How the hustle culture is destroying your health and (essentially) your life
Episode 188
On this week's episode of Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole discuss how to preserve your retirement. Most people post-retirement have their doctor on speed dial due to their laundry list of prescriptions or, worse, cooped up in hospital beds. After spending most of their lives hustling and earning wealth to get their time under the breezy palm trees, the stress was at the cost of their health. Inside The Episode: Apart from reduced free time and lowered creativity and productivity, the stress from working too hard significantly affects us. When we are young, we might take on a lot of various challenges and always have a 'fight or flight' attitude. But we often ignore the damage that's building up and will eventually come to the surface once the adrenaline rush fades away and we are no longer in our prime years. We are programmed to hustle. Commitment to long working hours to earn success has been widely celebrated and praised, but this tendency has created a toxic ideology that can be daunting for many people. Leading this episode, Dr. Nicole and Dr. Nick will be sharing their helpful insight on this topic and will help you understand more about how to create goals and habits that will set your life up for success. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! What you'll learn: Importance of creating the right balance between hustle and habits How to create goals that are congruent with who you are
Topics: hustle, health, life, integrative, stress, success, goals, work
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Hustle Culture & Your Health: Recognizing the Toll and Reclaiming Your Wellbeing
- The Long-Term Cost of Constant Hustle:** Pushing ourselves relentlessly without adequate rest can lead to significant health issues later in life, impacting our ability to enjoy retirement and overall quality of life.
- The "Fight or Flight" Trap:** Our bodies are not designed for perpetual stress. Ignoring the cumulative damage from a constant state of "fight or flight" can lead to serious health consequences as we age.
- Building Sustainable Habits for Lasting Success:** Discover how to integrate healthy habits that support, rather than undermine, your long-term goals and personal fulfillment.
- Aligning Goals with Your Authentic Self:** Learn to set goals that are not only ambitious but also congruent with your true values and desired lifestyle, fostering a more balanced and enriching life.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
And this is partly inspired because one of our newer team members was asking us a little bit more about the business coaching that we do, and the business coaching specifically being for healthcare practitioners.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. No sleep. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick and Dr. Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. Hello, everyone.
**Unknown:** Welcome back to another episode. So today, we are talking all about this concept of habits versus hustle. And this is partly inspired because one of our newer team members was asking us a little bit more about the business coaching that we do, and the business coaching specifically being for healthcare practitioners. Because our goal at the end of the day is to evolve how healthcare is being done.
**Unknown:** And we knew that it really didn't stop with us, that it was a matter of if you really want to evolve, it's about having, having a team, having, having more people, having the masses be able to work together in order to make this major change. And it really started with helping practitioners further evolve themselves. But the sad part about getting into this coaching arena, which it really applies to everyone, so if you are not a business owner, I really highly recommend continuing to listen to this, is that there is a major culture that we are currently living in that is keeping everyone in this fight or flight response of hustle, burn the candle at both ends, work hard. Some of us are doing it inevitably, and some of us are doing it with the mindset of, "I'll hustle for this many months, this many years, to get here." And then we find that we are years in or decades in, and we're still doing the same thing, but we haven't necessarily gotten closer to our goals.
**Unknown:** And maybe we are closer to our goals, but we have a new set of obstacles, pain points, that have presented themselves through that evolution of being in hustle mode. Well, it's just interesting because, I mean, every decision we make comes on and from a mental program and a belief system that it's going to give us more benefits than drawbacks in that current moment. You know, when we reflect and look back, sometimes we're like, "Oh, shit, that maybe wasn't the best idea. Would've done things differently." But in the moment, we're, every s- every single action we take is based on seeing more benefits.
**Unknown:** And what's interesting is, you know, we have had many years of just clinical experience to be able to really see all of those decisions and actions that people are taking, and to be able to be like, "Well, these bel- belief systems actually weren't healthy. They, they weren't true. They didn't work." And a lot of it comes down to, you know, it's like we gotta hustle, hustle, hustle, and then I'm going to be able to, like, whether it's the time of retiring or it's just, you know, I can be comfortable. But what happens is we create so much breakdown in that period of the hustle that then when we actually do allow ourselves the moment and the space to be able to, quote-unquote, enjoy life, then we're actually just going through the pain of trying to heal from all the breakdown that, that occurred during that process.
