Lion Counseling Podcast

🎙️ Can’t Stay Consistent? Lower the Bar: Lion Counseling Podcast Episode 96

If you struggle to stay consistent with working out—or almost any difficult habit—the answer might not be more motivation or discipline.
It might be lowering the bar.

In this episode of the Lion Counseling Podcast, Mark Odland and Zack Carter react to a Reddit post arguing that when you’re struggling with consistency, you should lower your standards for the workout rather than giving up altogether.
For high-achieving men, that can be surprisingly difficult. When you’re used to pushing hard, taking ownership, and refusing to make excuses, doing less can feel like failure. But sometimes the pursuit of the “perfect” workout is exactly what keeps you from doing anything at all.
Mark and Zack explore the balance between discipline and realistic expectations, why starting small can create momentum, and how to push yourself without going so hard that you burn out, quit, or get injured.

They also share what they’re learning from their own current challenges—with Zack training for a marathon and Mark preparing for a five-hour GORUCK event with 30+ pounds on his back.

And somewhere along the way, Mark reveals his unfortunate new call sign: “Cushion.”
✅ In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ Why all-or-nothing thinking destroys consistency
✅ Why lowering the bar isn’t necessarily making an excuse
✅ How small habits can grow into serious discipline
✅ Why success at work doesn’t always translate into fitness
✅ How to find the balance between intensity and sustainability
✅ Why avoiding injury is part of playing the long game
✅ How Zack is approaching marathon training
✅ How Mark is progressively training for a GORUCK event
✅ Why sometimes you need to embrace being part lion, part cushion

If you keep waiting until you have enough time, energy, motivation, or the perfect plan to get started, this episode is a reminder that imperfect action can beat perfect intentions.

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💬 What works better for you—setting an ambitious goal that forces you to rise to the occasion, or starting small and building momentum? Let us know in the comments.

About the Lion Counseling Podcast
The Lion Counseling Podcast helps high-achieving men break free from the patterns holding them back and become the men they were created to be. Mark Odland and Zack Carter explore psychology, faith, relationships, leadership, trauma, anxiety, personal growth, and the challenges men face in becoming stronger husbands, fathers, leaders, and friends.

New episodes every Tuesday.

#LionCounseling #Discipline #Consistency #Motivation #MensMentalHealth #SelfImprovement #FitnessMotivation #AtomicHabits

Creators and Guests

Host
Mark Odland
Founder of Lion Counseling, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified EMDR Therapist
Host
Zack Carter
Zack Carter is a Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling LLC.

What is Lion Counseling Podcast?

The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the Lions they were created to be. It exists to help men obtain success, purpose, happiness, and peace in their career and personal lives. The podcast is hosted by the founder of Lion Counseling, Mark Odland (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified EMDR Therapist), and Zack Carter (Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling). In their podcasts, they address a variety of topics relevant to men, including: mental health, relationships, masculinity, faith, success, business, and self-improvement.

Mark Odland:

If you struggle to stay consistent at the gym, this Reddit post argues the answer isn't more motivation. It's lowering the bar. Alright, Zack. Let's jump in.

Zack Carter:

Alright. All right. So life pro tips. If you're struggling to stay consistent with the gym, lower your standards for the workout, not how often you go. So most people quit because they think every single gym session needs to be this intense hour long workout.

Zack Carter:

If they're tired or busy, they just skip it entirely because a bad workout feels like a waste of time. The trick that completely changed things for me is to separate the habit of showing up from the actual workout. On days I'm completely exhausted, I tell myself I only have to do ten minutes of light stretching and one easy exercise, and then I can leave. You obviously aren't hitting any personal records on those days, but you're keeping the routine alive. It's way easier to fix a lazy habit that you're already doing than to start a perfect routine all over again from scratch.

Zack Carter:

Interesting.

Mark Odland:

What are your thoughts? Oh, man. Well, it seems to tie in with like guarding against that all or nothing thinking that we sometimes deal with with our clients. I mean it's counterintuitive, right? I mean so much of much of what's out there right now, especially the guys we work with, is guys who are like wanting to go after life, build my business, make a better, you know, have a better marriage, all these things.

Mark Odland:

And it's kinda like this discipline minded. And, you know, we've talked about David Goggins and Jack O'Willink and the value of discipline. But I would say that this is ties in too. I mean, this isn't anti discipline. The discipline is actually showing up at the gym whether or not you think you're gonna have a perfect workout.

