House of Wolves Episode Two - Routine

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.

Welcome back for another episode of House of Wolves with Jonathan and Jennifer. Glad you guys decided to press play one more time.

Yeah, thanks for joining us today. I look, uh, super tired. I feel like normal. Like, I always feel like I'm tired to some extent. I feel like normal tired. I don't feel like super tired. I feel like I look super tired.

Should we adjust the lighting?

No, this is real. This is why we, uh, didn't edit out my sneeze for the first one. It's not because we're lazy, it's because there's a lot going on. But also I feel like we could just be genuine. It's not like we're scripted or we pregame before these talks. We basically— the most pregaming we do, you'll probably be surprised, shocked actually.

I don't think so.

Is that, uh, we talk about just like the topic, like, uh, what topic do you want to talk about this time? And then we'll say something like, um, really spicy food, and then Jen will be like, no, that's not a good topic. And then we'll throw out something else.

Yeah, I don't—

who is—

never mind, it's not a foodie episode. Slash spicy food episode would be quite short because it would just be you talking about you just like flavor and spice and you like to suffer, and I like balance and don't like my mouth to burn. So that would be that.

But I think today we're going to talk about routine and kind of like what goes into a good routine, and then kind of give you an idea of what our routine looks like, both working from home both working on the publishing company and the production company and the podcasting, book signing events, conferences, and speaking events, how all that works.

Now I know why you're tired.

Yeah, I'm always drinking an energy drink too, but like, uh, one of the healthier ones. So here, this is something we can talk about, routine. So usually routine is I try to limit myself to 2 servings of caffeine a day, sometimes less than that, sometimes more, depending on how much sleep I am or I'm not getting. I was just talking to Jen how caffeine kind of reminds me of liquid sleep.

It is not liquid sleep.

So if I'm not getting enough, then there's like this magic elixir called caffeine and it just like takes the place of sleep.

It does not do that. Let's go ahead and make sure that any listeners here who attempt to do that, that is a bad idea. That is inaccurate. Uh, you're— there's only so much rest and energy your body can have. You just can't manifest it out of a can like that. You need some good vitamins, and nothing takes the place of healthy hours of sleep. So, that being said, how sleep is an important part of routine. Jonathan is really good at being consistent with protecting his sleep time, and that is he sleeps between typically 9 PM, if he can make it that late, and 5 AM. So even our daughter knows that he likes to set his— tell Siri or the other bot to set the timer to 5 AM to Old Town Road.

Yeah, for a long time, because you can set your alarm to wake you up with a song if you want to. So for a long time, I was listening to Old Town Road. I don't know if anybody else is like this, but if I find a song that I really like, and it doesn't even have to have words, it could just be a beat, I can just play that beat in the background while I'm writing a story. It's kind of like white noise. I feel like it almost— if it has a good rhythm to it, my words can flow with the beats. Like, I get into like a rhythm where the words are coming and the beats come too.

There's actually scientific— and how it goes with the wavelength, megahertz, and beats per minute of your body's rhythm. There's a radio station that's called Brain FM that will do that. They have different stations depending on what you're doing. If like in a flow state? Are you creative? Are you focused like you're studying? And it'll create those kinds of songs, instrumental, to meet your brain's flow state.

And there's a term for it too. I can't think of the term, but there's also a term of the way that the music interacts with your brain and you're able to work at a certain pace.

Yeah. So you set your— the song, or you used to, right?

So usually, typically my day looks like I'm up at 5 AM. And again, remember, this is just like a typical day. Uh, we have a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old, so if somebody's having a nightmare, if somebody's sick, if somebody's going to the bathroom and they can't go back to bed, if somebody's cold at night, if somebody, uh, is a child and having typical child calling out sleep interruptions, right? So I don't want everybody to think like, oh, this is what he does every single day. Like I'm human too. So if I'm up at night with small beans, uh, I'm probably not going to be able to hit that 5 AM, right? And you know, one thing that's kind of important that we should talk about too is disciplined. And am I able to be up at night with children and then also wake up at 5 AM? Yes, I can do it. I've done it before. But I always have to kind of gauge myself and what's left for my family after I'm done doing that. So I always kind of think like, okay, uh, what's like the cost benefit of me waking up at 5 AM if I haven't slept? That means by, you know, 1 or 2 PM that day with no sleep, I'm not going to be my best self for my family. So on those nights that I am up late with, uh, children, I will allow myself to sleep in, not because I don't think I could wake up, because I could, but because I want to make sure that I'm there and present for my family on the back end of that. So 5 AM normally wake up. I'm normally working from 5 AM to 1 PM, and I'll get my workout in there as well. I try to work out 5 times a week, uh, 1 time boxing at the gym, 2 times personal training, and then 2 times on my own. So in another lifetime— it feels like another lifetime— I quit my job, sales and management, and then while the writing career was taking off I personal trained at 24 Hour Fitness for a number of years. When books took off, I was able to leave, uh, 24 Hour Fitness and a handful of clients came with me and I kind of just trained them on the side. Fast forward to today, I have one client who still, uh, works with me and we've become more like friends now than clients or anything else. Like we have him over to the house and he was on set when we were shooting our TV show and helping us out. So I personally, we still train together. So twice a week, once boxing and then twice on my own.

