Learn how to prioritize thinking. Take time to improve your approach to those most important pursuits and aspects of your life.

Taking time out to think matters. Why?

As Matt has discussed in recent podcasts, and his his upcoming book Undoing Urgency, we need to set up habits and systems in our life that help us actually spend time with the most important things in our life.

How do we spend time with these most important things?

Thinking helps ideas arise, whether they be things we need to stop, do better or different, or start.

How does one do this, though? How does one actually take time to think?

Matt has identified a few conditions that need to occur for him to think well, and then a few different environments where he tends to think well.

Matt things best after:

• he has slept
• he has cleared urgent work

The first may seem obvious, but it is truly critical. You cannot think well if you are tired. For Matt, this occurs after a good night of sleep or nap.

Of course, Matt does not immediately wake up and start thinking, but rather after taking care of some quick tasks, making coffee, and clearing his head, he can think.

Critically, he eliminates urgent work. It is difficult to think about the important when urgent tasks are pressing on your mind.

Some of the best environments for him to think include the following:

• walking (alone or with wife)
• long drives
• manual labor
• vacation
• sauna or similar quiet times

Matt tends to have an initial brain dump when an idea arises, and he makes sure to take quick bulleted notes down (don't worry about spelling, format, etc. just get the ideas down).

Later, when he has more time, he fleshes the ideas out.

On a long drive, following this method, he developed the idea for Barbell Logic Online Coaching.

Prioritize thinking!

This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email podcast@barbell-logic.com

There is a time around 6 weeks into an attempted habit implementation, new diet, or workout routine, where people tend to quit.

The early, easy gains end; the long-term changes the person wants have not really been seen; and the path forward remains unclear.

This is when most people quit. They build a habit of quitting, not knowing how to get beyond this common sticking points.

If approached with wisdom and perseverance, these times are actually doors to long-term success.

These times are great times to ask for help or dig deeper. For lifting, signing up for online coaching can be great (real online coaching where you get technique feedback and personalized programming) or go in for an in-person technique check up with a professional coach.

If you cannot afford this or, for some reason, do not want to seek a coach, you have to educate yourself and become a coach.

Piling more stress on in and of itself typically does not work. Pulling the stress back often does not work. The stress-recovery-adaptation period must be elongated, no longer one stress event with time afterword, but rather a period of time where you stress yourself, build up fatigue where fitness decreases, and then allow for recovery to allow fatigue to go down, fitness to come up, and ultimately cause more performance (hopefully a PR).

Getting through these sticking points, however, is really the key to long-term success. You have to be able to handle unexpected bad times, keep going, but keep going intelligently so you do not burn out.

Get beyond the sticking points. Learn how to build life-long health and fitness habits. Strength is for everyone. Strength is for life.

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email podcast@barbell-logic.com

Learn when to embrace urgency. Typically, you want to undo urgency, but, on occasion, embrace the galvanizing energy of urgency.

Check out Matt's recent interview on Right About Now with Ryan Alford:

• Apple
• Spotify
• YouTube

Woah, I thought we were about Undoing Urgency!?

Well, typically, yes. This is one of those rules that serves you well most of the time. You want to avoid useless or counterproductive urgency. If you fail to get out of the knife fight of the urgent, you cannot take care of the artillery battle of the important.

Let's discuss some examples of when embracing urgency makes sense.

• impending lawsuit requires drastic changes and rebranding
• not able to pay the bills and overhaul of business or family expenses needed

As you can see, these examples are both urgent and important. They both really come with the real prospect of impending failure.

These times are crucibles. Do you live or thrive or die?

Lean in and embrace the galvanizing power of the urgent.

These times periods, however, burn people out. They must be short and infrequent.

They can totally transform, however, relationships and organizations. These periods often come with nostalgia as we look back on them.

Learn when to embrace urgency.

This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email podcast@barbell-logic.com