In this informal, remote‑recorded episode Jonathan Yanez and Jennifer discuss the central role of exercise in their lives and how it intertwines with creative work, parenting, and personal discipline. They begin with a motivational framing—"be a monster" and "murder your weaker self"—drawing on Reverend Billy Alsbrook’s rhetoric to illustrate the need for intensity and mental toughness. The conversation then moves to practical guidance for beginners (starting with 2–3 sessions per week, walking, knee push‑ups, stretching) and for more advanced practitioners (progressive overload, varying curls, box jumps, jump rope). They recount improvising a home gym during the pandemic using a sledgehammer, tires, 4×4 lumber, and resistance bands, emphasizing that lack of equipment should not be an excuse. A recurring theme is the importance of discipline over motivation: planning daily schedules, guarding decision‑fatigue by simplifying choices (uniform clothing, preset workout times), and treating workouts as non‑negotiable appointments. They link physical fitness to mental clarity, hormone balance, and the stamina needed for writing, filmmaking, and active parenting, noting how consistent exercise fuels healthier eating and better performance with their children. The episode closes with reflections on comfort zones, the 40% capacity metaphor, and the philosophy that “the discipline will take you places that motivation can’t,” positioning hard work as a north‑star for both creative and physical endeavors.
Chapters
You should be a monster, an absolute monster, and then you should learn how to control it. There's an intensity to what we're trying to accomplish, and, um, you know, if you want to be truly great, you've got to bring it every day. Do you enjoy pain? Pain don't hurt. You blitz all night. Standing out is a long-term strategy, takes guts, and produces results. If you care enough about your work to be willing to be criticized for it, then you have done A good day's work. Christmas episode.
Welcome.
I don't think we should name the episodes every single time we do it. Like, it would be episode 4. I feel like it's just like something else to remember.
I don't think we've ever named it. We're just saying welcome back to the next episode.
Welcome to the Thunderdome. Nope.
Well, it kind of feels like that today.
Hey guys, we're recording remote again, so from one of our many locations around the world. Secret lairs, the chateau.
The work just doesn't stop.
The chateau with frosted windows and Christmas tree in the back. Yeah, that our servants put over us.
I don't know why you would say these things.
It's like I'm writing a book.
Extra annoying yellow warm lighting, it's like Hollywood fuzz, soft lens camera on us looking so gracious. Anyway, you guys, thank you so much for joining us. Happy that you're here. And, uh, what else we want to talk about today, ironically, is something that we walked into, into this business center, uh, working out. Someone was looking up videos of The Rock working out, and we thought, how perfect is that? We're gonna go do that next. Even though we're out of town and we're on the go, the working out doesn't stop because it's important. It's key for how we live.
Yes, right. It's funny too because somebody asked us recently if we script or have like, uh, points that we talk about when we're doing this, and we're like, nope, pretty much it's just a topic. I like topic that we're gonna talk about. It's like Jen was saying, today's topic is working out. So it's such a huge conversation. I feel like the beginning of this conversation could be when you're working out, it's just you against you. So if you could just do more, a little bit more, and you can perform a little bit better than the you, you were yesterday, I think that's a win. And that can apply for people who are already in great shape who want to continue and want to maybe hit that next level, or they're training for something, all the way to the person who hasn't worked out for years and they want to start working out, like what they could do. So I think that's kind of cool, applies for both. One of the things that I, uh, this is super dramatic, but I like it. And it's, uh, you need to murder your weaker self. And I was like, oh my goodness. Like, first, when I first heard that, there's a motivational speaker named, uh, Dr. Billy Alsbrook.
Dr. Reverend.
Dr. Reverend Billy Alsbrook. Yeah. And I listened to him a lot, and that's one of the things he said. At first, he was like, you need to murder your weaker self. And I was like, oh my goodness. And to think about that for a second, that's pretty graphic. Then I thought, like, okay, if my weaker self is the person yesterday Who I was yesterday, or the weaker self is the person who doesn't want to go to the gym. The weaker self is the person who doesn't want to do extra reps or push himself. And I guess that's right. You need to do away with that weaker version of yourself so you can become stronger. That's not only true in the gym, but it's true as a writer as well, and anything that I think that you're pursuing.