Right.

Uh, and then as far as writing goes, I've heard some talk against this, like I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing, but it works for me because I've heard from different people in the industry, like top-level performers, that you're supposed to get the hard things done first or the bigger things done first.

So, you know, the frog—

I don't know what kind of witchcraft you're in.

No, no, no, that's like— if anyone has—

not in this podcast.

No, that, that's kind of what it's called, is like Do the hard things first. You know, no one wants to eat the frog. Um, I don't think you have to do that. I'm gonna find it. I'll put it in the show notes. Um, to do the thing you don't want to do first.

Uh, so yeah, so I've heard that, um, advice be given out a lot, but actually that does not work for me. Like, I do the exact opposite. So I feel like when I first hit the keyboard in the morning, I wake up at 5, I have a routine of drinking water, brushing my teeth. So maybe like 5:15, I'm actually doing work and I go through like emails, messages, Instagram, Facebook. Uh, we have a group on Facebook called Jonathan Yanya's Reading Wolves and we call them the pack. So if I have something to post there, I'll do that early in the morning so people could see it. And I get all the little things done first.

Mm-hmm.

And I feel that almost frees up mental space for me. Like I don't have to remember, okay, I gotta do X, Y, and Z.. And I almost feel like there's a snowball effect where I can get this done and then this done and this done. And then all that snowball effect, all those little things are done. I don't have to think about 'em. And the last thing for the day is writing. And usually whether I'm writing, so if I'm writing a novel, I'll do 4,000 words a day Monday through Saturday. It's kind of my work week and I take Sundays off. Mm-hmm. So 4,000 words a day sounds kind of daunting, but it's not that bad when you break it up like eating the frog. What's that old saying, Jen? One bite at a time.

That's an elephant. There's only one way to eat an elephant, and that is one bite at a time.

Are you sure? Yeah, Jonathan. So I do 1,000 words in about a 20 to 30 minute sprint. So like that 20, 30 minutes, I'm just writing. There's no Facebook, no Instagram, no distractions. Just get out 1,000 words. I can do that in about 20 or 30 minutes. Then I get up and I go to restroom or go feed the dogs, or if the family's up and about, then I go see what the family's doing and hang out, and then I'll come back and do another sprint. Now, if I can get 4 of those done a day, that's 4,000 words for the day, and then I'm done. If I'm writing a script, it's— I do 16 pages of a script a day, and I do it in, again, hitting those 4 sprints, and each one of those 4 sprints is 4 pages of the script. So I can get 16 pages of a script written in a day. And this is all comfortably, like, it's challenging enough where I'm tired afterwards, but it's not so challenging where I can't wake up the next day and do it again. Like, it's sustainable for me year after year.

You hear about people who just get crazy and they either are, like, too comfortable and not pushing themselves, or they kind of don't pace, and then they get to a deadline and they gotta crank out, like, 10,000 words in 2 days. Or I guess it doesn't seem that bad, but like a day or something like that. Or 10,000 words in multiple days in a row.

Right. I know a lot of authors who can outwork me in the short term, but I don't know a lot of writers who can consistently outwork me. Like, I hear a lot of stories of people going, oh, I wrote 10,000 words this day. I wrote 21,000 words this day. And then they take like a month off because they burn themselves out.

Is it about outworking another author? Maintaining your own race? Like we tell Joe, is it as important to be as good as the other kid or to be better than you were yesterday?

The Rock says he's the hardest worker in the room. So true. So both.

So both. Do better than you did, than you did.

I'm not comparing. If you're trying to say, to call me out and say like I'm comparing myself to other people, I wouldn't do that. I'm not comparing myself to anybody. I'm just saying that there are authors who can write, you know, really fast, and it is impressive. But I feel like what's more impressive is consistency. So for any aspiring writers out there, find what level of word count works for you. So if it's only like 100 words a day but you could do it consistently, I would say that would be better than like, you know, 1,000 words a day and then you feel like super exhausted and you can't write the next day. Like, find a pace where you can be consistent. And I almost feel like every day when that alarm goes off at 5:00 AM, it's like the start of a new battle. If you were a boxer in the ring, it's like, ding, ding, time to get up and go again. Ding, ding, time to go up and go again. Got it. It's kind of like on you how many times you can keep on getting up and answering that bell.