**Unknown:** I can't tell you how many ... And this is not just clients that we've worked with, but I hear it in friends' parents, you know, friends' grandparents. Just go out to eat and listen. Yeah.
**Unknown:** And, and people are talking about, "Oh, I finally retired," AKA, let's celebrate. But really, they are now faced with all of their health problems that they almost, like, they weren't even overly symptomatic because when you're in that adrenaline overload or that fight or flight, which could be years upon years, it could be decades, you are n- you're, like, in this, this cycle, and you're not even feeling symptoms. Maybe, like, low grade. "Oh, I get occasional migraines.
**Unknown:** Yeah, my stomach's a little messed up," so on and so forth. But it all comes to a head when there's no more of those distractions, and people are spending their retirement in hospitals or doctor's offices and being prescribed medications and surgeries. It, it's just, it is so, it's so defeating. You know, these peoples dedicate their lives busting their ass.
**Unknown:** And even if they did reap rewards, they, you know, they, they created wealth, and they have the beautiful house, and they have the boat, and they have all that. They can't even enjoy it. No. It's, uh, it's kind of, you know, I was doing more of the mental, emotional work, and I was talking to a client, and I was like, "Happiness is just the biggest fucking lie we've been sold as a culture, as a society." And it keeps us trapped into just being present in the moment and enjoying our life because, you know, A, energy's always gonna be out of balance, so the more we're trying to be happy, the more we're actually going to attract sadness into our life.
**Unknown:** And we can see, you know, clinically, is that, you know, bipolar is somebody that's trying to live that one-sided life. And if everything's all positive, well, they're gonna hit the equal and opposite where it's the lowest of the low because everything's all negative. But you've talked about this be, do, have principle. Mm.
**Unknown:** And I feel like this is, like, ringing in my head right now because at first when you talked about it, I didn't fully understand it. And then one day, it just clicked. And then I realized, like, how many times I've said this to myself, and then I've heard it over and over. But, you know, you hear people say, like, "Once I lose the weight, I'll be happy.
**Unknown:** Once I get my company here, I'll be happy. Once I have this much money in the bank, I'll be happy or, or content." And it's just not how it fucking works, like, ever. You s- you know, we know, we've, we know these people. We've heard these conversations.
**Unknown:** Maybe we are those people. And I know for me is, you know, I will do what I have to do. I will hustle. I will put in the time.
**Unknown:** I will fucking sacrifice so I can get my company to a place that it is more financially abundant, and then I'll start to take a step back and, and do more of what I wanna do, and, you know, and everything will be great. That, like, literally never happened. Because y- I was thinking about it- Mm ... the, the complete wrong way.
**Unknown:** Is if I was more in my zone of genius doing more of what I loved and what I enjoyed, and maybe there were some things on the list that I, that I was doing that I didn't love, but I, but I did it because I had a plan. I had a plan to say, "Once I meet this benchmark, then that gets off the plate, so I continue to make those microsteps to live in that zone of genius that lit me up," the trajectory of our business would've looked a lot fucking different. Well, yeah. And it's, it's, it's interesting.
**Unknown:** I was, I've always been a weird person. To say the least. But I remember, I think I was in fifth grade probably, and I remember doing a, like, a presentation on goals. And at that time, there's- Of course you did.
**Unknown:** 'Cause I was setting goals. I mean, my family, I- we were very competitive. So I learned from a young age that if I wanted to win, I had to set goals. And from researching goals, and I did a presentation on goals in fifth grade, is that I was like, at that time it was, like, 10% of the population was only setting goals, and most of them didn't achieve it, and didn't...
**Unknown:** You know, going forward, you know, I did- I taught goals and how to, like, structure smart goals in chiropractic school to different groups. And at that time it was, like, that 10% had dropped down to, like, 5%. And, uh, recently, I mean, statistics are always all over the board, but recently I looked and less than 1% of the population is setting goals currently. And when we think about this, it's like the only reason we're not setting goals is because the process isn't working.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And the process isn't working because even if the small percent that do achieve the goal, it didn't change why they wanted to achieve that goal. It didn't change their state of being. It didn't give them the confidence or the security.