Mark Odland:

Right? Mhmm. So I don't know. It kinda reminds me of Atomic Habits with James Clear. We've talked about that as well too.

Mark Odland:

Like, starting small, you can build off it. I mean, what what are what are your reactions, Zack? Are you Yeah. Well, I mean, you and I

Zack Carter:

work with a lot of high achieving men. And so I have business owners that are killing it in business, but they can't get themselves into the gym. It's this very thing. And they start calling themselves lazy and stuff. I'm like, bro, you have like 30 employees or 50 employees or whatever it is.

Zack Carter:

Know. And like you're running the successful company, you're very profitable year over year. Like you're not lazy. Like that's not the thing that's happening right here. Oftentimes I tell people, it sounds like you're tired.

Zack Carter:

Right. Right. And so, yeah, it's, it's, I agree and disagree with this post. So I agree that oftentimes we do need to set lower standards for ourselves. But I would say that sometimes you also do need to decrease the number of days.

Zack Carter:

And so if I'm starting with a client and maybe something like, hey, can you do at least three days a week for at least thirty minutes? And we start there. If we come back the next week and they haven't accomplished it, okay, maybe we bump it down to two days a week for fifteen minutes. If they're still not doing it, okay, one day a week for five minutes. If they're still not doing it, okay, the next week you're going to walk into the gym one day, turn around and walk out.

Zack Carter:

Like we do sometimes need to make both the frequency and the intensity go down and then build on that. Right. So I agree and I disagree with the post.

Mark Odland:

Yeah. And I think I think part of it is the guys we work with. They they've taken risks in their life, and they know that hard work tends to show benefits when it comes to other realms of their life. And so they automatically will try to apply it to something like working out, and they're very hesitant to embrace anything that sounds like an excuse.

Zack Carter:

Mhmm. Mhmm. Yep.

Mark Odland:

Right? And there's something admirable admirable about that. Right? I mean, I'll tell them, like, I admire their the way they take ownership of things and the way that they are reluctant to find a way out, to find a loophole. But again, that thing about, like, you know, the perfect being the enemy of the good.

Mark Odland:

Right? And so they can get they can get stuck. And and I guess I would say that, yes, if you're disciplined in one area of your life, it can translate into other areas. But it seems like if you get the discipline down with working out, again, it might start really small, and it might start with imperfect workouts. But if you get that down, the discipline does tend to trickle into other areas of life, but I don't always see it go the other direction.

Mark Odland:

Someone can be really disciplined with grinding out those hours at work, managing employees, making the sale, finding the deal. But then they then they they tell themselves I don't have time to work out, or I don't have time to do this perfect workout that I think I should be doing. So I'm gonna save that for next week when I create the perfect plan first. And then it just kinda keeps getting kicked down the road.

Zack Carter:

Right? That is very insightful. I I think you're right on that. I'm like, I'm really thinking about it. I haven't seen that pattern.

Zack Carter:

I'm gonna think more on that, but I think you're right. I think I've seen it in my own life where workouts, doing good workouts makes me way more productive in my day. And then if I if I'm way productive in my day, it doesn't necessarily translate the other way. Think I think you're right on that.

Mark Odland:

So you're saying, Zack, that you agree with Andrew Tate, basically.

Zack Carter:

Is that is that what Andrew Tate said?

Mark Odland:

He does. Does.

Zack Carter:

Okay. Oh, hey. You could be right about some things. Broken clock is right twice a day. That's right.

Zack Carter:

So you know?

Mark Odland:

Oh. Those are fighting words, man. If he gets out of prison, he's going after you.

Zack Carter:

Yeah, man. But yeah. It's yeah. So right now, you know, I'm I'm I'm training for a marathon. And when you train for a marathon, it could be super time consuming.

Zack Carter:

Yeah. And I had, like, 30 excuses why I shouldn't do this. Mhmm. It was like, I'm 35. I'm not in my twenties anymore.

Zack Carter:

You know, I man, I got a little baby. I don't have time. I'm working hard. I don't want to add another thing to the schedule. I'm not in cardiovascular shape like I lift consistently but I so like it was just excuse after excuse after excuse and I was like, alright.

Zack Carter:

If I do this thing, like, what's the bare minimum I could commit to? I'm like, I could do three runs a week. I gotta get up a little bit earlier and and do three runs a week and so I was like, alright. So, I had ChatGPT create me a plan. I was like, what's the bare minimum to train for marathon between now and October?