How long did it take you to get to that point from when you started writing 11, 10 years ago?

Oh, I think when I first started writing my first book, I could remember days that I was doing 10,000 words. And I, I understood that that wasn't sustainable for me. Like, I wasn't going to be able to carry that in day after day. Okay. So it took me a number of years. I don't remember when. Do you remember when I started waking up at 5 AM when we enacted this?

Uh, you started waking up at 5 AM after I came home, because before that— 2018? Yeah, end of 2018. Yeah, because before that you would sleep in because you had Joe, right?

So maybe for the last 4 years. Yeah, I've been doing this, but I'm I've been writing for the last like 10, but this specific routine that we're talking about, been doing it for about 4 years. And it's funny because authors or people who don't know me that well, early on they would say like, oh, you're going to burn out. How many days are you writing a week? You're writing 6 days a week. Oh, you're going to burn out. You're going to burn out. And then year after year after year has come and gone, and then they stopped telling me.

And then they're all like, you don't know me.

Yeah, you don't know me. And I was like, maybe the whole time I was like, maybe Yeah, maybe.

Let's, uh, talk about a couple of places, um, other places we've heard about this consistency chain. So I think one of them, um, people may be familiar with is Jerry Seinfeld talking about honing his craft and telling jokes every day and working on new jokes every day. And what he called it was a chain because he would make an X mark on his calendar for every day that he had practiced his craft. And when you look at all of those X's together as you go through the days in the calendar, it would make a chain. Um, another one, um, you know, Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours, uh, being consistent to get your 10,000 hours in. Um, and he's talking about 10,000 hours to be a master at your craft, right? That's good. But in order to get that 10,000 hours, if you don't have these huge chunks of time or quality that you're able to put in, it's maybe more important to be consistent with it.

And I don't know, there's no science behind what I'm about to say, so take this with a grain of salt.

I'll tell you the science.

Go ahead. I just heard somewhere on the interwebs that it's 10,000 hours to be a master at your craft. So that's Malcolm Gladwell, like you were saying. And then I heard 20,000 hours to become a legend. So I figured maybe somebody just added that on, but it sounds cool. I did not make that up.

I read it definitely on some buy stock from me Instagram account. Maybe, but it sounds good. Yeah, it does, it does. Sounds good.

Um, so okay, so back to the routine. So we're at 5 to 1, that's what I do, uh, and then at 1 o'clock we kind of switch gears. So then this whole time Jen's with the kids and they're, uh, she's going through their homeschool routine they're going like swimming, they're going out to, um, play dates, and karate comes later on. Nature group, talk about that nature group. But at 1 o'clock is usually I put the little prince down to sleep for his nap, and then I'm on duty with Joe Beans from 2 till about— from 1 till about 5.

Yeah. And so, um, that's when I get my work in, that's when I work out, and then 5 o'clock I start dinner. 4:45, 5 o'clock, and the kids come into the kitchen and help a little bit, make their own concoctions, and then we have dinner. Um, after dinner, clean up, get ready for bed, and the kids are down by 7:15. We're brushing teeth and having bedtime stories, and by 7:45 it's lights out, and, uh, then we start, you know, the whole bedtime, actually going to sleep routine. And then after the kids are asleep, you know, and quiet and settled by 8, so between 8 and 10 I'll get in a couple more hours of work.

Uh, and I think too, so just to be clear, when Jen stops working and her workout, like usually like around 5, then it's like family time. Let's hang out, let's talk, we have dinner. Sometimes we'll play a game, sometimes we'll watch a show. And from about 5 until like what you're saying, 7, 7:45 when they're actually in bed. And then, then begins the insanity.

No, you know, most nights it's fine. But I think what's key to point out is like, uh, Joe's doing better. There's not a bunch of time for like binging shows. You won't hear too often we're like out and seeing all these things. We're like very protective of our, of our calendar, what we're committed to, uh, making sure that we have the capacity to be consistent with those things, but also build in that downtime. Because, you know, life can get really frenetic, and I think a lot of people might miss that in the whole routine thing and think that a routine just means like have a really busy schedule but stick to it. But routine really, for the whole family, for the children as well as for ourselves, is like we need that time to process the day and the week's experience. We need time to have feelings about what transpired. We need time to have some boredom in our minds to think. And that's what Neil Gaiman says. If you want to be a great writer, get bored. Let your mind wander. And it's hard to do that when you're zooming off to this meeting and this playdate and this extracurricular activity and this concert and this girls' night and this dudes' night.

I do love a good girls' night though, you know me.

