“I know exactly what to do.”
“So why can’t I seem to do it anymore?”
It’s one of the most honest questions I hear and if I’m honest, it’s a question I’ve asked myself too.
Not because I didn’t know how to train.
Not because I’d forgotten how to eat well.
Not because I’d suddenly become lazy.
The knowledge was still there.
The challenge was that life wasn’t the same anymore.
If you’re a man in your forties or fifties, there’s a good chance you recognise that feeling.
You know how to lose weight.
You know you should strength train.
You know sleep matters.
You know you need to eat better.
None of that is new.
The frustrating part is that the things which once felt straightforward now feel surprisingly difficult to sustain.
You start the week with good intentions.
Then work gets busy.
The children need you.
A meeting runs late.
You grab whatever food is available.
The gym session gets pushed back.
You promise yourself you’ll get back on track tomorrow.
Tomorrow becomes next week.
Then you become frustrated with yourself.
You start wondering where your discipline has gone.
But what if discipline isn’t the real issue?
Think back to ten or fifteen years ago.
You probably had fewer responsibilities.
Fewer people relying on you.
More spare time.
More flexibility.
More opportunities to recover.
Life looked very different.
That doesn’t mean life is worse now.
For many men, it’s better.
You’ve built a career.
Created a business.
Raised a family.
Taken on responsibility that matters.
But those achievements have quietly changed the environment you’re trying to look after yourself within.
The rules changed.
Most of us never noticed.
Looking back, I can see periods of my own life where consistency became much harder than it had once been.
People often assume that because I’d been a Royal Marines Commando, a Physical Training Instructor and competed internationally in rowing, staying healthy should have been easy.
It wasn’t.
As injuries accumulated, responsibilities increased and life became more demanding, I found myself making the same promises many other men make.
“I’ll get back into a routine when things calm down.”
The trouble was, things rarely calmed down.
Life simply moved on to the next challenge.
That’s why this has become one of the most common conversations we have at Warrior Wellness Movement.
Men don’t usually tell us they need another training programme.
They don’t ask which diet is best.
They already know the basics.
What they’re really trying to understand is why they can’t seem to apply what they already know with the consistency they once could.
For a long time, many assume the answer is motivation.
Or discipline.
Or age.
I’m no longer convinced that’s the full story.
I think something else is happening.
Something much quieter.
Something that develops gradually while careers grow, families expand and responsibilities increase.
You don’t notice it at first because you’re still functioning.
You’re still providing.
You’re still showing up.
But somewhere along the way, looking after yourself became harder than it used to be.
Not impossible.
Just harder.
And that’s a very different conversation.
Before you criticise yourself for lacking discipline, it might be worth asking a different question.
When did consistency become difficult?
More importantly…
What had changed in your life around that time?
You might find the answer has far less to do with willpower than you’ve been telling yourself.
What’s one habit you used to find easy that now feels much harder to maintain?
Chat soon. Ollie.
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