it. It was so good I ate like a ton of it. There was Christmas crack. There was like cookies. I didn't have any cookies, but I had some Christmas crack and I had some toffee. Tuesday was New Year's Eve sushi. You and I had a lot of sushi, had a lot of sushi, and then the next day, same thing locked in, but like it was all planned, like we had a ton of sushi but like I hadn't really eaten anything that day. Yeah, you know. So it was all prepped. And then, you know, today I ate some toffee with chocolate on top of it. Tomorrow I'm not going to. Yeah, it's just about balance.

Brett:

I think balance is key, because there are going to be times when stuff like that happens and I think it's important to not indulge. But I for sure had some Christmas candy and cookies and crap over the past couple weeks, and that's part of it. You're supposed to enjoy life. It's not just supposed to be brutal, it just needs to be balanced. That's part of it. Like you're supposed to enjoy life, it's not. It's just supposed to be brutal. Yeah, like it just needs to be balanced, like you can't overdo it.

Brett:

And if you do, just get back on the horse the next day and tell yourself you won't do it. Like simple as that. Make it easy for you, um, and yeah, it's those small efforts that make success possible. But it has to be day in and day out where you're doing the same thing, and sometimes it's going to feel mundane. You're going to want to distract yourself, um, but when you do, you need to pause. Like pause and ask like, is this helping me get to my goal or is it helping me avoid them? Yeah, and be honest, it doesn't help when you lie to yourself. It doesn't get you anywhere. Yeah, um, yeah, be honest, it doesn't help when you lie to yourself. It doesn't get you anywhere. Yeah, I think that's all the questions I have.

Brett:

But I mean, distractions are inevitable, but what I've learned over the years is they're manageable, you can deal with them, you can recognize that they're there and, the same way, you have the choice to yell at someone when they cut you off in traffic and be pissed off about it, or you could just let it go. The same applies to like you're sitting at your desk and you have to do something hard, but instead TikTok sounds a little bit better. So you pull that up instead. Like you have the choice and you have to quiet that voice of distraction, that siren, call yeah and keep going. Like don't let it interrupt you. Because it's funny. Everyone says like the biggest person, the biggest enemy to yourself, is yourself, or however it goes. I don't know what it is the phrase, but it really is true. Like you can be your biggest enemy or your biggest supporter, and if you limit distractions and you're doing one thing every day to get yourself one percent better, you're making progress and that should be celebrated. Like you should be proud of that I think.

Drew:

I think also being your worst enemy could be a distraction too, like one thing, emily and I have always struggled with is negative self-talk.

Brett:

I think everyone does.

Drew:

It's so bad, yeah. But, um, we were talking the other day and I hope Emily doesn't get mad at me, but she was, she was talking, you know, super negative about herself, yeah, and I asked her I was like name it all, name all the negative stuff that you have to say about yourself, and then that you have to say about yourself. And then I was like what are you doing to change those things? Dang, yeah, like it was, um, like that was something I realized with myself is like I, you know, I was trying to do these goals, trying to reach those things. And I kept talking myself like that I'm, you know, I'm not good enough, I'm not losing enough, I'm not fast enough, like all these things. Um, but when I was consistent, I kept doing the work, I kept ignoring it. Then, when I would have those thoughts, I'd be like well, I just ran 10 miles, so shut up you know like you're making progress?

Drew:

yeah, it makes it a lot easier when you've put in the work and you're consistent and you know you continue to ignore those thoughts, to to push them out of your mind completely yeah, and you'll get better.

Brett:

Yeah, like, then you'll look back. And I think that's why it's important to journal at least for myself is because it's like a daily progress update in a sense. Yeah, um, I journal kind of randomly, like I'll journal about a topic or anything like that, but I always make sure I make a note of where I'm at with progress. Like I had Allie on the other day or I think I told the story, but if I did apologize, but I, um, I wrote in my journal about like the website getting made and like the newsletter and all these things that I was proud of, and I was like I'm journaled about it, because when I get discouraged I want to go back and read that and be like oh yeah, I remember two years ago I was doing this podcast at a random kitchen table, saratoga springs. I had no idea what I was doing and I was talking like this. I really was.

Brett:

I was like trying to influx my voice monotone yeah, like so random, yeah, but I mean it's still a little monotone, but I mean that's just how you talk, that's just how I talk, so get over it. Yeah, um, but yeah, like recognizing where I came from. And then same thing with fitness, like when I'm not reaching my fitness goals, I remember the 135 pound kid that was staring back at me in the mirror and was told not to run like I remember those little things and it helps me just keep going. And so, like documenting your progress, making notes of it. I also think to you keep keep yourself focused on your goals, yeah, which limits distractions, which gets the job done.

Brett:

Yeah, discipline gets you started and consistency will always carry you across the finish line. That's it, perfect. I got nothing else, that's perfect. Got nothing else, that's perfect. But, um, yeah, I mean like if anyone is battling distractions, uh, just do that audit, like take a note of things that are pulling your attention away, see where you can improve, uh, that you know filling your time with other things that are more reflective to your goals, and just grind it out like act on it, it, act on it. Let your actions, your daily actions, reflect the person who you want to become, and you will become that person. Yeah, you've seen that. I've seen that myself.

Drew:

Yeah.

Brett:

And you know we're almost to a hundred episodes. I never thought I'd get past 10. Heck, yeah, dude, that's pretty cool. Consistency, that's consistency. Sometimes it goes up and down, but now we're locked in. Yeah, we're going, getting after it's a movement, but anything else you want to say?

Drew:

No, just get after it, get after it, that's right. I said, new Year's resolutions are BS, but it is a good time to set some goals and start going on it.

Brett:

I think instead of New Year's resolutions, they should be called year-end reviews. Yeah, just like how every business does it. Every business takes account of what went well and what didn't, and what they want to do better. So do the same for you and be honest with yourself during it. Yeah, I'm sad I'm leaving Me too. That's depressing. I thought you were going to have more to say no For anyone listening. I move back to Utah tomorrow, have to get back up there for work, so I'll be coming down Arizona occasionally, but we're still going to have you on.

Drew:

Yeah.

Brett:

We'll do some. I think I need to still going to have you on?

Drew:

Yeah, we'll do some. I think I need to do a surprise visit in Utah.

Brett:

Yeah, and we can run the mountains in the snow, that'd be sweet, so cold.

Drew:

Yeah, worth it, though I'm in.

Brett:

Well, I appreciate you for coming on, thanks for having me Spending time with me, helping me get this message out to others and for all you people listening to this thing, keep getting after it.