Do Your Goals Match Your Work Ethic? The Hard Truth About Getting Results

Do your daily habits actually match the goals you say you have?

Everyone wants to be healthier, stronger, lose weight, and have more energy—but wanting the result isn't the same as doing the work.

In this episode of Keeping It Real, Nyree, Fiona and Greg have an honest conversation about why consistency always beats motivation, why quick fixes rarely work, and how your everyday choices reveal your true priorities.

They discuss:

• Why motivation fades but habits last
 • The difference between wanting results and earning them
 • Why fitness isn't exciting—but it works
 • The problem with instant gratification
 • How consistency builds confidence
 • Why community makes difficult goals easier

If you've ever wondered why your progress has stalled, this episode might provide the honest perspective you need.

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Subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with someone whose goals deserve a better work ethic.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

This is keeping it real with Nairif Yoda and Greg. Uh Greg, you're on to something different.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Yes, I'm drinking uh Caledon Fog IPA. Chris, give me this one that's from Kaledon Hills Brewing. Uh it's not bad. I'm not using an IPA guy, but this one's actually pretty pretty good. And I mean it's 6.5% alcohol, too, so it is kind of on the high octane list.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

But no, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

It's a good thing. It's only one turn.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yeah, we only got a right turn to go home. Well, right and left into our house.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Well, we'll make it. Is it is it velvety? Sounds velvety.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

I don't know what velvety is. Like, you know, I don't remember velvet. Remember those velvet pants back when we did so I can't remember what those but I don't know what that would taste like. Right?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

So it's like but it was smooth. It's just a way it's smooth, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

It was actually smooth, like fog, I guess. Fog's pretty smooth when you go through it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Well, I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Can't see shit, but you can go through it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

You drink enough of those and you can't see shit either.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yeah, if I drank probably two of these, I'd have a little bit of fog going on and you know watching.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

You're usually uh a little concerned about the IPAs when uh Chris starts serving them to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, I've barfed a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

You've barfed a few times. That's a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

You know, I gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You know, there's a toilet right there, right to the sink. I'm like, I'm going.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I'm going.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Um Fiona and I are still in France, which is fine because uh it's a I'm sure it's a beautiful country. They do make great wine. This was your topic, Greg. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Do your goals match your work ethic? You know, this is a big one. And I I get this all the time and I see this all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

We see it some of the time. We don't see it all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Well, I see it more more often, right, than than you think. Right. Maybe you don't see it. I notice it a little bit more. And it's like it's one of those things, you know, have you ever said you wanted to lose weight, get stronger, run a marathon, or be healthier? But if someone watched your daily habits, would they know that that's actually your goal? Right? Oh, that's true. It is, right? And so you see the effort that some people put in, and you know, when I go through, you know, they're on ramps and stuff like that, and it's all about the goals, and I talk to them about this, and then all of a sudden, you know, once they get started, you know, it kind of fizzles out and the goals kind of go sideways.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I think maybe the reality of yeah, on how what it what it's like, what it takes to meet to achieve those goals.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I mean, because everybody wants to be healthy, to look better, to have more energy, to live longer, to keep up with their kids and to be confident, but they don't realize the amount of work that it takes to do that, right? So, you know, discipline for sure, right? Oh, the big D wordcy, the C word, right? Which is not the num the normal C word that everybody thinks about. Well, no, only we're yeah, favorite one, yeah. Your favorite one, but it's like, you know, you you gotta wake up early, like you know, you gotta do some meal prepping, you gotta training when when when you're tired, you gotta you know, say a no to unhealthy choices and being uncomfortable. And that's a big one right there. Being uncomfortable is a hard one, right? You know, right? Right? Being uncomfortable with you know, a workout, like this sucks balls, and and still doing it, and still doing it, but doing it the way you can. That's right, you know, and and and I think that might be a problem too. Like people want to, ah, I should have done, you know. I I should have done a different weight, I should have done this. You know, you did it.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

There's always a next time. There's always a next time.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Make note of it and try book next time. You're gonna go a little heavier, you're gonna go a little harder, you know. And I and I think that's that's a big thing too. Being uncomfortable is is is hard for people.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Well, I think a lot of the problem with the fitness industry is it sells quick fixes, yeah. And people don't realize how much effort and how much time, how much time it takes.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Time is the big one.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So I mean, when you're if your goals, if you were very overweight, it's easy to lose a lot of weight quickly, but it's also but it's harder to maintain that weight loss long term. So it's not like it's impossible, you can do it, but again, it comes down to taking sacrifices. So if your habit is to go out Friday night and have a couple of pizzas and beer, that needs you need to change that.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Yeah, that's gotta change. You've got to change things in your life, or you have to be honest about your lifestyle and say, okay, well, this is where and this is where the result is attractive, the process isn't.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Oh, the process is boring, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

