10/05/2026
Design the Default
Happy Monday!
I know these messages tend to lean towards advice around fitness and how to improve it. But at the end of the day, I'm in the business of helping humans, not just reducing back pain. Back pain will come and go regardless of me or any other chiro. What I'm interested in is equipping you with tools, both physical and mental, that increase your ability to help yourself!
Last week I had a conversation with a patient that I haven't stopped thinking about.
She's been struggling to consistently exercise. She feels tired most of the time, doesn't sleep particularly well, and by the time the workday is over, the idea of training feels like another thing she has to somehow convince herself to do.
And to be fair, there are legitimate reasons why she feels this way. There are some neurological and stress-related things we're working through that absolutely influence sleep, energy and how much capacity she feels like she has.
But eventually our conversation moved away from what was happening to her and toward a different question:
What parts of this situation can you actually control?
Because those are two very different conversations.
I think most of us dramatically underestimate how much our environment determines our behavior.
We like to believe that disciplined people wake up every morning, stare temptation directly in the face, summon an enormous amount of willpower and make the correct decision.
But that's usually not what successful people do. They build lives where FEWER decisions need to be made!
If you want to train after work, going home, sitting on the couch, changing clothes and then trying to convince yourself to leave again is probably a terrible system.
If you're trying to sleep earlier, putting your phone on the nightstand and hoping you'll suddenly develop tremendous discipline at 10:30 PM probably isn't a great strategy either.
None of those things are cheating.
Changing your environment is an act of agency (freedom).
That's an idea I've been thinking about a lot lately!
We all feel run down by the responsibility of life. Its natural to want to buck the system and say "eff it," simply because we can. Saying no to the gym and yes to a bowl of cereal gives us a sense of control in this chaotic thing we call life. But in reality that's a huge misstep in logic...
We tend to view changing our circumstances as some kind of crutch. We tell ourselves, "I should be disciplined enough." But why?
If moving something, throwing away the cereal, or asking someone for help makes the behavior you want easier to perform, that isn't weakness.
That's intelligent problem solving.
I've started thinking about this with four simple questions:
Environment. People. Friction. Feedback.
1) What does your environment constantly put in front of you?
2) Who are the people influencing your normal behaviors?
3) How much friction exists between you and the thing you're trying to accomplish?
4) And finally, are you getting enough feedback to know that what you're doing is actually working?
That last one is especially important!!
One of the principles I've appreciated in Pat Davidson's "A Coach's Guide to Optimizing Movement" is the value of objective standards and measurable adaptations. Training gives us things we can actually watch change: strength, speed, movement quality and other physical qualities.
That's important because progress changes the conversation.
You trained twice this week. You walked 7,000 steps instead of 4,000. You added ten pounds to an exercise. You slept seven hours instead of six. You went three weeks without the back pain that used to show up every night.
Now you have evidence. And evidence starts changing the story you tell yourself!
Instead of, "I'm exhausted and I can't seem to get anything together," you start accumulating proof that you can influence your circumstances.
That creates a pretty powerful cycle:
Change the environment. -> Improve the behavior. -> See evidence of progress. -> Build confidence. -> Change more of the environment.
Eventually the thing that felt like it required enormous discipline just becomes what you do. This is where I think people misunderstand structure. Structure can sound restrictive.
Meal prep. Bedtimes. Training schedules. Walking at the same time every day. Packing your gym clothes the night before. Having recurring appointments. Going to the same grocery store and buying roughly the same foods.
Boring.
But I've become increasingly convinced that freedom comes from structure! Structure removes decisions. And when you're stressed, tired, overwhelmed or simply having a bad week, fewer decisions can be incredibly valuable.
I experience this myself.
The weeks where my training and nutrition are the most consistent aren't necessarily the weeks where I'm the most motivated. They're usually the weeks where my schedule is clear, food is available, training already has a place on the calendar and I don't have to negotiate with myself every afternoon.
The decision was made before the moment arrived.
That's what I want more of our patients to understand about what we're trying to build at Charge. The goal isn't for you to become dependent on appointments, adjustments or somebody telling you what exercise to do.
The whole point is to work toward more capacity. Obviously some of that capacity is physical. We want stronger muscles, healthier joints, better conditioning and a body capable of tolerating more.
But part of capacity is also behavioral!
Can you build a life that makes taking care of yourself more likely? Can you recognize when your current environment is working against you? Can you change it instead of repeatedly blaming yourself for lacking motivation?
Because you have more agency than you probably realize.
That doesn't mean every circumstance is your fault. It doesn't mean fatigue isn't real, stress doesn't matter or that everyone has the same amount of time and resources.
It simply means that within whatever circumstances you currently have, there are usually still a few levers you can pull.
So here's my challenge this week... Don't try to become more motivated!
Design the default!
Pick ONE behavior you've been struggling with and ask:
*How could I change my environment so the behavior I want becomes easier than the behavior I'm trying to avoid?*
Put the shoes by the door. Pack the gym bag tonight. Delete the app. Buy the food. Move the phone. Ask your spouse to walk with you. Book the appointment.
Start embarrassingly small if you need to. Then repeat it long enough to create some evidence that you're capable of changing your situation.
Consistency creates evidence that you have some control over the direction your life is going. And that realization can be incredibly freeing.
Dom + Team
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