Yeah, so, uh, yeah, never mind. So anyway, uh, yeah, so I think that is something you'll notice might be absent from the routine of like, oh, and then we binge watch our show at night. Like, nope, we have a little bit of time to talk and, um, everybody gets some sleep and, uh, do it again the next day. And those routines build up. It's just like no one's gonna learn all the moves that they need to for karate to move up in their belt. They have to hone those skills and show up regularly and to be taught and mastered by their sensei.

So two things. One, Jennifer is sitting down right now, so if anybody thinks that she's super short in real life and I'm super tall, we should probably point that out.

She's sitting down. People on audio could care less.

Oh yes, you can care less. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what I'm talking about. Okay. And then the second thing is, totally agree where we have to be like with our free time, with our downtime, Like, besides, there are unicorn moments. I call— I refer to them as unicorn moments in my life when maybe Jen's out with the kids, uh, maybe like at karate. Well, Jackson doesn't go to karate yet, so you'd have to be like maybe at swim or maybe at like running an errand or something. And I finished everything that I needed to do for the day as far as work. And those days come few and far between, but they do happen. And I've had to get better about instead of looking at this opportunity like, hey, there's, you know, 30 minutes, an hour maybe that they're going to be gone, I could get more work in. Instead, using that time just to do something for me, whether it means, you know, like playing video games, um, a bubble bath. I do like a good bubble bath. Jen's saying that because every once in a while she'll take the kids to go visit her mom for a few days and she'll be like, oh, what did you do? And I'm like, well, I ran myself a bath. Glass of Earl Grey. No, you're—

we don't even have Earl Grey.

But I— yeah, that's a tea though, right? It is. That's a tea. I don't usually drink tea. I drink a lot of coffee. Um, but yeah, so just finding moments for yourself, I think, is super important. Again, they don't happen— they're not going to happen every day, but every once in a while. And then what Jen was saying, even like with what we consume, I think almost we have to be super careful with what kind of content we consume because that time is so valuable. Like, I feel like if I haven't been able to sit down and watch a show or a movie I really want to watch, maybe like, I don't know, in a week, and I sit down like, I need to make the most of this time. I want to watch something good, like, because who knows when I'm going to get another chance, right? I want to watch like Cobra Kai, or I want to watch, uh, like a really good superhero movie or TV show. Yeah, or Jack Reacher, something like that. Um, and I think it's kind of taught us to guard our time wisely. So it's not like I could just sit down and I'm just going to binge a trashy show. There's no time for that. There's zero time for that.

Unless you love trashy shows. Like, if someone really loves trashy shows.

Oh, if that's what does it for you. Yeah, I wasn't using trash as far as like a genre. I was using trash as like it's bad. Okay. Like a bad show. Okay, there you go.

Yeah. When they're like, hey, it gets good in episode 5.

Oh, man, that's a whole other thing because there's no time. Like, there's zero time to watch shows, right? So when you do get any sort of time, like I'll give you an idea. I was watching—

don't say what it was—

a movie the other day, and it took me 3 sit-downs to be able to work through the whole movie. Because inevitably I need to go to bed to wake up at 5:00 AM, or, you know, I have half an hour here, but then I need to be on duty for the kids. So you can kind of get an idea of how many sessions and sit-downs— like, this time is so valuable that I want to make sure I'm filling myself with some really good content. And not just settling. But to your point, what you were saying before, I've had people tell me like, oh, you really need to check out this show, it's so good. Oh my gosh, it gets really good in episode 5. And I'm like, what? Episode 5? I need it to be good like minute 1. I only have maybe like 30 minutes to watch any sort of show. Like, it needs to be good now, not episode 5.

Yeah. So on that note, actually, two things. One is, and I'll share it because I think it's really good. Someone talked about if all of our time was equated to cents, every minute was a penny, and you knew that all the time you're spending would equate to dollars because people start to value money more than time. But I think, and that's what Jonathan always says to people, is like, it's not money our greatest resource. Give that away. Work for more. Yes, we need it, but it is not the most precious resource. Time is. And then once you get past that, because time is limited, you can't make more time yet. We can't go back in time, we can't get time back, and focus time is even more limited. That is like the crème de la crème. That is like the top-level Kona coffee premium of all the coffees, is your focus time, your ability to have attention. I don't know how many times, you know, you're like, I'm zoning out. Well, that's not quality time. So if we were to look at that and say, like, where are we spending our time? Like, I just spent $20 on that interaction, would that be a good investment of my $20? Whatever it is, okay, you binge watch an entire 8-episode show, dude, that's a lot of money, time money. Like, is it worth it?

Cool.

If you got that to spare, if you got nothing but time to spare, by all means. But, you know, just when we look at it with that perspective, we might filter what we're doing with our time. A little more. This has really changed from, like, time and routine a little bit there. So going back to that, do you feel like it's, like, too full since you have such a limited capacity? Like, should you cancel the podcast and get some more time to watch your shows, or what?

