Mondays with Matt

Time is your most valuable resource, and you don't know how much of it you have on this earth. Because of this, protecting time, being efficient, and knowing when to trade money for time is important. Its importance heightens if you find yourself in a situation where you make enough money that you can make more money on your work than completing a menial task, such as mowing the lawn or cleaning t...

Setting goals, meeting & surpassing goals, assessing progress: these are clearly important to all organizations and people. But, let's be honest, some of these terms-OKRs, KPIs, etc.--are a bit corporatey. There's a bit of a jargony, gobbly gook element that turns people off to what is essentially goal-setting, breaking up the goal to specific actions, and measuring progress. Enter the GAMeplan. ...

How do we set goals? How do we break those goals up to SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, TIMEBOUND, smaller actions? How do we assess whether we've met our goals and, if we fail to meet them, if we moved in the right direction and made progress? Enter the OKR.  Objectives & Key Results (OKR) is a process for setting goals & breaking those goals up. An objective is just another word for a goal. Key Results are...

Chris & Matt Reynolds like to wake up early and GET AFTER IT. If you don't, that's okay, but you might try before you write this off and it's super important to have a consistent sleep schedule regardless of when you go to bed and wake up. You can't make up for lack of sleep on the weekend, and your body will learn and adjust to a regular sleep schedule and be better off for it, as opposed to inco...

Now, more than ever, the ability to deescalate tense situations and bring reconciliation and understanding to hostile parties is a valuable skill. Some people are natural peacemakers, having learned from a young age how to maneuver volatile interactions between family members, while others of a more disagreeable nature struggle in conflict. Matt and Chris discuss how they have each occupied these...

Matt and Chris discuss the value of hard work, specifically hard physical labor. For the technology-addled knowledge worker of the 21st century, there is something particularly rewarding about taxing physical labor, beyond the result of the labor. As Matt says, there is value in the work itself. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.c...

In honor of Father's Day, Matt and Chris reminisce about childhood memories with their Dad and the important lessons he taught them along the way. To all the dads in the Barbell Logic family, Happy Father's Day!  Discounts Save 50% off any coaching package at Barbell Logic with the discount code "strongdad." AND get a $50 gift card to your retailer of choice! Offer lasts through Father's Day. Want...

Matt and Chris have talked at length about good habits and how to acquire them, but what about  bad habits ? Today they discuss some bad habits they have struggled with over the years, and how they have successfully broken them. Books mentioned in the show: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055PGUYU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Atomic Habits by James...

Niki, Andrew, and Matt return to the podcast roundtable to talk about their shared passion, coaching, and the important lessons they've learned about setting boundaries, both to preserve their sanity and to keep the fire lit for their passion and profession. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.c...

Chris discusses how we might begin to acquire wisdom by asking questions of ourselves and of the world around us, reading books to acquire more understanding, and regularly applying what we learn to the problems we confront. As great thinkers like Charlie Munger and others have observed, the accumulation of wisdom comes slowly and patently, by refusing to accept the first conclusion you draw, and...

Matt and Chris discuss the reasons for living a life driven by a set of values which you can clearly identify and define. They discuss their own value systems, how they developed them, and how their life has been shaped by them. As always, Matt urges listeners to write down a list of their own life values, and identify the things that bring your value and the things that rob you of value. PS -  Co...

Matt and Chris discuss the value of making mistakes, owning up to them, and learning from them. Many people grow up afraid of making mistakes, and reluctant to own up to them when they do make them. Chris argues that this stunts our growth and creativity as humans, because mistakes are essential to the process of discovering new things. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's...

After taking the "Understand Myself" personality test based on the Big Five aspects, Matt and Chris take the Myers-Briggs and Enneagram to get a more comprehensive look at their personality types. As Matt says, the results of the personality test shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but if they are, perhaps that points to some areas you can work on in your relationships and daily interactions. Chr...

Following up from Episode #8, the Principle of "Self-Honesty", Matt and Chris discuss the results of their personality test from "Understand Myself," an online test based on the Big Five Aspects of personality and developed by Dr. Colin DeYoung, Dr. Lena Quilty, and Dr. Jordan B Peterson in Dr. Peterson's lab. Understand Myself Personality Test https://www.understandmyself.com PS -  Coach Smarter,...

Matt takes a moment to reflect on the things that are most important to him, and encourages you to do the same. For many life is moving at a slower pace right now (involuntary or not), and that means it's a good time to take inventory of the things that bring value and joy to your life, and the things that rob from your life. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Webs...

Matt and Chris Reynolds discuss how self-honesty can be the key to personal and professional growth. Recognizing and acknowledging where you are weak can help you to find more fulfilling work, foster better family relationships, and help you find friends and mentors that are strong where you are weak. Personality tests mentioned in the episode: Enneagram: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com Myers-B...

Let's talk about focus. This is something people don't do well these days. Focus has atrophied due to smartphones, social media, the internet, TV, etc. Focus, however, is critical to productivity, success, happiness, and getting done deep work.  Something that can help both improve focus but show you how hard it is to focus and how easily you get distracted is meditation. The practice of bringing...

Matt and his brother Chris Reynolds discuss how reading is a cumulative endeavor, so one's goal in reading should be to read well, to read for understanding, and with patience, knowing that the contents of one book will inform many others down the line. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/re...

BLOC coach Dan Flanick returns to the podcast to discuss the importance of developing confidence and self-esteem, and how barbell training has helped him in his own growth and development. PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin...

Matt and Chris Reynolds discuss the value of cultivating empathy and compassion in relationships, whether it's with family, friends, or coaches and trainees. Matt refers to a BLOC article in the podcast about compassion in coaching: https://barbell-logic.com/empathetic-coaching-for-client-breakthroughs/ PS -  Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattre...

Matt & Chris share a technique they use all the time, called the Pomodoro Technique. This technique is perfect for both knocking out urgent tasks or carving out time to dedicate to deeper, important work.  The original approach is to dedicated 25 minutes to totally uninterrupted work followed by a 5 minute break. You can string together multiple blocks as you get better at this. Also, if you strin...

Matt and Chris Reynolds discuss the concept of the urgent versus the important, and the four quadrants into which you can divide all work and chores: Not urgent, not important Urgent, not important Urgent and important Not urgent, but important Most people spend their time in the first three quadrants of the urgency/importance spectrum, leaving little or no time to address the things in life which...

The American Dream is not dead yet, and Chris Reynolds is living proof. In the first of a new series called Principles , Matt interviews his brother Chris about his founding of BriteCore, a company that builds cloud-based systems for managing insurance operations, which allowed him to retire at the age of 38. Things didn't always go so well, and Chris tirelessly worked his way up from humble begin...