**Unknown:** It didn't... Because we've been programmed, the be, do, have principle is the- the opposite is actually what's happened to society. It's what you said, it's like, "Well, once I have this, once I lose the weight, then I'll do this," or, "Once I have, you know, financial freedom, we'll- I'll start doing things different. I'll- I'll be able to quit my job and then- and then I'll be happy or then I'll be content or-" Mm-hmm.
**Unknown:** "... then I'll be able to have more time with my family." And it's just like all that's fucking inversely ass-backwards. Yeah. It- it's...
**Unknown:** And what's great looking at society right now is that we're starting to get that pushback. And yeah, we hate it because there's a lot of, quote-unquote, "Millennials" and everything that w- we- they want everything for free and without work and without putting the hustle in. I just think that they are challenging the construct. It's- it's just- They're challenging the construct of this doesn't fucking make any sense.
**Unknown:** 9:00 to 5:00, okay, I'm gonna stay here because you give me health benefits and I get a 401, but then, like, am I even gonna be able to use this? And, you know, oh, I have to work until I'm 65. Like, they're- they're just like, they're literally sitting back after all of us, you know, are- have been like, "Oh, okay, yeah, that's the norm." And for our age, you know, we're like the... We're- we're technically Millennials, but we were like, okay, well the only other option if I don't want that to be my reality is become an entrepreneur.
**Unknown:** And an entrepreneur, it sounds great on paper because, oh, well eventually I'll have my freedoms. Eventually I'll have flexibility in my schedule. Eventually I'll- will be financially free. But if you don't set it up right because you don't know what you're doing, and you're just basing it off of your excitement and your passion in that moment, which is important, and you don't actually have any tools, you don't have strategy, you don't understand people, then you're fucking setting yourself up for a nightmare.
**Unknown:** Yep. And that is the majority of entrepreneurs. Yeah, it's- it's beautiful right now because we're getting the- the opposite representation and demonstration of, you know, of that hustle. But we understand that that's still an imbalance, that we need to...
**Unknown:** All health, homeostasis, you know, everything is just about trying to maintain that balance, and the balance is somewhere between, you know, the habits and the hustle and to be able to create that flow. I think that what it comes down to, even going back to what you were saying about goals is, you know, I'm sure that everyone has a different perspective on this, but is it about setting these goals that might be fantasy goals because people are not always congruent with what they really... I don't wanna say congruent. They're not always fully aware of what is most important to them, and they might be setting goals based off of other people's expectations or society's expectations or their culture's expectations.
**Unknown:** You know, I know that for a long time I was lying to myself saying that I wanted to be financially free. Like, the technical definition of financially free is being a one percenter. I don't give a fuck about being a one percenter. I wanna have financial security that allows me to live in my value system, and my values is about being able to have an amazing home, take care of my family, invest in education, invest in growth, so on and so forth.
**Unknown:** Luxury experiences. Luxury experiences, yes. But, you know, for me to live my life being so obs- obsessed with making money to put myself in that 1% bracket, that- that is complete facade. That is a lie that I'm telling to myself.
**Unknown:** So if I say that I, my goal is to become fa- financially free, that is a fantasy-based goal, and I am going to continually be disappointed when I'm not meeting that goal. But this whole concept of habits- So can I take that one step further- Yes ... before we get into habits? Is, so yes, you're right on most people are creating goals that do create goals, and which is why they're not creating goals anymore, is because they were creating goals that honestly they weren't congruent with who they were.
**Unknown:** Yes. So, and then you're gonna beat yourself down, you're gonna create, you know, shame that, oh, this, I'm not good enough to achieve this, blah, blah, blah. But it was never actually who you were. So the actually intelligent way, and we're not gonna get too deep into it on this today, but we need to create goals and structure them, and actually go through a process figuring out what that goal is going to give us, hence the being, not the doing or the having.
**Unknown:** That's an aspect of the goal. But a thing that people haven't figured out through creating goals is that we need to actually own what we're truly wanting to get from that goal during that process so that we can actually own that energy. So if we're trying to get the security, or if we're trying to get whatever that is, so we can actually own that. Because if we don't, then we're also energetically, 'cause we're all just magnets, we're pushing that away from us.