I think it goes back to one of the crazy things that Jonathan says after he works out, or when he's about to go work out and he's standing in the kitchen drinking his pre-workout, and he's like, I'm about to go commit first-degree murder on my body. And like, oh my goodness, that sounds so graphic. But understanding where he's coming from is saying like, I'm gonna go push myself to my limits, and it's gonna hurt, and it's gonna feel good at the same time, because I know that I'm going to be stronger on the other side. Which is very different from my mentality, whereas I understand intellectually how it helps us in so many ways, physiologically and mentally, how it provides clarity, brings balance to hormones and emotions. It's a stress reliever. And in the end, you know, you do a good solid workout either with someone who's experienced and trained, depending on where your comfort and physical level is, and you're pushing yourself to a new limit and you're growing in a new way, saying, I did something that I didn't think I could do. I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone into a new space. And in the end, or afterwards, I'm going to be sweating out toxins. I'm going to be having all kinds of good hormones. I'm going to be detoxing with my, um, my sweat. And just, it's moving my gut and everything in my system there. It's bringing me dopamine, it's bringing me endorphins, and it's bringing me energy. It's pushing the blood flow and the oxygen to my body. So For me, I look at it as I'm going to go and I'm going to reward myself with this because I need it and I need it to do the things that I'm called to do every day. And another big thing this past couple of years was I want to set the example of a less sedentary, more physical life for our kids because I want to have the practical muscles and strength to be able to work with them without back pain, without, um, you know, a core weakness that is going to lead to a whole slew of other troubles. So I can sit on the floor with them, I can run with them at the park, and I can lift them up as long as they need, whether it's our, you know, 30-something pound 2-year-old or a 40, 50 pound year old 6-year-old. Our children are petite, by the way. So, uh, yeah, so be able to do that with good strength.
Yeah, there's so much I have to say, I don't even know where to start.
One at a time, first thing slow.
I don't think And you, I don't know if anybody, right? Very few times have I ever heard people sound like, oh, I really regretted going to the gym. I think for the vast majority of the time, right? For the most part, when you make yourself go, you're doing something that you know that you should be doing and that you need to go ahead and push yourself to that next level to be, go ahead and hit that next rep or that next round of working out. That you need to hit. So I don't think anybody has ever gone to the gym and it's like, oh, you know, I actually don't— I, after they're done, they're like, I wish I hadn't gotten a workout. Like everybody's good. Like once you actually do it. And the second thing is I think for creatives, like I'm talking of course from like the writer standpoint, but for creatives, I know a lot of people who don't like to read their bad reviews. And I read all my reviews because 'Cause I feel like if enough people are saying the same thing, like even if it's like a 1 or 2-star review, but if enough people are saying the same thing, that maybe there's an opportunity for me to grow and learn in there. But a lot of authors don't like reading the bad reviews. And for me it's like nothing, right? Like, and I think that comes back to the gym. Like these people don't understand what I'm doing to my body because I like it 5 times a week. I hit 5 times a week. We can talk about that too. Like how many times a week?, but 5 times a week I'm just going in. I'm training like a mercenary, like I'm training like I'm actually training for something to go do something. And, uh, when I— so I get all my, um, energy out there. So when I do go read those reviews, like, anything that anybody says to me can't touch me, right? None of that's going to matter at all. Like, these people have no idea what I'm willing to do to myself, or whatever I've said to myself to motivate myself. Like, anything that they say is not going to hold I cannot.
I think that's really interesting. You're talking about it's creative because you talked before about being a performer. You're a performer. You eat, you feel yourself as a performer, and that's you performing at the keyboard, performing your day-to-day tasks as a father, and being able to go and sustain that maximum effort writing 5:00 AM schedule. And I think that goes back to the same thing being physical as well. Like, it's not like you're only sitting down for like 18 hours a day, but then you go to the gym for an hour and then you're sitting down again, because you know you're also very hands-on around the house and with the kids and running around.