And that's that's the thing, eh? Like, you know, I see all this shit on Instagram and YouTube and friggin' Facebook about all these influencers. Yeah, it's so easy to do. It's not easy. If it's easy, it's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

We're living in a world of instant gratification, absolutely, exactly. Nobody wants to do the work.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Instant gratification. Yeah, that's that's the thing. I want it now, so that's why Ozempic and Wagovi and all this crap is that you can lose 35 pounds, like you start taking injections and away you go.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, feel like you're having your skin falling off, you're like gross, yeah. It's like, you know, like no, and it's not like you know I mean, there's a place for that. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, but if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, you don't need to go on a Zempic. You need to just do the work. Yeah. And I think the problem is that the there's nothing exciting about fitness. I mean, if you the basics are the boring basics are what get you the results. So that means being consistent, like you know, going to the gym three, four times a week, lifting weights, doing your cardio, eating healthy. It's boring to shit. Getting enough sleep, getting enough sleep.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

The people who succeed aren't necessarily more motivated, they're more committed.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

And they make it a they find like you know, they make it a habit. That's it. I think that's the big thing too, right? Becomes a habit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

You know, going to work even going to work out even when you don't feel like it. That's that's a big one, right? You know, I don't feel like it. It's too hot. I don't want to go today. You know, push yourself through that. There's that uncomfortable factor, right? Get there and do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Have we ever had somebody come into the gym saying, I didn't want to come to work out today, feel worse afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

That's it. We have every day. Every day. Oh, I didn't want to come to the gym. This sucks. I didn't want to be here today. I feel better now.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I feel better now. Said that.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

We all do, yeah. We all do it. We do it in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, oh my god, I know. But then I do it. And then I feel better after.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

And people lived.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah. But you brush your teeth without motivation, right? Well, like you don't need to be motivated to brush your teeth because you know it's dental phobic. So I want my teeth. I haven't had any cavities for her.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

I had one recently, but not like, but like it was a 25-year gap.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Yeah. And I mean, you pay the bill, your bills, whether you're feeling like it or not. Some people don't. Well, I know some people, but we do. Okay. I like the roof over my head. Yeah. It's like, I don't want to lose my house. Like, I'm freaking, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Like, so let's just not pay that property tax for you.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Motivated to do that, right? And that that's the thing. Fitness has to become something you do because it's important, not because you feel like it. You don't want it to feel like it's oh, I got up this morning. I don't want to go today, but I got to. You know, then it's gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Well, there's a whole episode too, because it's hard to coach those people.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah. Oh my god, I'm gonna go today. No, you you get to go today, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

You get to get up, and because you go, you get to go again.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, you get to go and again and again and again and again, right? Like, yeah, I know. And that's that's so much of what happens, right? You know, where did your time go? Because time's a big one, right? Like how many times do we get? Oh, I didn't have time this week. Really? Like, really, you know, does your calendar show it? You know, does your grocery cart show it? Does your bank statement show it? Does your screen time show it?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Uh, there's the one screen time. Screen time, right? You can uh keep track of that on your phone. You can keep track of your screen time on your phone.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yep. Wow. Hello, you're looking at Facebook for four hours today.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

You really tingle suck. It's amazing how much time gonna fly by. Oh, it is. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

It's super Netflix will wait for you. Actually, that was the one thing about Netflix. Uh their biggest their biggest competitor is uh sleep. So they want like that's like they want that's why it only meeting it sleep. Well, because no, they want you to be able to binge watch something, so that's why there's like a 10-second window.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Are you still there? Yeah. Are you still watching? No, oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Did we see this?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

No, we fell asleep. Yeah. Missed a couple episodes. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

But that's that's why there's such a short window to turn like wait 10 seconds, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

To the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

But it'll still be there. You can turn it off and come back to it. It's not like you know, back in the day when it's gonna be there tomorrow. You know what? We had to wait the whole week.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Yeah, Chris. And that's what I I laugh because that's what we do. Yeah, we like it like it's we pick a series we want to watch and we watch one hour a week because we're used to that old age.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Because I can't be bothered to binge watch something. No, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Chris, I had to spend eight hours sitting on my ass looking at a friggin' TV show that is okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Although we did watch World Cup. Well, yeah, but it was 90 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Like, really? I watched the World Cup.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

It was sad. We cried. Um, what else is on your notes there?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Well, you know what? Goals require different levels of commitment. Someone who wants to lose 10 pounds requires something different than someone training for a marathon.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

