In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Shawn Rider dives into the concept of self-inflicted cages that high-performing men often find themselves in. He emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility in creating and breaking free from these limitations. The discussion offers practical steps, such as auditing energy, setting non-negotiables, and designing systems for proactive living. This episode is a call to action for those ready to embrace personal development, break free from constraints, and take actionable steps toward a more fulfilling and impactful life.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Shawn Rider dives into the concept of self-inflicted cages that high-performing men often find themselves in. He emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility in creating and breaking free from these limitations. The discussion offers practical steps, such as auditing energy, setting non-negotiables, and designing systems for proactive living. This episode is a call to action for those ready to embrace personal development, break free from constraints, and take actionable steps toward a more fulfilling and impactful life.
Chapters
00:00 Breaking Free from Self-Inflicted Cages
02:49 Acknowledging Ownership and Responsibility
06:08 Reestablishing Non-Negotiables for a Fulfilling Life
08:54 Designing Exit Ramps for Proactive Living
@shawn_rider_ (00:00)
What's up everyone, it is Sean from the Tactical Empire. I'm coming at you solo again today. I wanna take a few minutes of your time to talk about something that Jeff and I talk a lot about ⁓ on two-on-one mentor calls with men that are in the inner circle. And that's talking about the self-inflicted cage that they've created. Most of these men are high-performing men, but they feel trapped in certain areas of their life.
It's not so much that they've failed or that everything is going wrong. It just ends up being that they're on a track that may be one or two tracks over from where they truly want to be. And they feel boxed in, they feel caged in that they can't change anything or that they shouldn't change anything or they don't know how to change something without negatively affecting themselves, their businesses, their families, their portfolios. And usually at
that does come down to a financial impact. They're concerned about that. Okay, so we're gonna talk about the cage that you've built ⁓ by your own doing. Remember, this is self-inflicted. That is how we accept ownership of the position that we're in. And the issue here is, usually the money's pretty good. The business is working, you're respected in your field, you've done well, you have all the things, you have titles, you have accolades, you get bonuses.
But behind the scenes again, you're feeling trapped, you're tired, you're on edge, you get home, you're anxious, you're unhealthy, your stomach keeps getting bigger, you almost can't see your dick. Okay, that is something that we don't want to happen. Your life is basically on autopilot even though it feels like you're running at full speed. And here's the deal, you don't know how to stop or change direction. So today we're gonna try and fix that. I want you to acknowledge that you have not failed. You've just succeeded.
slightly in the wrong direction. Your life looks good on paper, okay, but you feel like you're in a cage or a prison. These are because of your own choices and because you got here from your own choices, it means that you can change and tear a few things down and rebuild them on your terms. Because if you have been making good money and if you are a good steward of money, you probably have a good backstop to potentially take a short term down.
short-term back step in the finances in order to change some of the things in order to catapult forward I imagine this is similar to pulling a bow and arrow back right we're gonna pull the string back a slingshot back It looks like we're going in the wrong direction and then we let go and we we fly forward at a new speed and get farther than we ever thought possible Okay, so step number one is right here admit that you've built a cage admit the things that you're struggling with
Stop blaming other things stop blaming the business stop blaming the market stop blaming the president stop blaming whatever it may be Or your role this is about your role in the situation Okay, you created the systems or lack thereof you created the agreements or lack thereof you created the expectations or lack thereof on your own time So if you built it you can rebuild it. Okay, but only after you own it
So step number one is get out a piece of paper, get out a journal, whatever, and start writing down the things that you would do different. This is coming from someone that closed the brick and mortar gym business and within eight months opened up a different brick and mortar gym business. Years leading up to that, I would do a thought exercise. If I could start this brick and mortar gym business over again, what would I do different? Now I literally years later ended up
tearing it to the ground and rebuilding a new one back up and change all the things I wouldn't do. Okay, that's pretty drastic decision. I could have just altered the gym that I had, but that would have been a big facelift and it was in a field that I didn't want to be in or methodology. didn't want to be in. So I went, you know, all or nothing around. You don't have to go all or nothing. Once you acknowledge this, okay, you're going to start auditing your energy, not just your schedule. This is part of it, right? What does my schedule look like on a daily basis? All right.
but audit your energy. What drains you? Okay? What tasks do no longer fulfill you? What tasks yield results, but you do not like doing? These are things that we're going to look at getting off of our plate over the next 90 days. So track your tasks, track your conversations. What people drain your energy? What team members drain your energy? Okay? What vendors drain your energy? What family members?
drain your energy, what friends drain your energy, what obligations leave you empty? You've said yes to so many things that those things are pulling you down. So you can't say yes to the handful of things that are gonna catapult you forward. Okay, so stop living in this overworked, slight survival mode. Okay, you're you're misaligned. You're doing things that aren't yielding ⁓ fruit.
in main things of your life, which again are family, fitness, finances, and freedom. So cut, delegate, restructure, anything that keeps you operating, ⁓ that keeps holding you back so you can operate in your strength zones. So I want you to reestablish, step number three after that would be reestablish your personal non-negotiables, all right? So for a huge non-negotiable for me is my health and wellness and my fitness.