Zack Carter:

And so it gave me three runs a week and was like, this is a bare minimum. You know, be careful. You you could hurt yourself. Whereas this is like what I keep reading everywhere. You know, and it's it's crazy.

Zack Carter:

You you start off small with just a few miles each run. And what do you know? I started with three days, started becoming four. This week, it was it's gonna probably be five this week. Nice.

Zack Carter:

I'm not running every day, so I'm doing some cross training where I'm gonna do an elliptical. But turned out my Fitbit wasn't tracking me correctly. It wasn't using the GPS on my phone. It was using the sensor inside and it was way off. So last weekend, I thought I ran nine miles.

Zack Carter:

I'd actually run eight and apparently, all my training had been way lower. So this week, I was like, oh, I gotta kick it up a notch now apparently. And so, yeah. So getting started is that is that hardest part. And when you do that, when you set it, set the bar low, over time, you do build bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it's just kind of a part of what you do.

Zack Carter:

And then you're you're doing the thing that you were hoping you were gonna do, which is being consistent five or six days a week working out.

Mark Odland:

Yeah. I I love it. I mean, that's that's awesome that you're doing that because it's, it's a process. Right? It's a process of kind of upping the intensity here, dialing it back.

Mark Odland:

How do you do without getting injured? How do you I mean, things sound good in theory, but if you go crazy and now you're out for three weeks because of an injury Yeah. Was that really the best path? Right? So, you know, ancient wisdom in the in the stories we read our kids.

Mark Odland:

Right? Like the tortoise and

Zack Carter:

the hare story. It's like the hare is just going crazy, like

Mark Odland:

yeah I can chill. I'm so far ahead I can just chill for a little bit. The tortoise is just bawding along, bawding along. If they could know, in a science lab create a combination of a tortoise and a hare, Zack, do you think you would wanna be that?

Zack Carter:

No. I don't think. Come on. Come on. I was do that?

Mark Odland:

I was building I was building up the tortoise being cool, and I'm like, I'm not gonna I don't know if I wanna call Zack a tortoise. That might be a slam. Like but I guess the hair is a I mean, how about the best of both worlds? Zack There

Zack Carter:

is no win there is no win to this. I don't think. I'm I'm actually I'm super curious. So, like, you're also it's it's so funny because everybody like, know, I told Mark was gonna be doing this, and Mark's like, I'm gonna be doing a rucking competition.

Mark Odland:

Yeah.

Zack Carter:

Like, no one knows what rucking is, but apparently, he's doing it. So that's cool, I guess. Yeah. Like, what is that like? Where did you did you start small, did you just like are you the kind of person that just goes all out and do the thing?

Mark Odland:

Well, okay. So I'm signed up for this rucking is is from the military. It's carrying weight on your back. Right? But if you're not actually carrying military supplies and you're just a civilian like me, it's like a cool backpack and a plate, like a weight fits in the back.

Mark Odland:

And so I'm training for this Go Ruck event in San Diego where I have to have 30 pounds in the backpack plus another 10 pounds probably of water and and supplies. Five hour event, we're doing Navy Seal stuff in the surf. We're hiking five, ten miles, and we're trying to survive. Right? And that some ex special forces guy is there to encourage you.

Mark Odland:

And

Zack Carter:

Know it's you. Got it.

Mark Odland:

So I'm I'm training with a buddy, my best friend here in Duluth, and he he he comes from an extreme sport background. He's a alt he was an ultra trail runner. He would win, like, fifty and hundred mile races. He would win them? He'd win them.

Mark Odland:

He was, like, professional. And so every day I think I'm tough. I compare myself to him, and I'm like, oh, man. I'm I'm just we went on a went on a camping trip to the boundary waters in Northern Minnesota, border of Canada, Minnesota. It's this beautiful, untapped, no motorized vehicles.

Mark Odland:

There's bears, there's wolves, you're camping. You're carrying canoes on above your head to get from between lakes between lakes. But just like Top Gun, we event we I developed a call sign because when we were at the outfitters renting our canoes I asked, well so what's the deal? Do we just sit on the metal or do we need a cushion? And he gave me so much crap for that because I needed a cushion, and now my nickname is Cushion.

Mark Odland:

And I'm like, I own Lion Counseling where I'm striving to be the lion, but I'm also the cushion. And so let's be honest, that's the constant battle. I'm I'm part lion, part cushion. Part cushion. Yeah.

