Ted Talk 137: Summer Is Here. It´s Time To Reflect And Reset

Podcast Transcription: Summer Is Here. It´s Time To Reflect And Reset with Ted Ryce

Have you ever said to yourself, it's just not the right time? And you've said this with something that you know you need to take action with. Let's say it's your health. You're so busy with work, with other things, with family duties, it just doesn't seem to be the right time. But as the weeks, the months, the years go on, it just never seems to be the right time.

If you feel like you’re in a cycle, if you're trapped in this belief that there's the right time to take action on something that is critically important, then this episode is for you. What is up, my friend? Welcome back to another episode of Legendary Life podcast. And today is a Real Talk Fridays where you and I, we just have a conversation.

Kind of skip the science and dive right in. And that's what I want to do with you right now. Before we get into the deeper aspects of this idea of the right time, I just want to bring you up to date on what I've been up to. I was in Portugal, it's been a…In fact, I was in Portugal for a month, but the reality is I've found myself in Orlando at the beginning of the year.

I went to…Where did I go? I don't even remember anymore. I went to Columbia. I got there. I didn't like the vibe. It's a good place, but I was in Medine, Columbia. I loved it the first time I got there, first time I visited in 2020, but I just didn't like the vibe. It had this party place. It was different pre-COVID and now it was just totally a party place.

I'm not at that point in my life anymore. No judgment because I've been there, I'm from Miami, but I had to leave. So I ended up going to Portugal. I went there for a month to see a girl I'd been dating. And I also decided while I was there, that I needed to go to a business event. And so I lived in Portugal for a month.

And if you remember my episode about that, I had this belief that it wasn't the right time to visit Europe. It just wasn't the right time. And when I caught myself saying that, I was like, “You know what, I'm going to go to Portugal. I'm going to break this belief.” And so I went. And then ended up going to this event in Austin, Texas, spent a week there.

Went to Bernie, Texas, which is just outside of Antonio, where my cousin and his family lives. Saw my nephews, saw my cousin and his wife, had some awesome times with them—ate too much. And then made my way back to Portugal, and I was here for the past month. And now I'm back in Brazil. And as I'm here, struggling with jet lag and reflecting on this idea of the right time, it's like, I feel more pressure now at 45, like, I've got to figure this out. I've got to figure out my health.

Actually, I do quite well with my health, compared to how I used to do—big improvement. And with my business, my business is coming together because I'm getting the right coaching. And relationships, that's probably where I feel the most pressure, time wise. And what I want to tell you is there is no right time to do the things that you know in your heart are important for you.

There's no right time to take care of your health. There's no right time to have that tough conversation with your partner. There's no right time to start a business or to ask for a raise or to make that career change that you've been wanting to make. There is only lifetime. Now, obviously, we are a health, fitness and mindset podcast.

So we're going to be talking about the right time to get in shape. And what I want to tell you is this: the right time to do something important to you, the right time to get in shape, that was 10 years ago, it was 20 years ago, maybe even 40 years ago for you. Like one of my clients said, he's 60, he said the right time was 40 years ago, but at least I'm doing it now.

And what I want to tell you is this idea of the right time, it doesn't really exist, but it feels like it does, doesn't it? There's like, no, it just doesn't feel like the right time, but I know I got to do it. Where does that come from exactly? And here's what I want to tell you: the right time, what people really mean is getting emotional leverage over themselves.

Getting emotional leverage over—this is a little Freudian slip, you might say— over ourselves. We all know those things that we need to do, but we don't have the motivation to do it. And I don't like to talk about motivation because people think that's the key, but it's really not. I don't work out regularly because I'm motivated to do it, it's a habit of mine.

It hurts more not to work out, just like it feels really bad to not take a shower and go to work and stink or to not brush your teeth and be in conversations with people and be super self-conscious about it.

So the right time, what feels like the right time is those times when we feel like I've got emotional leverage over myself. And I want to give you some examples to make this crystal clear for you. The beginning of the year, “New Year, New You.” Why is it the right time then? Well, you're riding high from the holidays.

Hopefully, you are. Holidays aren't great for everybody. If you're like me and most of your family's not around anymore, it can be tough. Or you had some deaths in the family, it can be tough, but even in spite of that, I really find joy in the holidays, and most people do. It's also a time of rejoicing and eating. There's nothing wrong with that. And then there's this… So riding high on the emotions of the familial connections. And for some of us, we're riding high on the fact that the holidays are over and we’re able to relax.

And another thing that happens after the holidays is that change a year, it's really arbitrary, 365 days a year, but there's something about the first, it just gives people the feeling like they can get themselves to do things at the beginning of the year that they couldn't do otherwise. Does that resonate with you? And that's what we're really talking about here.

