Stop Lying to Yourself About Your Results

If the inputs don’t change, the outputs won’t either.

Thomas here. Results are rarely random. Over weeks and months, inputs become outputs. Luck and other people still matter, but patterns usually win over time. If the pattern is off, the result shouldn’t surprise us.

Sunrise from the top of a trail during one of my runs in Hawaii

By late 2023, I could see it plainly: the patterns in my life— in my own business and in my health —were drifting the wrong way. So at the start of 2024, I drew a line. Stop complaining about how the outcomes weren't improving. Instead, change the inputs to align with my desired results.

I started with work. I had tried to turn a personal passion into a business and told myself the market was tough and resources were thin. The real problem was simpler and less flattering: I was half‑committed— one foot in, one foot out. Even inside JB, our main business, I slipped into maintenance mode. The machine still ran, but I stopped doing the high‑leverage things: deep analytical reviews, real strategy, staying close to sponsored campaigns. Nothing crashed, which made it easier to lie to myself. It just stopped getting better.

Early 2024 became the reset. I put the work that actually moves numbers on the calendar first and let everything else take what time remained. That single change— do the work that moves numbers before the work that looks good.

Health told a similar story. Becoming a dad humbled me. For the first four years I lost touch with my body. I didn’t make it a priority. I made excuses for bad habits and hoped intention would be enough. It never is. The only time I’d ever dropped weight (fat and a bunch of muscle) was when I went vegan in San Francisco— not because I’d found nutritional religion, but because I couldn’t physically eat enough calories to keep up with my lifestyle. While the diet wasn't right for me long term, it taught me the more useful lesson: work with your own tendencies, not against them.

So I simplified. I like to eat— a lot. Rather than pretending otherwise, I built around it. I focus on protein during the day, mostly lean sources, and keep the rules simple enough that I actually follow them. Training got the same treatment: intention over intensity. I follow science‑backed lifting programs and tailor cardio to the goal in front of me— right now, a mountain trail run in October. Every session has a purpose. The surprise started leaving the system.

I watched the same principle play out with Julia. She was working out daily and pushing hard, but her plan didn’t actually match the outcome she wanted. Once we aligned training with the target and changed up nutrition, progress began to show up.

This is where work and health rhyme. In fitness, feedback is obvious— the mirror, the mile time, the lab results. In business, it’s easy to confuse motion with movement. You can pour forty hours into coffee meetings, email, and tinkering and call it “momentum.” But presence isn’t progress. Only inputs that touch the metric you care about deserve the attention.

For Paying subscribers I’m sharing the process we used to correct bad spending habits. Suggestions that we need to look for evidence that we are doing things wrong instead of pat ourselves on the back for things we think we are doing right…and more.