Mark Odland:

I desire comfort, but I also desire to be a be a tough, capable dude in life, right? Going after life. And so for his fiftieth birthday, we're doing this together. Mhmm. And so when we have our conversations about how training go is going, he's like, yeah.

Mark Odland:

I just, rocked with 60 pounds on my back for my warm up, and then I went into an intense, hit hit workout and for the next half hour, then I hit the heavy punching bag for fifteen minutes, and then I ended with another like, dude, that it simultaneously inspires me and makes me feel like a loser. And I'm like, dude, how are you not injured? And so Right. So we send stuff back and forth to each other. But yeah, long story short, Zack, I am playing the slow game.

Mark Odland:

I am playing the slow game I did some research. And with rucking it's like you may have the frame like I do to carry heavy weight, you may have some decent musculature, but you may not have the ligament strength and the soft tissue to carry that weight for long distances without getting injured. And so it takes time to build that up. So I started with 10 pounds in the backpack, did three miles, did four miles a couple times a week. And now then I did it up 20.

Mark Odland:

Now it's up to 30. Right? It's going steady. The I'm the tortoise. I'm the tortoise.

Zack Carter:

Tortoise with the cushion.

Mark Odland:

With the cushion. The tortoise is sitting on a cushion riding on the hair's back. Nice. Perfect. That's what's happening.

Zack Carter:

Okay. So you are so you're so you're actually like living by kind of what we're we're talking about.

Mark Odland:

I'm trying. It is is cool we're both training for something right now too. Yeah.

Zack Carter:

Yeah. I and it's it's funny because I I realized that I guess you're kind of right because my training program is kind of like melding the tortoise and the hare because I'm supposed to be training over the course of eighteen weeks and I'm doing it in twelve. Then, I got sick. So, now, I'm doing it in eleven because I didn't eat anything for five

Mark Odland:

days which was

Zack Carter:

And yeah. So so I guess I am. I guess you called it. I am doing the the tortoise hair combo.

Mark Odland:

My only request, Zack, is okay. October's not that far away,

Zack Carter:

Which Don't harm me.

Mark Odland:

Halloween Halloween.

Zack Carter:

Okay.

Mark Odland:

And if you would be willing to create a tortoise hair combo costume to wear for a feature podcast, I think our audience would appreciate that.

Zack Carter:

Alright. I'll I'll I'll think about so, like, bunny ears and tortoiseshell. And

Mark Odland:

I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I mean,

Zack Carter:

too too long.

Mark Odland:

Fair enough. Okay. Alright. The way, throw it in the comments. I mean, if you feel like that would be something you'd be tuned in to see, we wanna know.

Mark Odland:

We wanna know about it. Really make your voice heard.

Zack Carter:

And for the rocking competition, you're gonna strap a cushion to your waist. Is the deal, right, as you rock. Right.

Mark Odland:

Every time I sit down, there's that nice padding. You know? There's padding. Just there

Zack Carter:

for me. Down while you're rocking? You're be taking breaks? Is that what you're saying?

Mark Odland:

It's possible. It's then until, you know, if the guy's not looking at me, and then when the drill sergeant sees me, he'll yell at me and Cushion. Ask you what kind of man I am, and I'll say, that's complicated.

Zack Carter:

Exactly. I'm both aligned and soft and fluffy on the inside.

Mark Odland:

Yeah. It's not as good for branding for, you know, the podcast and the counseling agency, but It's complicated. But it's complicated. Yeah. On that note, if your life is complicated no.

Zack Carter:

I know. I'm Zack, do we

Mark Odland:

have any before I bring us home here? Okay.

Zack Carter:

No. I love the I love the transition. Alright.

Mark Odland:

Call us. If if you are like Zack and I, you know, in theological terms, we're we're simultaneously a saint and a sinner. We're complicated. You might be half lion, half cushion like me. Right?

Mark Odland:

Striving to be a better guy, striving to continue to improve yourself, trying to find that balance between intensity and pacing. Right? Between perfection and what's realistic and how do you even get the ball rolling. Right? So, I mean, joking aside, we we do a lot of that work with coaching and counseling, our guys.

Mark Odland:

Sometimes it's practical advice. Sometimes it's getting at the the deeper things inside that are motivating or demotivating us and trying to figure that out and get to the bottom of it. But in any case, check us out. Escapethecagenow.com. We'd be happy to do a call with you, see if it's a good fit.

Mark Odland:

If you'd to work with us, that's that's why we're here. So, take care, guys. As always. Thank you.