Now maybe we should dial it back, maybe for the person who to, uh, work out. And then we can talk maybe for somebody who's a little bit more advanced. So I think if you're beginning to work out, a lot of people ask like, you guys should work out. So I feel like how many times a week you should work out if you're beginning, take it slow. Like, you don't have to try to, you know, run a marathon day one. So if you are not working out, I think maybe 3— start with 3 times a week, start with 2 times a week. Start with 2 times. Yeah. Start with a walk if that's what you can do. And you know, if you're honest with yourself, if you're pushing yourself. So, uh, I used to be a personal trainer while I was waiting for the writing career to take off. So I personal trained for a while. So I'd have people that would come in who couldn't do 1 pushup. I'd be like, that's fine. So let's get on our knees because that's easier. And let's do 1 pushup on their knees. And they did 1. I was like, okay, cool. Let's like take a break, go ahead and recover and let's do another one. So we would continue. And I had 1 client that we continued just on her knees. She couldn't do any push-ups, and by the time we were done training, she could do 10 regular push-ups. She was doing regular push-ups, and then slowly build your way up. Again, it's not a marathon. You don't feel like you have to, you know, do an hour at the gym 5 times a week to to start with. Start where you're at. Yeah.
Another thing is that we have found— I don't forget who said it, but whenever your mind starts telling you, I'm done, that's enough, I can't do anymore, you've only used up maybe about 40% of your actual capacity. Um, that there's still a lot— was it 40% you've used up or you have 40% left?
I think you have 40% left to give.
Okay, 40% left to give.
Like, uh, we're created as animals, like back in like the caveman time, right? Like our bodies are trying to warn us of danger when they're in discomfort to kind of like protect us, right? So we don't hurt ourselves. So like back in the day, if there's a caveman running, his body is like tired, telling him to stop. He still technically has, you know, 40% left to go. His body's just starting to warn him like, hey, this is uncomfortable. Maybe we shouldn't do this before we hurt ourselves. But you can— you still have 40% left to give.
I think it's amazing to see what humans are capable of. And it goes back to we just kind of want to stay in our comfort zone. I'm more comfortable sitting in this nice desk chair than I'm going to be in a few minutes over at the gym and working out and sweating and doing those push-ups that I don't like to do. I listen to my body and I say, hey, there's a shoulder pain, I'm going to see what this feels like, can I modify what I'm doing? But I'm also going to say like, shut up body, you're going to need this, you know, and I'm going to feel great afterwards for being able to do it, and it's going to have Instead of saying I'm tired, think I'm gonna have more energy after this, and I'm going to move my body, and I'm going to build strength, and I'm going to be more flexible, and it's going to give me a better quality of life so I can run the race that I'm called to and run it well.
Yeah, your mind is the master and your body is the servant, not the other way around. So your body will do what your mind pushes it to do. And that's kind of like up to you. So when I work out with other people, like don't compare, that's another big thing, right? Like don't compare your journey where you're at right now to other people at the gym or even if you're working out on your own, like you just focus on you. Did you do more today than you did yesterday? Or did you push yourself to the limit and you being honest with yourself, you know you did the most, then that's great. Whether it was just a walk around the block and that's the most you can do, that's awesome. If you did, you know, one pushup and that's all you could do, And that's great. But I think the most important thing is that you're honest with yourself and that you're pushing your own boundaries. Because I think over time you'll realize that your boundaries will grow. It's not that the pushups will get easier, it's that you get stronger.
Oh, I love that whole concept, by the way, that things don't get easier. Life doesn't get easier. Taking care of small children, writing the next book script, producing the next film, going into that next meeting, that next season of life, of loss or whatever, it doesn't get easier, but that we can get stronger. And I think that too many of us have been told otherwise, led to believe otherwise, that we're somehow thinking we're entitled to an easier life. Like, we're not, but we have this great opportunity to get stronger. And I really I really live for that because I know day-to-day things are different, you know, and I'm going to bring my best every day. My best today is going to look different than yesterday. My best tomorrow is going to look different as well. But to know that there's an opportunity to be stronger and that there is no real limit to what we can do. And I think that's just so encouraging for, you know, anything and everything we want to achieve or have. Or be in this life.