Uh, well, going back first to what you're saying about time and focus, I don't think time is our most valuable, uh, resource, right? Or money. It's definitely focus. 'Cause I could be hanging out with my daughter, but I could just be like scrolling mindlessly through my phone. So is that time with her really valuable? Not really. But if I had put my phone down and I'm focused with her and we're doing like origami or playing Legos or making something, reading her a book and we're building memories, then she has my focus. So I think focus is way more valuable. And for the writer, it's the same thing, right? Like you could sit down and technically be working at your computer, air quotes for people who can't see. Yeah, people air quotes working. You could be working at your computer, but if you're not focused, that could be, you know, like all of a sudden you're on Facebook, or all of a sudden you're on Instagram, you're reading articles going down black holes about, you know, that the Titanic, there's no bodies. I—

that wasn't a black hole, that was research.

No, I'm saying it's good. No, no, I'm using this as a good example of stuff that's interesting, but if you're supposed to be writing, then that's not focused work. Focused working. We should talk about that Titanic thing, it's super—

sure, we'll have an episode of random interesting facts.

Random interesting fact. So Jennifer found this, so all the credit to her. I'm not trying to steal your thunder.

I don't care.

Uh, the Titanic— there's no bodies. How crazy is that? There's no bodies found at the Titanic.

There were like 15,000 or 16,000 people, crew and passengers. They were able to recover like 253 and return those back to give them a proper burial. Then there was like another 150 or something to that amount that they found, but they were so mangled they couldn't take them back, so they buried them at sea. Everybody else was never recovered.

Didn't you say there's something like 1,200 bodies that were never recovered?

Like, that math may not add up, but we're talking just round numbers, estimations. Yes, there was some— there's over 1,000 persons' bodies missing, like, gone, like, not recovered.

Isn't that nuts? So the author in me is like, man, what happened to those bodies?

They're not there. So a little science fiction. Yes, it was in '85 they discovered— we said we're gonna do a separate thing on this, but anyway, I'm sorry, we will— tangential. Uh, but yeah, so they weren't fully, fully recovered. They find evidence of them with shoes, um, and some leather jacket. Leather tends to do well underwater, but also, um, just sea life and currents. So currents could have washed them some, you know, 50 miles away, or somebody took the bodies, or Neymar took them all to Aquaman. Those are two— nope, we're gonna fight now. Anywho, you were talking about routine. Yes. Intentional time. Gotta reel us back in here, right?

No, I think I'm pretty much done. I was just saying about, you know, waking up at 5, handing you the torch at 1, family time about 5, kids are in bed around 7:45, and then I'm in bed like an hour after that. So we have maybe like an hour just like to hang out and talk. And I feel like most of our business time is like throughout the day when we have decisions or things need to get done. I try not to give Jen too much, not that she couldn't handle it, because I— but I know she has a lot going on. Plus, in the mornings, if I wake up at 5, that means I'm already like highly caffeinated and ready to go, like getting things done, just like slaying word counts, murdering people with kindness. And then Jen wakes up at like at 8, and I'm just all of a sudden like, blah, like, this is everything that's going on today. I need this, this, this, and this.

And I'm like, get out, get out, so I've been trying to murder you with murder.

So I've been trying to be more aware of like, you know, uh, in our Discord server, just giving her like one thing, like, hey, Today it's most important. Would you be able to do— get this cover going or something like that? And by murdering people with kindness, the— what I mean is, as you can imagine, being an author, being any sort of creator and putting your work out there, there's going to be mostly— and I would say mostly people are great. Like, most of the reviews I get, people are super kind. But there are always going to be those comments or reviews, or like on our Facebook ads, people leaving comments, uh, that aren't so kind. And, uh, throwing sticks and stones at me to hurt my feelings. And what I mean by, you know, the saying kill them with kindness— so I just kind of think like I'm slaughtering people with kindness, just mangling their corpses with kindness.

Okay, Titanic.

They'll say, uh, stuff that's super mean. I'll be like, hey, thank you so much for leaving a comment. I really appreciate you took the time out of your day. And most of the time they don't know what to say, right? Because they said something super horrible to me and I'm just like super kind back. And that's usually where it goes. They don't say anything. They don't know how to respond. But every once in a while, I'll get people saying like, oh, you know, I'm so sorry, I was having a bad day, I didn't really mean that, I'm gonna go check out your books. Or I've had other people— so somebody's really mean, then I'm really nice, and other people see that interaction. I've had other people say like, hey, I'm actually going to go check out your books now and help support you because of the way that you handled this conversation.

Oh, that's interesting.

