Happy Monday! As you read this, Allison and I will be in Cartegena, Colombia for a wedding this week. Traveling is something we are both passionate about, and I am looking forward to another experience and immersion into a different culture.

Vacation is something I take seriously, and even still, is something I am working on being more intentional with (intentional - my word of 2024).

We spend 40+ hours a week for 48-50 weeks of the year hammering away in our careers. It takes a major amount of physical and mental energy, and it’s easy for the balance of life to get all out of wack. Traveling for me has been something that I can plan into the calendar to provide breaks and mental resets that allow me to come back to my outstanding to-do’s with a recharged mindset.

It’s easy to go on a vacation and spend the entire time capturing the moments, trying to jampack the schedule to see everything, and to not be present. The next thing you know, you are traveling home after what seems like the blink of an eye.

This week I am going to leave my phone at the hotel. I am not getting international service. My out-of-office is on, and my work cell 100% off (I have really struggled with this in the past). My only goal for the week is to be present, to relax, to take in the culture, and to get through some pages of good books.

Will I still be getting miles in? Damn right! Vacation isn’t an excuse to let off the gas there.

P.S - Travel doesn’t have to be an elaborate extravaganza. Meaningful impact can come from a simple weekend away somewhere outside of your normal routine. Any way you choose to do it, I encourage you to disconnect and seek something from your time off. Let’s Have a Week

Brain - Be Interested > Interesting

This quote came into my life a few years back at the exact time I needed to hear it - “If you want to be interesting, be interested.”

Some of the most powerful quotes and ideas that will inspire us in life come in these short phrases that sear themselves on the front of your brain. In my mind, this quote in particular is a reminder of how to act in all professional and social settings.

What does it mean to be interested vs. interesting? In my opinion, it means:

• Be the person who is constantly trying to learn, whether from someone or something

• Be known as a listener, not a rambler

• Consciously work on improving in the art of asking good questions

• Seek out spaces where you are not the smartest in the room, or where you are very much a beginner

• Approach life with a serve others attitude - what kind of value can you add to someone else’s life, not what value can they add to yours

Sometimes we just need a simple reminder of these things. It’s easy to get caught up in conversation and want to be the center of attention. We all want to share the experiences and things we are passionate about, and there is an assumed social currency that comes with being the person in the room who everyone else is listening to.

In the long run, for personal benefit, we find that being the person on the other end of the mic is often more beneficial. It also spans outside of conversation. Be interested in developing personally. Be interested in being a good person. Be interested in living a good life. Be interested in building deep relationships.

The funny “close the loop” moment for all of this is that as we become more interested, we in turn become more interesting in the end. You learn from books, from people, from podcasts, from life experiences, and as you accumulate the knowledge, you put yourself in a position where you are now the interesting one to those interested.

Body - Time Your Rest Periods In The Gym

As you begin and progress in the gym, you start to piece together little nuggets of information that over time, add up to help you maximize your time spent in there. We are all at different stages of our fitness journey, and some things work better for us than do for others.

One topic that is universal for all, regardless of fitness level (yet is still under-discussed and emphasized) - is rest periods.

Although we might not be currently following a very specific plan, we all know that we would benefit from doing so. One thing most lifting plans tend to omit though is the rest periods between sets. Which when you think about it, is a pretty glaring omission. If you have 12 - 20 working sets in your routine, you are probably only spending 15 - 20 minutes actually lifting weights. Yet, we find ourselves in the gym for 45 - 1 hour +. That means the majority of your lift is going to be spent on time in between sets.

A strategy around rest periods is a very easy area for improvement that you can implement today. In general, the recommended rest periods are as follows:

• Rest periods ideally will range from no shorter than 30 seconds, to no longer than 5 minutes (my personal belief is 3 minutes max)

• If muscle strength is the goal, we want to stay closer to the 2-minute mark, giving ample time for the muscle to recover and to lift the next heavy set

• If body composition is the goal, we want to stay in the 30 - 60 second bucket. This will keep the heart rate elevated, burning more calories, and increasing the intensity of reps at lower weights

My approach to rest periods has evolved over the years, but I am always cognizant of how much time I am spending on average between sets. If I am not happy with the progress of my strength or physique, I tend to first look at how I can adjust the intensity of the lift, often in shortening / lengthening the time spent working a set.

My current philosophy is this - I start every lift with a heavy compound lift. For chest, it’s some type of bench press. For back, it’s some type of heavy row or pulldown. For legs, it’s some type of squat / pressing movement. For these lifts, I want to lift as heavy as I can, so I give myself close to 2 minutes to recover between sets. Then, for the rest of my lifts, I like to focus a little more on volume and intensity. For these windows, I like to stay between 45 - 60 second rest periods.

Especially during training blocks where running condition is #1, I like to be able to focus on both strength and physique. Mixing rest periods is a good way to do so.

Get the timer out on your phone and analyze how long you are resting. It could provide an easy improvement avenue in the gym.

Book - Discipline Is Destiny - Ryan Holiday

After recently finishing “Stillness is The Key” by Ryan Holiday, I thought it was as good a time as any to revisit some of my notes from his other titles. By chance or not, the first one I picked up was “Discipline is Destiny”.

The synopsis of the title is a guidebook on forging discipline and achieving self-mastery. It’s, like many of his other titles, a short read with easily digestible chapters that encourage a specific action or thought process. Through the book, he interweaves stories and examples to hammer home the benefits of embracing discipline - discipline over the body, discipline over the mind (temperament), and discipline over the soul (desires).

“One thing a day adds up. Each day adds up. Each week adds up.” - A simple foundation from the book for everything revolving around discipline. We are encouraged to embrace discipline now, so that we can reap its rewards, not negative effects, in the future.

We are disciplined with our routine with our bodies, so we can live a longer, healthier life down the road. This requires sacrifices in the short term to satisfy the long term. Discipline. Disciplined with our emotions. Things are going to happen to us, good and bad. That is inevitable. The controllable is how we react in these situations. Discipline. Disciplined with our intentions and our desires. A happy life is relative to the individual, and often goes hand-in-hand with our aspirations. If we control how much we want for, we can control our satisfaction levels. Discipline.

As with all of his other books, I recommend you add this to the list. If you are reading 10 minutes a day, you can easily churn through a chapter a day. Here are a few good passages to leave you with:

• “To procrastinate is to be entitled. It is arrogant. It assumes there will be a later. It assumes you’ll have the discipline to get to it later (despite not having the discipline now).”

• “You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat.”

• “The fact is, the body keeps score.”

• “But the silver lining of this tragedy is that life has given you a second chance. At least for now. Because you have today. You have the present moment. How will you spend it? What will you make of it? What will it amount to?”