I think Bruce Lee is the one that said, don't pray for an easier life, pray for strength to bear the one you have well. So again, going back to kind of like, we're not doctors, so we can't tell you know exactly what you should do for your own workout. But if somebody were to ask me what I would recommend, I would say for starting out, even 2 times a week is fine. If they ask how long, I would say even 45 minutes to an hour is great, whether that means walking, doing some sort of cardio. If you're just starting off, walking is great. If you like to do, um, I would say if you're just starting off, walking is great. Push-ups on your knees, you don't have to go all the way down. Even if you got in that position and you went halfway down, that's a start. You gotta start somewhere. It's progress. Like, even when I'm working on my novel, I think technically every single word that I put down, that's progress. Even one word is progress.
Even the letter A.
Even the letter A. That's progress. So if it's like half a push-up for you, that's progress. You gotta start somewhere. And then I would say probably the last thing is maybe do either some squats or some crunches. And that's great because these are all things that you can do at your own house. Stretching is really good too. I didn't used to stretch a whole lot, and then the pandemic hit and it's like, okay, all the gyms closed. And I was like, how am I going to use this time to grow? And I thought like, well, I'm gonna do more stretching now. I'm gonna dive into that world. And that has helped so much. And there's tons of great information and videos and stuff you can find online for stretching.
Aubrey, I would like to point out that during the pandemic things got cool. Things are for everybody just being true, but for Jonathan, who is like a beast who needs to go to the gym, gets all worked up if he doesn't get that out. So, um, he made like a prison workout system in our garage in our front area. So he got a sledgehammer because he couldn't get a bunch of equipment or even basic weights. Like were not available. So, uh, would you get a sledgehammer? You went to like the old, like the tire shop and bought like an old tire, or someone brought one over.
Somebody brought a tire over.
Yeah, buckets and filled it with rocks.
Yeah, because everything was so expensive, like when the pandemic hit and everybody just wanted to buy gym equipment, it was like through the roof. So I was just like seeing what we had at the house that I could use. So we had that big— what are the big ones? Is it 4x8? We just talked about a number. The 4x4s, 4x4s, the big square ones.
Yeah, but the 4x4 is the 8-foot long.
Yeah, so 4x4, uh, 8-foot long. I would use that to do bicep curls, just like one hand at a time, right hand first and left hand first, whatever I could do. And slowly I realized like, hey, this is an opportunity for us to see what we're weak at. And we're weak at like, if anything like this ever happened to go, like, how are we going to keep up our health? So slowly then over the years, for any, uh, since 2020, so I guess for the last 2 years, any Christmas presents to each other, any Father's Day or Mother's Day or birthdays or whatever it might be. We're slowly buying each other gym equipment. So now we have like a squat rack and we have a bench and we're slowly starting to build over the holidays. Now I think we have like a pretty functional gym now over the last couple years.
Yeah, and I think also there's all the resistance stuff. People like, oh, I don't have equipment or I don't have money to buy equipment. We get you. We weren't going to drop thousands of dollars to get a whole weight, you know, squat rack, Smith machine, TRX cable pull system. Some people can do that, some people like to do that, people want to do that, go for it. But that just wasn't what we wanted. And so, uh, building it up slowly. But there's also just basic resistance stuff because our bodies weigh enough themselves. And so there are plenty of things you could— we could all do just resistance-wise, or just free weight stuff and/or no weight or bands and basic bands. And I think Jonathan's mother also, she does bands, so she's always staying active. She's going on her walks and she has her bands and she does little things, so she's able to do things like work on her biceps and work on her back and work on all her major muscle groups. You can use bands even for leg exercises as as well. And I think that she's a great example to, to us, to what we can, um, aspire to— stay physically active even with a minimal setup. Yoga, Pilates, all of that stuff.