**Unknown:** We're creating more space between us instead of actually increasing the attraction. But this is why one of... The first thing that we do when we work with actually our patients in Integrated Wellness Group, but then also our coaching clients at Integrated Growth Institute, step one, no matter if you're trying to grow yourself professionally, if you wanna just grow yourself as an individual, if you want to have better health, we start with determining your highest values, AKA what the fuck is important to you? Because if we are helping you along your health journey, we always need to know what makes you tick.What lights you up?
**Unknown:** What gets you excited? If we can help you to be on a journey to get closer to that, to have habits every day that allow you to live in your value system, like, your health is gonna radically change, and you don't have to worry about going backwards. And if we're talking about business is if you're trying to set goals inside of your business and you're coming to us from a coaching perspective because you haven't met your goals and you're just feeling so beat down and burnt out, which is the common theme across the board, is are you even clear on why the fuck you started a business in the first place? Yeah, you probably had a solution to a very specific problem in the world, but what else?
**Unknown:** Like, what else? What makes you tick? How much shit are you doing on a day-to-day basis that you loathe? And if you have a h- a longer list of what you loathe doing and a very short list of what you love doing, then, like, you're completely out of alignment.
**Unknown:** So we determine, like, what are your highest values? What makes you tick? And then we bring that into your vision mapping, mapping the vision of your personal and professional life, and that is when the goals... Like, the, the person's body language, their face, everything is totally different when you're talking about goals that are more in alignment with the things that are important to them opposed to, "I need to make a million dollars because my payroll and my overhead expenses." Like, it's not what you need.
**Unknown:** It's what you get to do, and that's the way we need to start thinking about goals. But also is this isn't about, like, there are certain things that you're gonna do, and maybe you have two quarters back-to-back of a, a, an initiative, priorities that you need to do to get to that goal, like, you know, those microsteps. But what about the habits that actually allow you to thrive as a person or thrive as a leader if you're a leader in your household, if you're a leader in your company, that allow you to, allow your people to thrive, and if those people are your children or those people are your employees? You know, these are things that when you go back and you read books like the Think and Grow Rich and you read books where people talk about Henry Ford, they talk about the Rockefellers, and this was something that I had mentioned in the beginning is one of our newer employees was asking about, you know, our style of coaching.
**Unknown:** I go, "The thing that people don't understand is that the hustle is what's creating the burnout," which is the common theme amongst so many entrepreneurs or even C-suite individuals, and nobody understands habits. Because we've worked with many companies that have fought us. They fought us on doing weekly meetings. They fought, "I don't have time.
**Unknown:** We're too busy." And the same thing when we bring this concept into families, and we're like, "You need to have a weekly meeting with your family," people think we're batshit crazy, and then they implement it, fighting us tooth and nail, and they're like, "Oh, I... Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep, yep, that worked." But this isn't shit we're making up.
**Unknown:** Like, this is literally based off of the tried and true habits of the most successful people in the world. So we- Well, and, and the most successful people in the world, they've had either, A, themselves or somebody that really actually understands the, the true flow of creation. That's ex- yes, and the laws of the universe- And the laws of the universe ... and how physics works.
**Unknown:** And they're, like, obsessed with astrology, understanding the law of correspondence, as above, so below. So they're utilizing a higher level of awareness than most people can understand, and, like, the most simple aspect is that we live in a universe that's governed by spacetime. So the quality of your time is dictated by how you spend your space. So if you're not dedicating a meeting, which is creating order, guess what?
**Unknown:** Your time's gonna be chaotic. It's that simple to think about. Yeah. And, and so, like, what Nick is saying is that this is physics.
**Unknown:** Like, th- th- there are very specific laws that are happening from an energetic standpoint that exist no matter if you want to understand them or not, and w- we have seen it over and over is if you not, if you're not hypervigilant about the structure of your life or the structure of your day, it will get filled with low-priority items, actions, and it will get filled with chaos. It is naturally what will happen. But specifically, you know, the story that I wanna share is just such a basic story, but something that the Rockefellers did is, you know, obviously, this family has been around for generations, and they have been successful for generations. But the Rockefellers used to, this is before the day and age of technology and cell phones and all that, but they walked to work together, and when they walked to work together, that was essentially a high-level, uh, executive meeting.