You have what I call emotional leverage over yourself. It's not motivation. It's like you can get yourself to do things. You have emotional leverage over yourself to change, specifically to change, because it's hard to change. And most of that effort, it's taking the first step. The hardest weight to lift…

This is what a mentor of mine, Ed Latimer, connected with him on Twitter. And he's been mentoring me in writing. He said, “The hardest weight to lift is the front door to the gym.” I'm paraphrasing a bit, but I think you get the idea. And when we have enough emotional leverage over ourselves, we can get ourselves to take that first step. Why is this important? Because it's not only at the beginning of the year.

It could be right now coming into summer, you have some emotional leverage over yourself. You know you're going to be going to the pool parties, the barbecues, you're going to be in shorts, in your bathing suit, in your swim trunks, and you want to look good. You don't want to be showing up looking like, “Oh, man, I'm not really comfortable. It's not even what other people think. It's usually what we think about ourselves and how we're presenting to others.

And if you feel that motivation right now, what I want to tell you is it's time to do something about that. I mean, this is the first summer, since this whole COVID thing started, that it feels a little bit. I'm in Brazil. I was in Portugal. People are wearing masks as much, however you fall on that, whether you think we should or we shouldn't, the reality is it's getting back to normal.

And we've all had two years that were rough that tested our resilience, emotional state and mental health. We all either had losses or know someone who went through a loss because of the pandemic. I mean, I feel I’ve lost my dad because of it. He got bad medical care, it led to a bad decision. And what got him into that emotional state to begin with w asn't just the pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated something that was already happening.

And so maybe you had something like that or you know someone, you definitely at least know someone who had that. So the idea that we have limited time on this earth is more fresh than ever. We now know that healthy people can die too. And that we don't have our entire lives to wait for the perfect moment to be happy, to do those things that we know we really should do, which is part of happiness.

Happiness is not when we can eat whatever we want, sit and binge the new, amazing season four of Stranger Things, which I did do, by the way. That's part of it. I got some happiness from watching it, but it's also about doing those things that make us feel fulfilled. So my point is summer is almost here. We've all been through a lot and it's time to reflect and reset. And I want to tell you: I'm feeling pumped up right now. I've been looking for emotional leverage on myself.

I’ve put on a little bit of Chub. Now, not a lot. I can still see the veins on my arms, but the veins on my abs, they haven't been there in a while and maybe you're feeling the same way. And I've got a question that I want to ask you. How do you want to feel during summer? Do you want to feel proud of yourself because you stepped up and took action towards becoming the best version of yourself?

Did you make food and drink choices that you became proud of? Did you start new habits that you’ve been wanting to do for a while? Did you come back from that beautiful, luxurious vacation that you worked so hard to afford and promise yourself again, that next year, promise yourself that you would take yourself on that vacation when things cleared up with COVID?

Maybe you think that you need a break, that you need to eat more, relax more, drink more, but I want to ask you. Is that really what you want? Is that really what is lighting you up inside? Ask yourself deep inside, are those the actions…? Forgive the jet lag. It's hard to speak when your brain is adapting to different time zone, but are those the things that really make you feel alive?

Like, you're having the experience of living life that you want. And I mean, I get it if you're not feeling totally excited about taking action towards your health right now. Maybe you you've got a lot of things coming up. Maybe you do have that vacation coming up and you want to just be able to enjoy yourself. Look, I get it. I'm the same way. I was just in Portugal. While they're very famous for their wine, they're also famous for their pastries. I don't drink much anymore. Didn't even get to try the wine.

Actually, I did try the Ginjinha, which is this cherry liquor, which was a delicious. So I guess I did try a little bit, but what I was a fan of was the food, incredible food and incredible pastries in their pastelaria, which is like the bakeries that they have. Delicious pastries that they've been making for hundreds of years, in some cases, how could you not try those?

But here's the thing, even though I may not be seeing the veins on my abs, I'm still lean. If you look at pictures of me without my shirt on, I can still see my abs. Yes, it is more a four-pack, maybe six-ish and not eight-ish or someone told me, “Oh, you’ve got like a 12 pack.” But I can still see them.

And I was eating a pastry, sometimes two, every single day. Make sure you try the travesseiro in Sintra and the pastel de balem if you ever make it to Portugal. You’ve got to go to Balem and Sintra to eat those things. But with what I teach, they know what to do, I know what to do before and after I go to the fancy steak restaurant, or the seafood restaurant, or I had some amazing sushi there. I know what to do. And that's what I did.

And that's what I teach my clients too. And the best part is, you don't feel guilty, you enjoy life more, and you still have energy during the day to be productive, be, present for your loved ones. This doesn't take away from you, it adds to your experience of life when you do this the right way. I mean, who doesn't have the time for that?