And in my mind, I'm having a good time because I think it's funny. It's always like 'Oh, I hate your work. You're horrible. There's better stuff out there to read.' I'm just like, 'Oh my gosh, thank you so much for leaving a comment. That you would take the time out of your day to leave a comment like that means so much. Merry Christmas.' And to me, I think it's funny. I'm having a good time, like, responding to these people, and they don't know what to say back. So I feel like it's a win-win.

Is that part of your routine, to go in in the morning and, uh, yeah, because I keep keeping coals on of love on your haters?

Yeah, because we have, uh, Jen runs all our ads, whether they be Amazon or Facebook, but I can go in there once like a Facebook ad is up and I see people leaving comments. If there's— I try to respond to everybody whether they're kind or they're not so kind. So I respond. And again, like, I don't think I've ever argued with anybody actually. They'll be like super mean, I'll be super nice, and then it'll just be like nothing. Or they'll be super mean, I'll be super nice, and then somebody else will get involved. They'll be like supported because I feel like— I mean, I don't know what these people are going through. I don't know who they are. They could be having or just a really bad day. Maybe that's not them at all. Maybe they just need to take out whatever happened to them on the interwebs so it doesn't hurt my feelings. I've heard a quote a while ago that says, if you wouldn't take advice from somebody, why would you take criticism from that person? I'm like, yeah, like, I don't know these people at all. Why would I take anything they say to heart? It's not like I would take advice from these people I don't know. So why would I even waste any time thinking about it? I think over the years I've just, um, formed kind of like dragon-plated armor around me where it can't touch me. Like, their words don't mean anything unless I give them value. So I get to decide if I take those words to heart or not, and I decide, no, you shall not pass.

My schedule does not begin at 5 AM because I put the kids down, uh, Jonathan, you usually go to bed before the kids are fully asleep, mostly our 2-year-old. And if the children need anything during the night, barring any more extreme circumstances, I will be the one to get up with them and tuck them back in and whatnot. And again, because I'm working a little bit later, so I don't get up until like 7:15, 7:30, and then I have my quiet time in the morning, and then I usually make my exit from the room to join the family between 7:45 and 8:00. And then from there we start our school day. Make sure everyone's done getting dressed for the day. Uh, low maintenance self, so I'll get ready real quick with the kids, and then we're starting school by 9 o'clock. We're done by lunchtime, 11:30. Lunch is ready, and then we clean up. Maybe we'll do some like poetry or reading during lunchtime, or maybe a little activity. And then that's when Jonathan, around 12:30, 1 o'clock, will put Jackson down for his nap. And then Josephine and I will do another activity and then I'll start my work. And so, you know, being consistent, one of the goals that I had, I think it was last year, was to close the ring, the fitness ring on my watch, 3, I think it was at least 3 times a week. And I was pretty surprised by how quickly I was able to achieve that goal and create that routine for myself by blocking out time to workouts, of just like fitting it in. It is part of the routine. Because, you know, as everyone knows, having, you know, fitness is not about just looking good. It's about feeling good and performing better. I have more energy so I can do all the things. I have better clarity of mind so I can plan and anticipate and prepare and be present. And it's really good for me just knowing my own circadian rhythm style. To work out later in the day because then I get that extra boost of endorphins and all like those really good chemicals to keep me re-energized for that last leg of the day.

Maybe you can explain to people what you meant by circadian rhythm. Sure. By people, I mean me.

Okay. You know, like our bodies operate based on a cycle of sleep and awakeness. And so, you know, it used to be very simple. We would get tired, it would get dark, it'd be the end of the day, there would be not much light and it would get cooler. And so our bodies would naturally begin to produce melatonin, would help us transition into sleep and then wake up. And then throughout the day we have like our own daytime cycle and there's different points where we re-energize our blood sugar levels, amount of sunlight we've gotten and movement and air and oxygen to the brain. Um, and that kind of helps boost us. And then again, we go through that evening downtime, and that's like the whole thing with blue light and making sure you get some sunshine when you wake up because then it wakens you up. Better to have coffee a couple hours after you wake up as opposed to when you first wake up. You know, things are different now because we have— we're— I think I said this last time— we're in the 21st century, so we can have artificial light, we're not only waking up and restricted to working and moving about the country when, you know, dependent on the sun. Jonathan, it's still quite dark now when you're up, right? I don't know. What is this 5 AM to 8 AM window look like? I'm guessing it's still pretty dark, right? Yeah. And so you don't have the sun to wake you up. I guess we can install some red light in here for some, like, infrared therapy.

But I don't really need red light. I feel like the fire that burns with me is enough. All right. I'm good to go.

Good for you.