Yeah, yeah. I think that's funny that you said prison workout. It's funny because, uh, in our gym too, I think it was a Father's Day present, there's this wolf— it's our company logo— on a black flag., and the only word underneath is just the word suffering. So that's kind of what I remind myself, like, hey, I'm not at the gym to, uh, hang out or to be on my phone or to contemplate the inner workings of interdimensional black holes. I'm at the gym to work, like, to do work, to suffer, because within that suffering, in there, there's a lot of freedom, and within there, there's a lot of joy, because you know you're doing what you were meant to do. Afterwards you feel like you've actually accomplished something.
So do you like talk down to yourself to like, oh, you better go do this, or are you like, oh yeah, I can do this?
That's a good question. I'm trying to think of what I say to myself in my mind. A lot of times, like, if I'm really having a hard time with lifting weight or like really in it, I just have the word go in my mind and my body just obeys what my mind tells my body to do. And then I'm just counting the reps until we finish.
So just kind of like go. Yeah, I don't do that, guys. You don't have to have— everybody can have their own mentality. I think everybody should. Everyone does have their own thing. Just find the thing I think that works for you, right?
You get to keep excuses that you argue for. So if you're selling yourself like, I don't have any equipment, you don't need equipment. Like one of the most ripped guys I knew in college, all he did was squats push-ups and pull-ups.
I mean, you're in college, you did those 3 exercises, you have your metabolism on your side too.
Well, that's not the point, Jennifer.
The point was I just want to keep it real.
This guy was super ripped and he only did 3 exercises. So if you don't think you have the time or if you don't think you have exercise equipment, everybody can do squats, everybody can go for a walk, you can do, uh, stretching if you can't go for a walk, like whatever you can do Maximize that. So this is kind of like talking to people who are just starting off. So then we can talk to maybe people who are a little bit more advanced. And for them, I would say just continue to keep on pushing yourself and challenging yourself. I feel like we fall in very easily. We fall into these comfort zones where I'll just throw out, maybe you're doing bicep curls and it's super comfortable. You've done them a million times before and you're just going to wait with the bicep curls. So what else can you do? Can you, you could switch it up and you could do hammer curls. You could switch it up and you can do reverse curls. You can do a bar instead of you can do dumbbells. So continue to challenge yourself. Like, as soon as you find comfort in something, if you're used to working out, stop doing that. Don't do that anymore. There's no growth anymore, right? I think for people who do work out, we can all relate to this. When you do start doing exercises, after a while— well, when you start them, you might feel sore, but then after a while doing those same exercises, that same soreness kind of goes away because the muscle memory. Yeah, your muscles are growing, your body's getting used to these movements and exercises. So when that happens, I either have to increase the weight, so, or the resistance, right? So it's still a challenge for me. Or I go ahead and switch that all together to start doing something else that challenges me.
So there's different ways of lifting or working out. Like, there's just like cardio stuff for people who are into running and biking. Maybe they don't want to have as much muscle mass, they want muscles that are longer. There's folks who want to build more muscle. There's some people who are thinking that they don't want to do weights, um, but there's benefits in that. Like, you know, people are powerlifting. I, I don't know that there's just like working out, right? Because there's a whole like variety.
Yeah, different people want different things from exercising.
Yeah, so like, for sure.
Okay, so I feel like everybody should exercise, even if you're not any competitions, you're not training for anything. You want to be healthy. If not even— if not for your loved ones, for yourself. Like, do it for yourself. You're not gonna do it for anybody else because the benefits are just like endless. Like, you— like what Jen was saying, like, you feel good afterwards. Um, if you're working out consistently, you're losing weight. You— and then that goes hand in hand with eating. And I know for me at least, it's more of an incentive for me to eat healthier too because I know I just committed first-degree murder on my body at the gym, but then I don't want to go home and eat, you know, A double fatty cheeseburger with onion fries. Again? Yeah, or it could be something else.
I really like cheeseburgers. I know you do.
Eat, uh, you know, I don't know, something else with pizza, like a deep pan pizza with buffalo wings and a Coke.
Don't leave off the wings.
She really likes wings. It's because I know what I just did to my body at the gym, so that kind of helps motivate too.