I’ve got a client that just came back from vacation in Hawaii. And he said, this was the first time in many years he was able to enjoy his vacation and not gain weight, he felt relaxed most of the time. He did exercise while he was there doing this travel bands program. He got a compliment that he's never gotten in his life; someone told him he had the perfect body.

All because he made a decision to get this area of his life handled. He was tired of working out in the gym, and feeling like he was eating healthy, but not having the body or the energy that he felt he should have had from all the hard work he was doing.

And he wanted to go to the beach and on vacation and look great and feel great. He wanted to have the energy to do all the things that we do during summertime. So this Real Talk Friday episode is more like a reflection on how do you want to spend this summer? Who do you want to be? What have you promised yourself and to your family for years that you're not doing? And using the excuse that it just isn't the right time, when you know in your heart, there is no right time, the right time was decades ago. It's such bullshit when we say that.

Look, I created this podcast to help you live a legendary life. And I want you to succeed in the three major areas: the health, the wealth, the relationships. In fact, I would even argue that although I'm a health and fitness guy, relationships are the number one thing if we're talking about what gives our life the most enjoyment. Are you with me on that? Do you agree with me on that?

Do you agree that it's your family, your friends, the experiences that you have with them that are worth more than how much money is in your bank account? Or what type of car you're driving? Or how much weight you could lift or whether you can see your abs or not? Are you with me on that?

Here's the thing, though: If you've got this value deep inside of you that values, “Listen, I know I'm not doing what I should do with my health. I don't look the way I should. My health isn't what it needs to be, what it could be. I know that I'm slacking.” When you have that, it takes up energy from you every single day. I've heard this over and over from my clients. And I've certainly experienced it myself.

So if you want to do better this summer, if you want to learn how to build your plate for fat loss, how to exercise just for a few minutes, a few times a week to create a strong, fit body so that you can enjoy vacations and social gatherings without feeling guilty, I've got a cool invitation for you. Next Wednesday, I'm starting my 7-Day Challenge. We're bringing it back. We did this in 2020; people got great results.

The only reason I shut it down was because my dad got sick, and I shut my whole business down, pretty much, to go take care of them. So when I say family is number one, that's what I'm talking about. And in this challenge, you're going to learn everything that I just said and much more.

But I want to be clear with you. This is a challenge for successful entrepreneurs, executives, business owners, people who are action takers, who want to increase their energy and transform their body, who are willing to take action daily to see results, who are used to putting in the work and sees the value in coaching. People who aren't looking for quick fixes because they've already tried them.

People who are coachable and value a smarter approach, who understand that yeah, being a janitor is hard work and so is running a $100 million company or a billion dollar company. Both are hard work. But one way, at least if we're talking about building financial wealth, running a big company is going to be a smarter way to use the hours of your day instead of cleaning.

Again, no judgments here. I was a janitor at a donut— not a donut, a bagel shop for a while, in my teens, so no judgments here. But my point is, there are smarter approaches and there are harder approaches. So let's talk about who this isn't for.

If you're just looking for free stuff on the internet, if you're a person who joins five challenges at the same time, and you never show up for the actual thing, people who don't value mentoring, and you love hard work instead of smart approaches. People who love to kill themselves at the gym and hop from diet to diet.

People who will never invest in mentoring because they just want generic solutions. Even if those solutions don't fit their lifestyle, their food preferences, their calendar, but they invest in money and other things, not experiences or themselves.

People who never make themselves a priority, even when they are doing well financially. If you're someone like that, this isn't for you. Just listen to the free stuff, take action on that. Because we're going to be holding you to a standard. And if you don't meet that standard, you're not going to last long in the challenge.

But if you are that action taker person, and you're looking for the solid strategies, go to www.legendarylifepodcast.com/challenge and sign up. This is something that is going to change the game for you. It's a seven day challenge, and I am going to be your coach. So if you decide it's not for you, totally cool. We have limited seats, and we just want the right people.

And again, I recorded over 500 episodes help you live a legendary life. Go back and listen to the episodes. Even if the challenge is not for you, I want you to reflect on the questions that I asked you at the beginning of this episode. But if you are the right person, if you feel like, Ted, you know, I've been listening for a while, or maybe I just found you. And there's something about your approach that I really like. I like the no nonsense approach. I do believe that there are better strategies and perhaps I'm not utilizing those. And I am an action taker. I just need the right person to guide me through it, to mentor me through it. That's what this challenge is about.

So one more time, go to www.legendarylifepodcast.com/challenge. That's it for me today. Hope you have an amazing weekend, and looking forward to seeing you in the challenge.