**Unknown:** They talked about the market. They talked about economics. They talked about the overall vision of where the company was going in, in year, in a couple of years. Like, they, because it was all of them that were leaders inside of the company, you know, they were having high-level, strategic, visionary conversations.
**Unknown:** And when I got into the world of scaling up, which was one of the certifications that I acquired to help my own business, which now I use to help other businesses, is they talked about what's called the daily huddle. When you're in the trenches of business and you're burnt out, the last thing you wanna fucking do is do a daily huddle or tell your team that you're gonna put one more thing on their plate. Well, same thing with a family. If the kids are in chaos and you're cleaning up after the dogs or- Yeah, it's- ...
**Unknown:** you gotta do all these different things, the last thing you wanna do is like, "I don't have time for a meeting." You're like- And you fight it, but what, the amount of order, and because of the communication and getting everyone on the same page, what that creates is, is priceless, and that is why they consistently had that practice every single day, and that-That daily huddle has been a success in so many companies that have truly implemented that. You know, there's a book, it's called Built to Last, and that was written by Jim Collins, and he... The book is a little hard to read because it's a, it's research. And he looked at companies that were great companies, but then there were visionary companies.
**Unknown:** There were companies that on... They're great. You know? IBM is great.
**Unknown:** Like, IBM is, is a well-known company. It was around for a very, very long time. But then there's Apple, and Apple is a visionary company. They are a step above, and that is because of the habits that they encompass as a company.
**Unknown:** And it's also because their head honcho, their CEO, their founder, spent the majority of his time as a creative, and that required him to not be inside of the company all the time. One of the things that he did on a regular basis was he actually engaged with, with the customers. He wanted to hear firsthand their experience. He, that he was, like, obsessed with it.
**Unknown:** He wanted feedback, feedback, feedback 'cause then he took that feedback into his thinking time, his creative time, that allowed him to make the products better and better and better and meet every fucking need of that customer. Like, that is amazing. How many medium to small business owners work in their company? They don't spend any time creating.
**Unknown:** They don't spend any time getting feedback from their customers. If anything, they might fear feedback from their customers. Yeah. I mean, simply put, if you wanna write down one thing, if you're not creating order, you're creating chaos.
**Unknown:** Exactly. And if you are not creating order through communication, that is the thing. So what did you ask me the other day? Oh, God, I don't know.
**Unknown:** Didn't you s- you said, like, if there was one thing- Oh, God. What, what were we talking about? It was if there was one thing you could take with you, but I forget what we were... I'm always trying to ask Nicole questions, A, to, to learn from her so I can communicate better with her because, I mean, when you run a business with somebody and you run a household and just also- Parent But also just strengthening your personal one-on-one, uh, intimate relationship.
**Unknown:** It's just all about connection, and the better we can understand somebody and how they think and what lights them up, what's most important to them, the better I can love her because the better I can actually allow her to experience more of that, and that's, that's just leadership. And her highest value is leadership, s- so the more I can help her lead better, that's going to be me showing her that I love her. You know, not to get woo woo on this podcast. Or lovey dovey.
**Unknown:** But so I asked her a question, like, we went through something. I forget what the experience was, and, you know, it was like we t- talked about our top takeaways and our learnings from it. And I was like, "Okay, well, if you could only take one of those away, like, which one was most important to you?" And it's just going through and asking those quality questions to get crystal clear because that allows you to use that in other areas of your life because just like we were talking about, it's like if you can figure out how to run a business, well, you can take those same habits and you can structure how to run an amazing family. But that's...
**Unknown:** The answer to my ques- to that question was meeting rhythms. And he was like, "Huh, I, I wasn't expecting that." But when I think about our... Well, first of all, I think about our family, I think about our business, and how meeting rhythms have radically changed everything about our relationship, the way we parent, but also the dynamic inside of our company. But then I also, because we're in a, a service-based industry, you and I, and we work with, you know, patients coming to us for health, but we also work with leaders and CEOs and founders coming to us for their business, we find that so much of, uh, so many of the pain points are around ambiguity, and that ambiguity is because of lack of communication, lack of speaking up, lack of knowing how to communicate properly with your spouse, with your friends, with your mother-in-law, with your team.