They work hand in hand. So it's like a whole cycle and a routine of things that work together. Is that what you're saying? You have to discipline— oh, I think that's a key thing. Hold on, I'll circle back to the whole cycle thing. For me, it's not about being motivated because I will never always be motivated, but I have to be disciplined. And that was a huge thing because for me, over the years, um, I played sports in high school, but, you know, college, later college, I started going to the gym. And then since then, I would go off and on, and I'd have different periods of like yo-yoing between what I'm focused on. I had trained for like a half marathon and then we did that. But I think it would say it's going on almost 3 years of being consistent in lifting and in pushing myself in those new limits to build strength and muscle mass, not bulky, just muscle mass, which by the way, is incredibly difficult to put on muscle for anyone who thinks that you can just lift a few weights and get some muscle. That is not the case. Um, to be consistent. And part of that was coming to the realization of needing to create a routine, a schedule, and being disciplined about showing up for that appointment with myself regularly because of all the benefits that would come from it. So that's a side, another tangent. But going back to how everything's a cycle and works together, not going about your day haphazardly, building in those time slots for the things that we need to do, being consistent with showing up at the gym, to fuel your body when you're eating, that gives you all that we need, gives us all that we need to do those things. If you want, whatever our goals and our dreams are, like we can't do it all if we're sick, We can't do it all if we're breaking our backs, if we are in pain, if our schedule is riddled with doctor's appointments for inflammatory diseases or physical things that can be managed if we had a better physical working of our bodies. And so part of that is we have— I don't say we have a team, but we have some— they're basically like friends now, but they're folks that we go to that help us, and we refer to them, we defer to them when we have questions. So we have a fantastic— he's a chiropractor, but he's so much more because he does so much more than just the whole like back stuff. But over at the doctor, like, I'll talk to him about a knee pain, about a hip pain, and we're talking muscle, we're talking stretches, we're talking about rolling it out, we're talking about how the whole system works together with the IT band. It's not just a Oh, you're getting old, and so your knees and hips are going to hurt. It's like, no, I don't accept that. I rebuke that. And I'm going to go ahead, and it's going to hurt when I roll it out, and I'm going to have to take that extra time to stretch it out, but it's going to make me stronger so I can keep doing all the things that I want to do. And for me in particular, that is karate and lifting.
And we should say too, we're not perfect. So I mean, I know that I try to hit 5 times in a week. And I'll be honest with you, I usually do hit 5 workouts in a week. Like, uh, today is Saturday, we're recording, I'm going to hit my 5th time this week because a week for me starts Sunday, ends on Saturday. But there have been times where I have to decide, like, okay, what's more important, trying to get in another, uh, gym session, or there's like, you know, a script that really needs to be written, or Jen really needs to do some work, so that means I'm on duty with the kids. So if it's like family or if it's like work that, you know, helps support us Jim has to come third. So there are times and situations that happens, but like Jen was saying, if you coordinate your day and you set aside time, that rarely happens. It's out of the ordinary that I wouldn't hit 5 times a week. Um, I think it's— for me at least, what really helps is when I go to bed at night, I kind of review in my mind how the next day is going to go. And of course, it never goes to plan, but it's kind of like I have, uh, at least a plan set where it's going to be, okay, I'm going to write, I got 2,000 words, then at this time I'm going to go to the gym, and when I come back I can do the other 2,000 words before I'm on duty with the kids and then Jen's on her work day. So have a plan in place and then know that the plan's not always going to go to plan, but it will help. And then what Jen was saying too about discipline, because I feel like discipline will take you places that motivation can't, because motivation— can Preach.
That was really good. I don't think I've heard you say that one before.
Uh, say it again for people in the back. The discipline will take you places that motivation can't. And that's the same thing for writing too. For me, I see so many parallels between writing and working out because, uh, I hear it from other authors too, like, oh, I don't feel motivated. And I feel like telling them, like, motivation has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with you writing. Somebody says they don't feel motivated to come to the gym, I'm like, good. This has nothing to do with you feeling motivated. It has everything to do with you feeling disciplined. Like, this is what's going to get done. This is what has to get done. That's it. You don't have to feel motivated about it. This is what's going to happen. I feel like that really helps me when I'm going to— but I mean, I like the gym, so it's easier for me that way. I don't like the gym. Whether I'm going to the keyboard or going to the gym, I just kind of come to peace with this is happening. And your body will do what your mind tells it to.