Okay, I've gone through a few things over the past five, six years, just as everyone, not saying mine are worse or better than anyone else's, but everyone on a scale of struggle, struggles. Okay, the big thing my friend told me before, everyone struggles, but suffering is optional. Okay, so even though we all struggle, all right, I want you to determine what your non-negotiables are, regardless of what's going on in your life. For me, it's moving my body. I move my body.
five days a week, sometimes six. I control the output 70 to 90 % effort that I give. I eat mostly real food. Okay, here's a little ⁓ life hack. Most people eat the same five things. So you gotta dial in those five things, get those five things right, and you'll see results when it comes to your health and wellness, okay?
I want you to think about getting in bed and getting more sleep. Rest and recovery is vital. There is a time in your life where you can push and have to push. We all grew through seasons like that, but you need to prioritize rest and recovery. If you need it, go get therapy. Go get therapy from a licensed practitioner or professional. If you're not surrounded by another group of men, I'm not saying the tattoo empire is therapy, but it can be therapeutic because you're going to be surrounded by men.
that have gone through the things that you're going through or are currently going through those things themselves and you will recognize that you are not on this road alone. All right, so let's move our bodies, let's eat better. Those are non-negotiables for me. I want you to reconnect with your vision, okay? Not just a checklist. So we talked about tasks and things earlier, but what is the actual end point? What are you trying to achieve in the next 36 months?
We wanna do a 1000 day vision exercise. We wanna break that down into a 12 month plan and then 90 day action items. If you do that on repeat every 90 days and you get extremely clear by telling the truth on what you want in these main areas of your life, the four F's, family, fitness, finances and freedom, all right, you will in turn start making better decisions and you'll feel better about the actions that you're taking, all right. So.
That takes time, right? We say financial freedom, particularly, is two to seven years away, depending on where you're starting. Our goal is to talk about three-year visions, one-year plans, 90-day ⁓ action items. That, over time, compresses time. Our goal at the Tech Numbers at Tactical Empire is to compress time. And then lastly, design exit ramps. Here's the thing. Every cage
needs a door. So how are you going to create systems that don't require you to put out every fire? How are you going to have other people hold you accountable? How are you going to set deadlines? Removing yourself from reactive roles. If you are in a reactive role in your business or life, okay, of course you're going to feel like a firefighter running around with your head cut off, putting out fires all day long. You need to be in
Proactive roles. How are we pushing my life forward? Okay, you got to Simultaneously give yourself permission and take time off. All right So I went through Dan Sullivan's strategic coach program over the past 12 months and they have three different days ⁓ free days buffer days and then ⁓ I forget the third one is like work days, right? So a free day is you don't do any work at all a buffer day is you do work that preps you for your work days and then you have your work days your productive days
Okay, your focus days. I believe they call it focus days. All right. When they look at a full year calendar, they suggest that you put your free days on first. Okay, most people do the opposite. They work, let's say Monday through Friday, the weekend comes and they do prep work or they just work. Very rarely do we take time off. In the United States particularly, you have two weeks, three weeks vacation. It's bullshit, it's not enough. Dan Sullivan takes 180.
free days a year and he puts them on his calendar first. That is half the year he's off. Now I'm a big fan of like a four day work week. So that's not 100 days, 80 days off, but a four day work week where one or two of those are buffer days and then one or two of those are pure focus days. Love that. I don't break my days out full transparency. I don't break them out into free buffer and focus days. I have time blocks on most of my days, Monday through Thursday ⁓ where
I have my time, personal time, have my prep time, and I have focus time. All right, so the most things that are on my schedule are free time and focus time. I don't need to do a lot of buffer or prep work. Usually that is admin stuff that I put off, and I only do that maybe once a week at most. Usually once every two to three weeks I catch up on things that I pile up. And that's just how, that's what works for me. A lot of people say that's procrastination.
but I'd rather just let something pile up, knock them out in 30 to 60 minutes. It's actually what I'm doing today. I'm recording this podcast. Then I'm gonna go write some checks for some bills that have piled up on the desk for some of my LLCs. So ready to rock there. All right, to wrap this episode off, I wanna reiterate, you are not broken, okay? You're stuck in a system that you've outgrown. You're stuck on a path and a vision that has been changed, and you need to acknowledge that. All right, the good news is you've built this.
so you can break it, you can rebuild it, whatever you need to do. Start today, it's not gonna be a big leap, okay, but it starts with a choice. Go back through, listen to the steps, take the actions, this doesn't change overnight. What is your one non-negotiable? What is one thing you're gonna cut? What is one role you're gonna delegate? What is something that you're gonna do proactively as the leader of your family, as the leader of your life, as the leader of your business, or as a high achieving WTO employee for your company, okay?
The cage opens from the inside. Stop waiting for something externally to change for you to get on a different path and feel better about what you've, what you are doing, what you've done and what you are creating.