Know When To Hold Em, Know When To Fold Em

When I was young, my Dad showed me some songs by Kenny Rogers.

• The Gambler

• Coward Of The County

Many, many lessons in both of them.

But the lesson I wanted to mention today:

Know When To Hold Em, Know When To Fold Em

The reference in the song is about gambling (obviously) but I was thinking about this today because I had one of those days where I just couldn’t focus.

It happens every now and then.

When you just can’t get into that flow state as easily as you usually can.

In my experience, when you have a day like that, you have to know when to push through, and know when to hit a ‘hard reset.’

By hard reset, I mean taking a few hours to hit the gym, sauna, and get a good meal. Usually after a hard reset, your focus will be better than ever.

But - sometimes you need to push through, and other times you will just redline unless you can step away and get some fresh air.

There is a fine line, and walking that line properly requires a bit of smarts.

In saying that, more often than not, you will get way more out of hitting a ‘hard reset’ aka ‘folding’ than you will by just sitting at your desk frustrated why you just don’t have it today.

If you’re working hard, you will know what I mean. Those days where you just feel like getting work done is 100x harder than usual.

But like I said - gotta know the difference between a little resistance and needing a hard reset.

Can’t just go full yogi and sauna 2 hrs per day for no reason, use it sparingly.

When this happens, what I would recommend is:

1. Acknowledge your lost focus

2. Try something small to reset - eg 5 mins meditation, going outside, walk to cafe

3. Start with a few small tasks to get momentum. Go into these tasks with the plan of forgetting you ever even struggled to focus at all.

4. If that doesn’t help, just hit a hard reset

Hard Focus Reset Protocol:

1. Get some Beetroot juice or pre work out. Preferably one that will get your bloodflow up so you can get a pump

2. 5mins warmup on treadmill to get moving. 5km/h @ 12% incline

3. Hit your favourite weights session. Pretend you are this guy (link)

4. Go into the sauna for 20 minutes

5. Go into the cold plunge for 3 minutes

6. Get a hearty meal

7. If you haven’t already, shave your face and maybe even get a haircut

After this, you will be as good as new. It it nearly impossible to not feel fresh after that.

I usually do something like this every Saturday.

It slaps.

Enjoy.

Leo