I think that's the key thing too, is making that decision. This is happening. I don't need to think about whether or not I'm going to go to the gym today. I don't need to think about whether or not I'm going to go work out or whatever it is. I don't have to think about it. It is a fact. And it changes your whole mindset of how we approach it because it's already a decision. And we have avoided decision fatigue of whether or not we're going to work out. And having that routine of going, you know what you do, depending again what kind of exercise you're into. You don't have to think too much about what you're going to do at the gym because that could— there's nothing— people like, well, I have a membership and I kind of just walk around and I try this and I walk around and I try that. There are bountiful resources, and when we're starting out, it's easier because you're not doing, um, such a huge variety to start. And then as you get more into it, there are just so many resources are people on Instagram, there are trainers, there are videos like this person who was here before us searching the rock workouts. Like, there's, there's plenty. There are people at the gym who are willing to help out, paid or unpaid. You can ask questions. And there are circuits at the gym sections where it's like a 2-3 minute circuit and you get a full body workout that, you know, each time. And you don't have to think about it, you just hit go. And in your mind, go, do your reps, move on, do your reps and move on to the next thing. And we don't need to overcomplicate it or think about it too much. It's just a matter of a decision being made for ourselves and staying committed to that.
Yeah, we have a lot of people within our community who drive trucks. I've been talking to some of them to say, you know, get healthy, because I know a lot of the times for somebody who's driving as full-time job, it might be difficult to stay active, right? You're just sitting all day and you're driving. But then it's kind of on you. It's up to you to, at the end of your workday, whatever that looks like, when you're pulled over, do you have 20 minutes? Do you have 30 minutes? Whether it's just a walk, whether it's a round of, you know, push-ups and squats, like that's all stuff that you can do. You don't need any equipment to do it. So it kind of takes away a lot of the excuses. Oh, I'm tired. Oh, we're all tired. And then if you're tired at night, maybe then you should do it in the morning. So I know like for me, like what Jen was talking about, decision fatigue. So decision fatigue is a very real thing where you have a certain amount of, you have a finite amount each day of brain capacity to make decisions. So I don't know if you've ever experienced this before, but in the mornings, you know, you're ready to go and then you maybe have a long day at work where you're having to make different decisions, different calls. If you're staying at home, maybe with the kids, you're just answering questions nonstop. You're making decisions for them. They have more questions and more questions. You're having to decide what are they gonna eat for breakfast and what are they gonna have for lunch? And you have to take them to this event. All that stuff is tapping your decision-making power. So I don't know if you've had these days where at the end of the day you just feel spent, where just like physically or emotionally or mentally, you're just exhausted because you've made so many decisions throughout the day. So, and that goes back to like why Steve Jobs, and a lot of these—
my former creative director, creative director, he always wore all black everything.
That's one of the ways they help reclaim some of that decision fatigue is by having something that they wear like every single day. They're not going to sit at their closet or their drawers like thinking and deciding and debating what to wear because that's all going to start taking away from their decision-making power for the day. So they've already set aside clothes. They know exactly what they're going to wear. It's like, for myself, I'm either— I'm usually either like in jeans and one of our Wolfpack shirts, or I'm in one of our Wolfpack shirts and I'm in, uh, shorts, workout shorts for the gym. That's it. That's like 90% of the time, I think that's what you would see me in. Now, even when we go out, when we do like, uh, different signing panels or different events, I'm wearing jeans and I'm wearing this shirt. I have Converse that I wear and then gym shoes that I wear to the gym. And that's about it. So remember to guard your decision-making skills like your life depends on it, because it does. So guard that time that you have to make decisions. And that's where Jen was saying, if you have already time built into your schedule where you know you're going to work out, you don't really have to think about it, right? You don't have to wake up in the morning and be like, oh, I wonder if I'm going to work out today. I should work out this time or should I work at that time? And then if you keep on pushing working out to later on in the day, then you're tired and it may not happen. I already have like a routine set.
