Do you feel that heavy weight you are carrying from the resistance meeting you on your goals this year? You do realize that weight is EXACTLY what makes you stronger and makes your goals worth it, correct? Push yourself, do the uncomfortable and expand and succeed! – Zach Marcy

*WARNING: These rules I share here are MY rules. They are in no way a judgement on you or a way for me to tell you how to live YOUR life. If you feel pushed or stretched by some of these rules, good, it might be something you need to adopt into your life. Other than that, keep your own goals in mind and take action on this powerful post.

No More Resolutions, NOW!
So we at my company Synergize have been jumping on the impressionable and open minded people over the last few weeks that are willing to make significant change in their lives due to it being the New Year. Since people are open, i’m making a play for educating you reading this to set long lasting rules and make significant and lasting change in your life and let go of the theory of resolutions. In Part 1 of Set Rules, Not Resolutions I gave you homework that is essential for the action plan in this part. Make sure to take action on part 1 and then read this while taking action and completely transform your life.

Rules Simplified
I’ve got to admit that I borrowed the idea for setting rules for myself and my clients from a mentor of mine, Craig Ballantyne. I had the benefit of Craig’s guidance last year on creating businesses online for fitness professionals. Craig, who is an online fitness business guru, talked about how he stays disciplined and ever moving towards his goals. He essentially used the same approach most vegetarians and vegans take towards their nutrition, under no circumstances will they ever eat meat. It’s written in stone, it’s dogma to them, it’s a rule. Their minds don’t even entertain the thoughts like, “just this once i’ll try meat”. Instead it’s a rule or a personal philosophy that they will never eat meat and they carry it out in everything that they do and say.

It’s this very dogmatic approach that we will take when we set our own rules for living our life. Craig also mentioned that he does this with his own fat loss clients and himself so they live their lives with no guilt, no stress, and no wasted emotional energy over their decisions. It just is how they live, no question or answering to people about why. So when you type up these rules keep in mind you are going to use the brainstorming we did from part 1, then you are going to set your rules and apply them immediately into your life. Let’s first look at my rules so you know where to start.

My Rules
These are the rules i’ve set for myself to live.
1. I meditate on my goals, my path and my Primal Beast Mode mindset every morning for at least 15 minutes but preferably 30 minutes before I leave my bedroom.

2. I live a lifestyle of Paleo/Primal nutrition and will only allow myself 1 MOO (meal of opportunity) per week. For the first 30 days of January I will have 0 MOO’s with the intention of shedding 8lbs in 1 month. This nutrition helps to regulate my hormones, which have shifted dramatically the older i get. It is extremely important to look the part of a physique transformation and strength coach so this is my lifestyle without question. The only exceptions come under extreme, but planned circumstances like social functions, but even then I will stick with lean proteins, gluten free foods and vegetables.

3. I get 6-8 hours of sleep per night, limit myself to 3 hours of tv per week (unless the UFC is on), only check social media 2 times per day (with a 30 minute max time limit) and limit myself to 60 min per day of internet viewing (not including research or educational reading for my business). All of these activities must be planned or else they won’t take place. Couch naps don’t count. This must be in my bed and consider my plans for the next day.

4. Always finish what you start, don’t start things you won’t finish. The key to me leading the life of success I want to lead comes down to only taking on tasks that fit into the ultimate grand plan I have as being a leading expert in the fields of living a Primal/Paleo lifestyle, training athletes, making physical, professional and personal transformations and running mental and physical health and fitness businesses revolving around these theories. My roles as a father, husband, son and friend fall within this spectrum as well. Since there are so many things i’d like to accomplish this becomes an incredibly important rule to ensure i’m not distracted and consistently moving forward. Forget about the concept of perfection. Take imperfect action and use your degree in GSD (get sh!t done).

5. On non client training days I write, undistracted, for 60 minutes per day either immediately after meditating, after taking my son to school or after my own AM workout. This includes sundays, but NOT saturdays. This doesn’t include emails, but does include blog posts and my transformation book i’m writing.

6. I resistance train 3 days per week, do metabolic conditioning 3 days per week (sometimes as my resistance training workout) and will get too and maintain a body fat below 10%.There is nothing more important than a strength coach and personal trainer that walks the walk. The only exception to this rule is injury or a planned deload which I do every 8-12 weeks. There is ALWAYS something that can be done (especially my rule on nutrition) to stay in shape. Apply the Synergize Seven (soon to be revised to the Primal Principles for myself).

7. Apply the Primal Beast Mode Mindset (PBM) into everything I do in life. Primal Beast Mode is about about channeling the right mindset in life to overcome your perceived limitations and fears. This mindset an individual takes through out their life. It’s about learning to take hold off life and maximize it through accomplishment. PBM is about assertively and purposefully focusing 100% of my mental and physical energy to perform at my absolute best in work, school, the gym, with my spouse, in everything. Remove doubt and act in spite of fear in a locked in and confident manner.

The ultimate mindset of forged Primal Beast are completely confident, aggressive and focused on crushing any given task at hand. This state of mind allows a Primal Beast to perform to the maximum mental and physical capacity in spite of any and every circumstance or road block thrown in the way. This Mode is not an accident; it is a practiced habit of consistent, intentional and dominant excellence.