**Unknown:** If you can, first of all, just get in a habit of c- having a set communication time. We have a set meeting in our household. We have a set meeting in our company, and we also have a t- a very short, quick, high-level touch base every single day. Just getting in the habit of that is gonna radically change everything, even if you don't feel like you're a master of it.
**Unknown:** If you feel like, ugh, I could've done that better, I could've said that better, I could've not brought my emotion, guess what? Yeah, sometimes a meeting can get emotional. They... First of all, meetings should never be boring.
**Unknown:** You should be able to bring hard topics to the table. You get better and better about your delivery in that so it doesn't insult anybody or it doesn't create a, you know, a, a ripple effect that you don't want. But guess what? Even if it did create a ripple effect in that moment, it's better for everyone to know where you're at than to not because the last thing you wanna do is be the ticking time bomb behind the scenes that then blows up and either you sabotage yourself or you sabotage somebody else.
**Unknown:** But if, you know, even in a team meeting, it's like if everyone knows, like, "I'm really frustrated and I feel like I don't feel supported by you guys, and I feel like there's a lot on my plate, and I honestly don't know what's going on as to what you guys are doing, and so I'm feeling resentful thinking you guys aren't doing your job while I have a shit ton on my plate." And now everybody's like, "Oh, ooh, ooh, that was intense." But now how, now everyone has to go and think about that, and it's a matter of, one, hey, X, Y, and Z are on my plate. You probably didn't know that 'cause I didn't necessarily communicate it. Now you know, so I'm not sitting around with my thumb up my ass. But also, we didn't realize how much was on your plate, so why don't we talk about what you hate doing, what's, like, sucking your soul, and see if somebody else on the team is good at it?Same thing in a household.
**Unknown:** Like Nick and I have naturally realized like things that I really despise doing in the house that he will do. Like he doesn't wanna cook. I love cooking. I'd rather die than do the dishes, so he does the dishes.
**Unknown:** Like, you know, it's like the little things. And then there's some things we delegate and we pay somebody else to do- Yeah ... because it's low value for both of us, you know? And yeah, and there's many other things we could do with that time.
**Unknown:** So it's, it's just a matter of mastering that communication. But the habit of having it on the schedule, having it as a priority is step number one. And you will find that this hustle, which I think does get convoluted with chaos, you know, "Oh, I'm hustling." Are you really hustling or do you just feel so overwhelmed, scattered, and burnt out because everything is chaotic? Well, we've also been programmed that hustling is the act of doing, and we've been programmed that that's how we have more.
**Unknown:** But having more sometimes creates more chaos and actually takes away from our fulfillment, who we are, our state of being, which is a cycle that beats us down, beats us down, beats us down. Instead of realizing that we could hustle less and just be more. Mm-hmm. And you know, it's like jumping to kind of the polarized aspect of that is just meditating.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. You know, for a long time we both didn't meditate because we were stuck in that I gotta do more, I gotta have more, and that's going to give me what I want. And- And also, but you know- ... meditation, 'cause I know that if you'd said, told me to meditate a couple of years ago, I would've punched you in the fucking face or I would've shut off this podcast.
**Unknown:** But it's not, there's all different iterations of that. Like so Keith Cunningham wrote a book, Road to Less Stupid, and he calls it thinking time. He's like, "If you are a, a, a leader, if you are a driven growth-minded professional, if you're an entrepreneur, like you need to take steps back. You need to pri- Your schedule needs to be prioritized with buckets of thinking time where you can think critically, strategically.
**Unknown:** You can get creative, you can solve, you can be proactive about problems that could happen." It's like always being 10 steps ahead, widening your lens and clearing and having no distractions so that you can do that. And that for some people might be like that is sitting in a sauna that they, they get really clear, inspired. Some people it's meditating, some people- Some people- ... it's walking on a beach ...
**Unknown:** walking on a beach, walking in the woods. It's like all these different things. Hugging a tree. Hugging a tree.
**Unknown:** S- Possibly slacklining, you know? Just something- Running, yeah ... but what's amazing about this is it's really just understanding that doing takes away our thinking. Yes.
**Unknown:** Yes. And the being is our thinking and all of w- everything that we do is 'cause we want to receive something, and that receiving is how it makes us feel. But when we really understand our feelings are created from our thoughts, so we can do less and probably have more of what we truly want, which is the feeling if we spend more time on the being aspect, which is the thinking that actually creates the feelings. Yeah.