This is what you're talking about in the evenings. If you're tired, go work out in the morning.
Yeah, because I know for me personally, I have more energy in the mornings, and then probably like around 6 or 7, like after dinner, it's all a quick decline to Zombieland where I start just like passing out. Like sometimes— not sometimes— like last week or 2 weeks ago, uh, Jen and I were watching Graham Hancock's Apocalypse something. Ancient Apocalypse. Yeah, on Netflix. And I thought it was great. I liked it, don't get me wrong. Super interesting. It gave me so many ideas for books too. But we're writing, we're watching this, and it's not even that late. Like, she put the kids to bed, so I think it might be like 8 o'clock, 8:30, 8:15. And I am just like, can't keep my eyes open because I'm waking up at 5 o'clock that morning. Just roared into the void all day. So at nighttime I'm just like done. But that's a good thing. I've talked about that before with Jen and some of our friends. I don't want to ever go to bed with energy feeling like I had more to give because then I wondered if I go to bed, I'm not tired, I still have energy left. Did I give everything that I had that day? And then for me personally, the answer is no, I didn't give everything I had. If I can go to bed and I don't immediately start drooling. Immediately start drooling?
In a coma.
Oh my goodness. If I'm laying in bed awake. And I can't fall asleep. I'm like, man, I don't think it's ever happened to you that I lay in bed awake.
Yeah, every once in a while. Yeah, because I always think sometimes that you're asleep even before your head actually hits the pillow.
You're out a lot of times.
That's the truth.
Yeah, but yeah.
All right, do we have to leave that alone?
Do we have anything else to say for the working out part? We kind of hit a good routine for the beginner, something that can mix it up, switch up things for the person who's been working out for a while. Don't do anything that's easy. Comfort is your enemy. So if you're doing anything that's easy, stop doing that and challenge yourself to do something more. Like Jen and I kind of say now, at least I say— I don't know if you say this, but my North Star is doing hard things. I only want to do hard things now. And that's whether projects we take on for the business now, or that's things at the gym, exercises at the gym.
No, I don't say that. No, I don't only want to do hard things. Maximum effort. I say I don't know what I say, but I definitely say, what is Jonathan getting us into now?
I'm just kidding. Another good point too is that the gym is that when you do put yourself in position to learn and grow— so let's say, uh, for example, I'll just use myself as an example. Doing box jumps. So I got really good at box jumps, do 3-foot box jumps, like, you know, reps of them, jumping 3-foot on and off, jumping to the side, jumping over, all kinds of stuff. But after a while, I mean, it wasn't as challenging as it had been, so we decided to go to jump rope. So I have somebody I work out with, um, so we're at the gym and we're learning, learning to jump rope, and we just look like, you know, children. Like, there's all these, like, you know, people, like guys with their, you know, cutoff sleeves, and girls, women in their Lululemons, and they're all doing, you know, exercises. And then here we are, it's like trying to jump and getting tangled in our feet, and then kind of like resetting and getting maybe 2 jumps the next time, and then tripping over ourselves and then resetting, maybe do 3 times. Is it that bad?
Yeah, for me it was.
For me it was, at least because I'd never jump rope before. This is maybe 2 years ago.
This is before the pandemic. There's no teddy bear, teddy bear, should not touch the ground. No idea what you're talking about. It's a, it's a jump roping song. It's a family-friendly show.
Yes. So we, uh, this is before the pandemic, so maybe '18, '19 that we were doing this, and there's definitely some humbling— humbleness, being humbled involved in that process. But I think that's good for us when you do take yourself out of comfort and you put yourself at the base of a new mountain to climb. There is going to be some humbling involved, but I think that's good for us.
More from Jonathan
MILSFPODS2EP23 The boys interview sci-fi author and screenwriter, Jonathan Yanez!
House of Wolves Episode Sixteen - Learn About Our New Film Project and How You Can Be Involved.