I happen to life, it doesn’t happen to me. Anything and everything both negative and positive that happens in my life is a direct result of the action or in action i take. If there is something that needs to be done about a negative situation in my life I will take personal responsibility and handle it. If something positive happens in my life I will take pride in my hard work and continue to enjoy it. Even when I have doubt it’s removed through action. Remove doubt and act in spite of fear in a locked in and confident manner.

All of my meditation centers around my PBM mindset that sheds the distractions and weakness that modern day technology, comforts and conveniences create. Instead, I revert to a simpler time when man acted on instinct, God given athletic talent, mental and intestinal fortitude. Although I do embrace modern methods of knowledge, learning and information acquisition I shed the things that make us weak, lazy and mediocre as individuals. I AM A PRIMAL BEAST!

8. Resist Comfort and do 1 thing per week that is incredibly uncomfortable, but has a direct positive impact on my goals. You only have 1 life. You can’t have this day, you can’t have this very moment back, so do something with it! You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable and pushing yourself for achievement and success. Mediocre sucks, status quo sucks, if you believe you are special and have special things to offer this world then go out and push the limits.

9. Remove the words “i know” and “try” from your vocabulary and replace them with “I will do” or “I won’t do”. The phrase “i know” shuts the mind off from any further action. In fact it elicits the stupid response in people. My infamous quote of the definition of stupidity is…
Having the knowledge of what you should do to get to where you want to be and not taking action on it is the definition of stupidity – Zach Marcy

Using “try” is completely non-commitmental. You set out to do something or you don’t (thanks Yoda).

10. I only surround myself with good friends and loved ones that understand and support my beliefs and lifestyle. It’s said you are a sum of the top 5 people you hang out with. If that’s the case I need to consciously pick those people. Each person I choose to spend my very little free time should be of similar mind and always wants the best for me. They aren’t bs’ers and lack the ability to BS. They are entrepreneurs with a similar vision as to where they want to go and have similar vehicles to get there. If someone isn’t in this category I will immediately and unapologetically remove them from my life.

11. I’m creating a life of freedom, not of work and I will semi-retire by the time i’m 50. I pay cash and not rely on credit unless i’m leveraging debt to make money. I’ll run debt free businesses and be personally bad debt free within 3 years. I am creating multiple streams of income off of what i’m most passionate and knowledgeable about. My free time will be spent raising my children and staying in shape while giving back to the world through my passions of helping others transform their lives.

12. Temper Action with Wisdom, but never be a know it all. Look to be a person that adds quality and value into situations and not a value or quality extractor.

13. Stay in the present while being mindful of the future and forgetful of any negative in the past. I have a tendency to have certain social anxiety. NO ONE would ever know with me being out going almost everywhere we go, but i’ve restricted myself to phone surfing and distraction into comfort zones recently. Now, i’m going to only check my phone once every 2 hours while my wife and I are out and ONLY if there is someone watching my son. I will also call my daughter 3 times per week with no question.

14. Organization rules my life and my business while all of my action plans are driven on my personal and professional mission statements. I only handle the top 10% of activities in my life that drive the success of my profession, while the rest is delegated. With time being a very important commodity staying completely organized is not an option, but a requirement. I keep a rolling 3 month to do goal journal, a personal and professional mission statement with a visual vision board. My goals are updated and reached every 3 months and immediately reset.

Our marketing and sales events through email and brick and mortar are on a rolling 12 month schedule, but purposefully and thoughtfully planned out. All of my client files, business files and computer files are in beautiful order. There are instruction manuals on each job in my business online and offline, including but not limited to administrative tasks, trainer tasks, onboarding new clients, policies and procedures and anything that might one day be outsourced.

15. 30 minutes before bed I write out my to do list for the next day, meditate in reflection on how my day went and how rockstar of a day i’m going to have tomorrow. I also review my rules to insure i’m following them and also review my goals.

16. Life is fun, pleasurable and the journey IS life. I will remain and forever be the kid inside who lacks the ability to bullsh!t, who always sees the world through a positive light and who isn’t afraid to laugh, cry, smile, compliment, thank and see the world for the wonder and amazement that it is.

17. Use the Serenity Prayer as my tool for distinguishing things I can’t and can control. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

A Strong and Vulnerable Confession
I’ve gotta admit, I put off writing this for a bit. I knew when i launched these goals I was going to be held to a different standard and I needed to make sure, from balls to bone, I was ready to adhere to this lifestyle. Remember in part 1 I talk about making the loop a massive success towards failure or a massive success towards your goals. There was no way I was going to write this up and then launch into my own set of failure patterns.

Check this transformation:

This was me almost 10 years ago when I was in the shape of my life. It’s also a shape i would like to get close to looking like again and I will. This is my vision, my rules are my roadmap for getting to it.

CALL TO ACTION: What Are Your Rules?
As I always say knowledge without action is stupidity (quote, Zach Marcy). Go immediately and write out your rules while keeping in mind where you would like to go this day, month, year and life. Notice that these are written in a certain voice and intent. There is no waivering, maybe or “I might” in the rules. These are the rules i follow. Remember to write the rules that you must follow in order to lead the successful life you want, but only put that rule down if you will follow it and reinforce it as your own dogma. I’d love to hear some of your rules!

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