**Unknown:** Well, just to b- make that simple, so talking about the be- You mean you didn't follow that? Talking about the be, do, have. So most people are doing the opposite- Mm-hmm ... is have.
**Unknown:** They wanna have. They wanna have. And then they'll finally do something, and then they'll be the feeling that they want to experience. They're doing ...
**Unknown:** They're, they wanna have and then they're also, it's in the doing a lot. And you know, how many people are also- That's a shitty habit ... they buy, they, they buy the house so they can have the feeling and then they're a year in, "I fucking hate this house. I resent this house," because they, they totally missed the, the be, the being part.
**Unknown:** So when you are just running around with your head cut off, and if it's because you're a busy parent or if it's because you're a busy bus- busy business owner, is you need to start thinking about the fact that you're always doing, the fact that you're always busy, how much, how many problems has that created? Or I should say, how many problems has it allowed to blow up because you didn't have the time or ability to either get ahead of it or to deal with it quickly? And- Well, and we also attract problems to help us break us away from that cycle ... well, and that's what they talk about the rock bottom.
**Unknown:** You hit the rock bottom to say, "I can't fucking do this anymore 'cause it's not working." But so many people stay on the hustle track, and it's a matter of if you can take the step back and create that list. Okay, how do I take the step back? All right, I got my love and my loathe. I write down all the things that I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, a week-to-week basis that I loathe, and I have the things that I love.
**Unknown:** How can I give up one thing on the loathe list to create a little bit more time? But then how do I get really diligent about that time, that chunk of time to say this is 100% not gonna get filled with something else. It's going to be my priority to take that walk, go in that sauna, go for that run, what- Get on a fucking canoe. I don't know.
**Unknown:** So that's the thing is like, okay, I make my list and I say I'm gonna give this up or I'm gonna stop doing this or I'm gonna give it to somebody else. But then you don't get diligent about that one hour gets blocked off on your calendar and now it gets filled with, you know, the dog has, has to go to the vet. I don't know. So it's really a matter of being very diligent on creating these habits slowly.
**Unknown:** You know, don't be that all or nothing person because it never works. Those are the people that throw in the towel after a month, two months, three months. So this is really, really important that we, what we're talking about because if you do not practice this, if you do not create these habits, you will be the hamster on the wheel inevitably. You know, for those of you that are looking to understand more about figuring out what's important to you and figuring out how can you actually create goals and habits that are going to set your life up for success, highly recommend checking out our Values Determination course because this is what's gonna take you through the workshop to figure out what the heck is important to you.
**Unknown:** And you'd be surprised, you might think you know. You don't. Yeah. It's, uh, step one's always getting clarity, and you have to get clarity on, you know, who you are, what's most important to you, setting up that hierarchy of, you know, of those values, what, what you value most, uh, in your life, and then being able to literally structure your life so that it will display and demonstrate that hierarchy.
**Unknown:** Yeah. It's clarity, collapse the bullshit that's running in the background, the programs that have been running you since childhood of all the things you should be, and then it's a matter of connecting that vision and creating the life that you want, the business that you want, the family that you want. And it's all 100% achievable and attainable. It's just a matter of being open and willing to make those micro changes, which is- It's easy once you know how to do it correctly because- It's easier said than done, I will say that.
**Unknown:** It's just 'cause- 'Cause we're, we- ... because we're programmed to, for the hustle ... our habit is, is that we have to hustle, which means that we change through doing, which isn't possible. That's a cleanse.
**Unknown:** That's, you know, a short-term I'm gonna start working out in the new year, and three weeks later I'm not waking up and getting out of bed because we are trying to change through an action, which that's not how change occurs. Change occurs through a belief system, a mental program, 'cause it's our thoughts that dictates our actions. So that's the state of being, the be to have principle. So it's really just understanding how life works, how energy works, how universal laws and principles work, and utilizing that foundation to work for you instead of us, you know, trying to work against that.
**Unknown:** 100%. All right, guys. Drop a comment below. We will have some links for you to check out the course that we mentioned, and we hope this was valuable, and we'll see you next time.
**Unknown:** We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
**Unknown:** All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay.
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Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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