Money, relationships, a six-pack…. Goals are great, but do your daily actions align with your goals? Today we look at how Ben Patrick and his wife Alissa cut out entertainment to focus on what is important to them.
In today’s world there’s a lot of really good entertainment and there’s a lot of really tasty food. And some of that entertainment and food is making it harder to get to our goals… [You say] I want this so bad… only I’m spending a thousand hours a year telling the universe, I actually don’t want it…
– Ben Patrick
Alissa and Ben Patrick (AKA Knees Over Toes Guy) are ultra productive individuals who are building a successful fitness and media empire while raising a family. They were on Mark Bell’s Power Project where they detailed how cutting out junk food and entertainment (video games, TV, Netflix, etc…) freed up more time to focus on their business and personal goals. While this sounds extreme to many, the goal isn’t to do exactly what they did, but to understand their process so you can focus on what is important to you. Here are the steps they took to achieve success in finding productivity and fulfillment.
Find Your Why
- For Ben, his “why” was to help people by getting the word out about sledding and how beneficial it can be for their knees.
- He also wanted to spend more time with his recently newborn son.
- What do you want to get “lucky” about this year? Ben thinks he is an unlucky person so he knew he would have to work harder to “make his own luck.”
Find Your What
- Find what you can decrease in your life so you free up time to focus on what you want.
- Since the start of 2021, Ben has cut out cheat meals and entertainment from his life.
- He replaced time spent on entertainment with studying, learning and executing goals aligned with his “why.”
Have No Ego & Learn from Everyone
- He learns from everybody he meets and follows with no ego. This includes fitness greats like Mark Bell, Charles Poliquin and Louie Simmons to social media gurus that he hasn’t met like Gary Vaynerchuk.
- Learn from people that have the success you want. It saves you time and from making mistakes.
Experiment and Test
- Some things may work for you and some won’t. Be open to testing.
- Ben quit coffee for 6 months to see how he would feel and perform. He then studied the potential positive and negative effects of caffeine and realized that it is something that would help him reach his goals instead of hinder them.
Accountability is Key
- When you make a decision, you execute on it. No toe dipping.
- When he told his wife of his plans to restrict entertainment, he knew he would follow through with it because he didn’t want to disappoint her.
- Accountability could be between training partners, friends, your spouse, or team.
- Align yourself with a support structure where you are trying to uplift your group.
The “Doesn’t Feel like Work” Setup
- Because his wife Alissa works with him in his business, it doesn’t feel like work.
- A casual drive running errands could be an idea generation session or business meeting that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.
Additional Notes from the Interview:
- When Ben started his social media strategy, he focused on people that he wanted to emulate. People that were inspiring and useful instead of the other junk that was out on the internet.
- His future goal is to have a physique so good people think he is taking steroids.
- This modern world has a lot of great entertainment and great food. If you want to achieve your goals you can’t consume it all.
- Cutting out the consumption of other people’s creativity in the form of TV and movies has allowed him to focus on growing and improving his own creativity.
- People say they want to achieve something, but their actions say otherwise. For Ben, cutting out Seinfeld and cookies was telling the universe he really wanted to achieve his goals.
- The original life promised to us was basic. A tight knit tribe with a close connection coupled with whole natural foods. Only a small percent of people actually live this life.
- Ben was initially addicted to pornography until he realized that every time he watched it, he was supporting the industry. This realization made him decide to quit immediately.
- People underestimate the time they spend on entertainment. Even 1 hour adds up to a lot but realistically people are spending up to 3-4 hours a day if not more. That time can be used to achieve meaningful goals.
- Alissa has never had a drop of alcohol, smoke, antibiotics, McDonalds, Coke or Pepsi in her life. She is very disciplined and was a former figure skater and competitive athlete.
- Ben feels like he has 30 hours instead of 24 hours a day because of his cutting out all the “junk” in his life.
- When this couple makes a decision, they do it. No “dipping their toes”.
- He believes that modern life is setup to keep us on this wheel where it’s hard to ever get happy.
References, sources and more:
- Source: MBPP EP. 674 – Knees Over Toes Family: No Entertainment For A Year ft. Ben, Alissa & Onyx Patrick
