Alex Hormozi says, “The fastest way to become the person you say you want to be is to put yourself in a situation where you have no choice but to become them.”

The longer you tolerate the gap between your words and your actions, the longer you stay stuck exactly where you are.

You say you want to be a morning person, but your phone sleeps on your nightstand. You say you want to hit your macros, but you never sit down and pre-log. You say you want to build muscle, but you self-negotiate down to 2 workouts a week, and even those don’t always happen.

Your words say one thing. Your environment says another.

I really don’t think you have a discipline problem. You are disciplined in SOME area of your life. The problem is you’re trying to fit new habits into a life that is set up for your old ones. Your brain craves the easy way out, and every decision you leave for later gets made by your tired, stressed, reactive self.

My “no other option” story

In early 2022 I was on maternity leave with Rafe and decided not to go back to my full-time job. Erik and I ran the budget to make sure we could live on his salary, and it was going to be tight.

I told myself: this has to work. I’m giving myself no other option but for this to work.

I launched Karlee Lynn Fitness on March 7, 2022, the exact day I was supposed to return to work. I didn’t wait to feel ready. I closed the back door, and then I had to become the person who could make it work.

You don’t need to quit your job to apply this. You just need to stop leaving the back door open.

The 6 environments that decide who you become

1. Your kitchen. Saying no at the grocery store 1 time is easier than saying no every time you open your fridge or pantry. Desserts are my Achilles heel, so I don’t keep them in the house. If I make one, I enjoy it for a day or two and then give the rest away.

2. Your bedroom and morning launch pad. Your phone goes across the room the second you walk into your bedroom, so your feet have to hit the floor to turn off the alarm. The night before, my coffee is ready to brew, my preworkout carb is laid out, my creatine is weighed, and my workout clothes are on the bathroom floor. Morning is not for decisions.

3. Your phone. This one is attached to your hip all day. Take at least one full day off social media each week (I delete Instagram every Sunday), mute the accounts that make you second-guess yourself, and purge your list of so-called experts. You already know what to do.

4. Your calendar. Feelings are not data. Write down what’s true about your week and you’ll find pockets of time you didn’t know you had. Pencil your workouts in like a doctor’s appointment and set your weekly non-negotiables. If your plan requires an “ideal week,” it will fail almost every week.

5. Your wallet. Myron Golden says, “When you pay, you pay attention.” Financial skin in the game changes how seriously you take something. In this episode I share the biggest investment I’ve ever made in my business and why it scares me in the best way.

6. Your people. When I ran my half marathon in April, I needed the pacer to hold me to a pace I never would have kept on my own. I finished in 1:43:15. Coach Alison has a HYROX coach. I have a business coach. Coaches have coaches. Find one person you respect who lives out what they teach, and go all in for 4 to 6 months.

When your environment slips (and it will)

You can set up the perfect environment and life will still knock it over. A sick kid, a work trip, a stressful season. You can tolerate that difficult season without changing the course of action. Moving on quickly is a skill, and the faster you get back to your habits after an off day, week, or month, the more successful you’ll be.

Your homework: the 15-minute environment audit

Grab a real sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, write what you SAY you want for your health and habits, in as much detail as possible. On the right, write what your current environment looks like. Circle the biggest gap between the two, then pick ONE change you can make this week to close it. Just one.

If you want to wake up earlier, maybe that change is giving your phone a bedtime and locking yourself out of it after that time.

Close the back door. Make the right choice the easy choice. Then make one daily deposit after another.

Listen to the full episode 44 of The Daily Penny podcast to hear all of it, including my business update.

If you’ve decided enough is enough and you want someone to hold you to it every week, apply for 1:1 coaching with me or Coach Alison HERE.

Until next time, keep adding another penny in the jar