This is true, but one is a little bit more short-term than the other.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Yeah, like 10 pounds, you could probably do a month. Training for a marathon is gonna take you six months. Six months? I would say six months, you know. When we we train for our half marathons and stuff, like we we took time and did that, right? You know, someone wanting their first pull-up needs different habits than someone who just wants to move more, right? So now you're you're going specific, right? I want to do a pull-up. Okay, I gotta work specifically to get to that pull-up, right? So there's different the bigger the goal, the bigger the commitment. You know, and it means sacrifice. You you know, and yeah, there's gonna be sacrifices. If you want to lose, like you want to lose 50 pounds in like five months, like that's 10 pounds a month. You gotta work at it. You can't just piddle fart around and freaking and do that. I showed up two times this week. Like, no, you need to be consistently three to four times a week, you know, working as hard as you can, you know, looking after your diet, looking at after everything that comes into that. But it's hard. And there's the thing, it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

And we're not used to hard day anymore.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

No, no, and I think that's the thing is um when you've been at it so long that you realize, oh, I that's gonna be like worth how many burpees or whatever. I'm not gonna eat that or yeah, it's not that satisfying to eat this compared to you know what I'm gonna have to do.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

And you just make better choices of not that I mean, we don't we're not ones for not having things in our diet, obviously, because we've got sausage stuffed thing bread that was smoked on the barbecue, it was delicious. Yeah, we all like our food food. We all like our food, but I'd rather eat something that's quality homemade than some fast food shit, yeah you know. So we're gonna make better choices.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

There's priorities too there, too.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

You know, like we eat healthy 80% of the time. Yeah, and that 20% is you know, maybe going to our favorite restaurant restaurant or you know, indulging in something on the barbecue that maybe we wouldn't eat normally during the week.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

But the can but the other foundational habits are still there. We eat right, we exercise, we make time for sleep and do things that reduce stress, all those things.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

So another one is be honest, not guilty. It's not about feeling bad, it's about being honest. You know, ask yourself, am I actually doing enough? Am I expecting results I haven't earned? I think people have blaming the program when consistency is the issue.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Well, it's always comes back. Yeah, it always is consistency, but I think people have higher they're the work doesn't match the goal and they're ex like they and expect things to happen sooner than what they really do.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Most people don't need a better workout, they need the greater consistency. Always that's what it is, it's always consistency. You know, oh, I'm not getting anywhere. Well, I look back at, you know, and I've done this, I've looked back through somebody's records. You have shown up three times in the last two months. It's like you've been here three times this month.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Like, yeah, that's not gonna get you anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

It's not gonna get you there. Like one once a week for the last three weeks isn't gonna get you there. Well, no matter how hard you think you're working, once a week, your workout, unless semi-occasional fitness programs are.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

That's right, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

It's not gonna get you there. You know, and I mean the work ethic can be built, you know. You just gotta do it. Discipline is practiced, right? It's something that you do over and over and over again, right? First week equals two workouts, then three, then better sleep, then more protein, more walking, better recovery, right? You know, small wins build the confidence.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

How long are your notes?

SPEAKER_02 13:55

They're long.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

I'm just you know, you know, I think we've talked about it. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

I'm saying this is but I think I know you get a like you get that other point about community making the work ethic easier is a good view. It needs to be in your gym with other people.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Laugh at how many you know, spouses, one spouse is different, thinking different than the other one. One wants to get these goals, and the other one says, Yeah, we're pretty lucky that we have a lot of couples who come to the gym together. We do.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

So it you need to be on board with your partner for sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Big time. And that's a big one.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

You need to support that person's goals.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

You know, I mean, this week doesn't change your goal, it's the number of weeks that you spend doing it. That's what's gonna change your goal, like and how many times you're working out during that that time. So if you give yourself five weeks for that goal, you know, you need to be working out.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

I was thinking four times if you're I think you should expand the time frame for a goal because it always takes longer. It's like house renovations. Yeah, plan on a third of uh, you know, like have a contingency of a third plan and plan another three months on top of that.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

That's right. So if you take five months, give it seven. Give it seven, yeah. Give it another, another two, especially because life is gonna get in the way. Because you know, there's gonna be a wedding in there that's gonna screw you up. Oh, yeah, you know, and then you're gonna, oh my god, I gotta, I gotta redo this and everything like that. You know, shit goes sideways, and you're gonna have to be recovered from it.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

You gotta be prepared for life.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah. Life, yeah. Speed of life is what you want to think of.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Just it should happen.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Training at the speed of life.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

So show up, be consistent, yeah, eat healthy 80% of the time, be judicious in how you indulge in those extra calories.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah, your goals come from your actions. Yeah, there you go. That is where we're we should enter. That's right. Your goals come from your actions.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

And that is another episode of keeping it real. Nairie, you know, and Greg.