I feel, uh, a sense of responsibility. I know that not everybody gets to do what they love for a living. So when 5:00 AM goes up and I get to write, it's not like I have to write, it's like I get to write. And now these past couple years writing scripts now as well as novels, it's fun. I look forward to working because I almost feel like we're on an adventure, like on this grand adventure. And who knows what's going to happen each day? Like get a call from, we have an agent now, so I'm going to call from an agent saying maybe something happened. Maybe we're going to get an email from this director producer that we've been working on a project with. Who knows?

So it's fun. Yeah. But I think that also goes to like 5:00 AM, you are up, you can have a conversation, you're good to go. 8:30, you're asleep before your head hits the pillow, right? You're like out. There's no transition. Now I need to think about sleep and shed the day's worries and work through 8 conversations that I had and how they could have gone differently. Out like a light.

Yeah, when I fall asleep, uh, there's not too much debate going on with the Sandman. He comes and carries me like a little baby in his arms, and I'm just out, just drooling. And I'm not even pretending, I'm just drooling from the corner of my mouth until I wake up, until the alarm goes off at 5 AM. So each day I try to— I think of myself as a sponge. I'm just a sponge, and each day I'm just trying to wring myself bone dry and give the day all I have, whether it's like boxing or riding or hanging out with the family or having conversations with whoever I might have meetings with. Give it all, put it all out. So at the end of the day, I have like nothing left to give. I am tapped out. I always think if I go to bed and I have energy left, how hard did I really work that day?

So does that go back to like that whole comfortable— people want to be comfortable at the end of the day? I think that's key. Because I think a lot of people like, oh, I'm so tired, like it's a bad thing. I think getting tired at the end of the day means you've used up all the gas you've had for that day's journey, and you go to sleep and your brain and body get recharged, and you get up and you're given enough energy to do it again for one more day and to give all you've got. I feel like we would be doing ourselves a disservice to withhold some of that. And, and, and I don't mean like our glorious purpose would be missed, but I think there's a lot of life to be lived in those hours, that waking hours. And if we're withholding, um, we're just withholding from ourselves and our legacy of our children and the quality of life and experiences that they could be having as well. And memories, like you were saying, memories with Josephine and reading her unicorn school books.

Yeah. And I also think too, like, we're on a path now with what we're trying to accomplish. I think we wanted to talk about a little bit about goals as well, right? So talking about goals, so if we're on this path and we're doing things we want to accomplish, like, do it with passion or don't do it at all. Like, what's the point of going halfway if you don't plan on going all the way? So whether it's writing a novel or working on a script or kicking off podcasts or talking about TV shows and what movie might be coming next. That's like, hey, like, let's get on this and let's work with an intensity to get this done. I'm not just gonna like go and like, okay, well, you know, today, uh, maybe something's gonna happen. Like, no, you have to have the mentality that you're gonna make something happen.

Agreed. Yeah, I don't think it happens by accident.

No, no, you got to be intense about it. And I think what Jen was saying earlier, um, about being goal-oriented, talking about goals. For me, actually, this would be interesting. I think I have an idea of what you do, but I know for me, for goals I set for myself each year, I come up with 5 new things that I want to accomplish. They could be like, early on, I wanted— I really wanted to see my book on a shelf. I thought it'd be really cool if I could see one of my novels on a bookshelf. Early on, I wanted to be on a panel. I was like, oh man, if I could be on a panel with other authors, then I, you know, that means something. I wanted to do a book signing. Ah, if I could just get invited to do like a book signing, like that meant something. So as the years pass and those things get checked off, the, the goal here is that you continue to raise that bar for yourself and you never stay complacent. So now past things that I wanted is like, I really wanted to do like foreign rights. So now we have our books in the foreign marketplaces, we have audiobooks, And for this year now, we've already done our TV show. So kind of like, what, what does 2023 look like for us now? The podcast was one of the things that we wanted to do. We haven't gotten to the podcast, uh, realm until now. So in 2023, I have 5 new goals that I want to set to see if I could hit, all revolving around like the publishing or production for that TV shows and movies.

And do you think the same kind of mentality go after anything for personal? So, I mean, for you, your profession is personal, but for others, if they, you know, are in a job that's less—

oh yeah, you mean like it doesn't have to be like work-oriented? It could be, yeah, it could be fitness, it could be just a personal growth, like in cooking. Like, I don't have any sort of passion to cook. I can cook. And I think that I'm a good— yeah, I think I'm a good cook. Okay. And I can cook, but I just choose not to because I'd rather spend my time like working out, which I really enjoy, or writing books, really, really enjoy, hanging out with my family. I don't find that same comfort in cooking like Jennifer does, for that enjoyment. I do it more so I can get the food in my belly. I don't do it because I enjoy the act of cooking. But for maybe for somebody out there, maybe their goal is like, hey, I would like to take a cooking class. So that could be something on your list for 2023 if you do that 5 things.

I want to figure out how to make kouign-amann, a nun, whatever it is. Bless you. Right, those pastries we had, remember? Yeah, it was like— stop, stop.

So I'm saying what you're saying.

Nope. No, please stop. Not even close. So, right. And it's a very delicate pastry with layers and butter and layers. And, you know, perhaps they start with a croissant or they take a video and they break it down into steps because to sign up and take classes kind of like one and done. But if you have a routine where like every Sunday I am going to, you know, work my way up on the pastry making, to get myself to that point. And then I'm going to start making it and trial and error until I nail it. And then once I nail it, I'm going to try different versions. I think that would be something that plays into routines. Like, you figure out something big that you want, attainable, and then you reverse engineer the steps to get there. And part of that goes into your routine. You don't just step into I want to make a movie. I write. I'm going to make a connection. I'm going to query 50-something times. I'm going to query 100 times. So that means I'm going to do 10 a day or 2 a day for this many days.

Yeah, it's like, how do you build the perfect brick wall? One brick at a time. It doesn't all happen at once.

How do you eat an elephant and a frog together in New Orleans?

You have to, uh, take steps. And sometimes it's enough just to get back up and try. Not every day are you going to— are there going to be huge leaps of progress that you're going to be able to see. But I think the magic is not giving up. Like, I think it really— a lot of it comes down to not, not giving up. Like, that's the name of the game. Just don't give up. As long as you don't give up, you will make it. It might not happen as fast as you want. It might not happen in a year or 2 years or 3.. But if you don't give up, you will make it. Like, we've seen that happen in books and being patient with audiobooks and comic book contracts that we've signed with film. Now the contacts, just be patient and keep on showing up and things will happen.

Nice. My goal setting process is similar, and then how I achieve those is similar, but I'm more visual. I used to write it all out, but now I create it as my phone's wallpaper. So I'll make like a collage, or what used to be like, you know, your inspiration, uh, mood board. And I grabbed the images of the things that I want to achieve, or that are reminders of those things that are important to me, and then I set that as my phone wallpaper. So I know, you know, I've written them out to know what they are, but having that visual with me, um, is, is good. And it's also a really good reminder in those times that I want to be tempted to pick up my phone to waste my time. And I see that and I'm like, nope, not today scrolling, doom scrolling, not today Satan, not today doom scrolling, not today distracted mom with crafts that don't do anything but they're super cute. So, um, yeah, and I think, yeah, building that into your schedule. And it doesn't have to be at 5 AM. And I think that's what a lot of misconception might be for the Miracle Morning is that, um, you have to come up and get up at 5, 6 AM. Everyone's like, get up an hour earlier. It's like, trim the fat from your schedule and fill it with those things that are going to be really, um, advantageous. They're going to be— and it's not like you're going to be as tired because you're going to be doing things that feed your fire so you can burn brighter and hotter and longer. Um, and, and just create that same routine. It's the same thing, like, as I say, like, don't look at your phone in the morning. Don't get your brain started with looking at all these emotions and reactions that go through the morning. Like a very happy, thankful robot human where you're, you're happy to be doing what you're doing, but you're not going to be deviated from what you've been called to do.

It's kind of like, I've only got one match, but I can make an explosion.

Is that just like that song? That song? Yeah, just like that song. Ah, I feel like we should say goodbye now.

I feel like anybody maybe who hasn't read any of my work, if you just listen to hear me talk, I'm pretty— it's pretty close. Like, I have to try not to act silly when I'm writing And there's other series where I just like let it all go, just like what, what comes easiest for me to write. I think action comedy comes easiest for me to write. It's like just my natural voice. I think people have to work to be serious.

Watch this thing, be like, wait, how did anybody give this guy responsibility?

Nobody did. I took it. Nobody gave me responsibility. I quit my job and just started writing. Okay. And everything started happening. Oh man. Now it's 10 years later. Here we are. Okay, with a podcast apparently.

I hope somebody listens. Oh well, it's cathartic for you and I.

All right, should we say goodbye? So, um, yes, if you haven't subscribed or left a comment or liked, like, that's basically all we're asking for you to help support if you like this content.

Why don't you have them leave something in the comments, a goal or a routine that they're working on, right?

Um, yeah. That sounds good to me. So you can leave something in the comments. We can start our little community supporting each other, just like we did with the pack, our group on Facebook that's now about 2,000 members deep. And our newsletter started before that. That's like 11,000 members deep.

Your author newsletter?

Yes.

This is all reading related.

Yes. So let us know how we can help you. We can all encourage each other, stay positive. And yeah, I don't think that you lose You only lose if you give up, so don't give up.

Have a wonderful day. Thanks for hanging out with us.