The Outworker
The relationship with oneself is the most important to develop, but the easiest to neglect. These conversations will hopefully allow you to develop that relationship.
The Outworker
#025 - Tim Doyle - How I Built A Strong Mindset With 4 Words
In this solo episode, I dive into the powerful mantra, "The Weights Don't Care" and how these 4 words have transformed my mindset both in and outside of the gym. I share the origin story of the phrase, its impact during challenging times like with COVID and my serious back injury, and how it led to a viral social media post. I also touch on the importance of sharing your voice and experiences and how to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there - all with the goal of making a positive impact on others' lives.
Timestamps:
00:00 Reflecting on Podcasting & Solo Episodes
03:31 The Origin and Meaning of 'The Weights Don't Care'
13:35 Applying 'The Weights Don't Care' to Overcome Challenges
17:01 The Impact of 'The Weights Don't Care' during COVID and Back Injury
24:00 The Viral Success of 'The Weights Don't Care' on Social Media
30:49 Share Your Voice
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What’s up outworkers. In this solo episode, I dive into the powerful mantra, "The Weights Don't Care" and how these 4 words have transformed my mindset both in and outside of the gym. I share the origin story of the phrase, its impact during challenging times like with COVID and my serious back injury, and how it led to a viral social media post. I also touch on the importance of sharing your voice and experiences, how to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there, all with the goal of making a positive impact on others' lives.
Tim (00:03.278)
What is going on everyone? Welcome to episode 25 of the out worker. Can't believe I already have 25 episodes. And this is a little bit of a special one because this is going to be a solo episode. It's been the first solo episode ever since episode two, which feels like such a long time ago, but 25 episodes.
I've three solo ones, this being the third one. So that means I've had 22 other incredible episodes where I've had the opportunity to talk and interview some incredible people, incredible guests. And I feel like with podcasting,
It's become kind of synonymous to think that you need to have multiple people or podcasting has just become synonymous with interviewing where you need to be talking with somebody else to make a podcast. And that's obviously one component to it. I mean, that was obviously my main intention with creating a podcast. I knew I wanted to interview other people. I knew I wanted to connect with other people.
and talk about their lives and their experiences and their thoughts and their stories. But that's just one component of podcasting. I also wanted to start a podcasting because it's the perfect medium for literally what I'm doing right now, where I'm just in a room by myself creating this audio narrative and sharing.
experiences and thoughts and stories of my own life because I really don't get to do that when I'm the host and when I'm interviewing somebody else because obviously my main intention is to put their thoughts and their life on the spotlight. And it's my job as a host to guide that conversation and make sure that we're talking about them. And sometimes, you know, I'll throw in bits and pieces about my life, but
Tim (02:21.964)
My main intention is, okay, we're here to talk about you.
But I also knew I wanted to start a podcast so that it could allow me the opportunity to share more stories about myself and allow me the medium just to express myself and share thoughts and stories that other people could potentially benefit from. And that's exactly what we're going to be doing here today for episode 25. I'm going to be sharing a story from my life.
In that story, the four words that helped build my mind over the last few years, the weights don't care.
Tim (03:13.304)
Let me repeat that again. The weights don't care. This phrase.
has always held intrinsic value for me ever since it came to be a thing for me. It was always going to be a mantra that I lived by when it came into my consciousness.
Tim (03:43.478)
And I never knew that so many people would resonate with the phrase and the deeper meaning behind it. And when I posted about it on social media, never would I ever believe that this video about the weights don't care would get over a million views.
over a hundred thousand likes, so many different comments and so many people messaging me saying how deeply it resonated with them, the message behind it and the phrase the weights don't care. And I'll talk about that social media component later on. But here is the origin story for the weights don't care. And it's pretty cool. It's not just a phrase that
I came up with in the moment and made a video about it, but it's a phrase that really grew with meaning over time in my life and has stuck with me for a few years now. And it's cool that there's a deep origin story behind this phrase. The weights don't care. So let's dive into that story. So
In January of 2020, I was a junior in college and
Instead of going to regular school for that semester, I was in New York City for an internship program. So instead of my classes, I had an internship at a company where I'd be there for four to five days out of the week. And I had one business seminar. And this would be the first time in my life where I really had
Tim (05:51.276)
real world experience and a real world job.
And it hit me hard. Real hard. It's not like I wasn't prepared or didn't have the skills or the mentality to be able to succeed in this new environment, but it was just so many different new things thrown at me all at once.
So I mean, when you have one new thing thrown at you, I think you can grapple with it pretty well. But when you have five or six new things, just, it can be a lot in the moment. mean, new city that I was living in, new people, new environment, new daily routine, new understanding of...
what a productive day would look like and what, you know, a good day's work looked like.
and also just overall new view on life and how I fit within the world.
Tim (07:15.558)
And, you know, it was important for me to be exposed to this newness. And I think, you know, like I said, it was difficult to have all these new things thrown at me at once, but I think it was great. was like six band -aids being ripped off at once. But it was challenging. It definitely did challenge me. It's not like...
I wasn't capable of succeeding within all this, but it definitely hit me hard. And I think it hit me extra hard because just a few months before this, for my fall semester of my junior year, I was studying abroad and obviously, as you could probably assume, much different vibe and objective.
with studying abroad compared to doing an internship program in New York City.
And I think the two things that hit me the hardest or took the longest for me to adjust to was just being in an office setting. Just being in an office all day. That's was definitely challenging for me. And on top of that, also just literally sitting at a desk for the entire day was definitely an adjustment and something that I had never done before. And I think as an intern,
One of the reasons why that is, you know, anyone who's ever had an internship, you probably know that there's going to be moments of downtime where there's nothing for you to do. Nobody in the office has anything for you to do. So you kind of have to be your own boss, I guess, to a certain extent where you keep yourself productive or, know, you find stuff for yourself to do. And for this internship, the main work that I did do when I was busy,
Tim (09:20.716)
was that it was a lot of data entry work.
a lot of copying and pasting, lot of honestly monotonous and tedious work. And in the moment I thought I was like, all right, this is probably just busy work that they give any intern. And it is a lot of busy work. But I ended up working for this company full time after I was done with college. And when I worked full time, I realized I was like, wow, like this is actually important work to do. Like, yeah, it's very tedious, but
it needs to get done and it's important that it does get done. I mean, there were some days where doing that data entry work was literally all I did for the entire day. I mean, five to six hours a day, I just be copying and pasting data from this website into Salesforce and
my brain would just be mush. My brain would just be absolutely fried on those days that that was the main focus.
And you know, usually how my routine would go, you know, obviously I'd get up in the morning, go to my internship for the day, you know, typical nine to five, go back to my apartment, relax a little, eat something and go to the gym.
Tim (10:46.99)
But I remember there was one day and I think it was a day where I was doing so much data entry work where I got back to my apartment and I just felt so out of it, was so exhausted, literally just didn't wanna do anything. I just wanted to lie down in my bed, put a pillow over my head and just lie there for the rest of the night.
But obviously, like I said, you know, what my routine looked like was, you know, I'd go to the gym after my internship and I love to work out. It's one of, if not the main activity that I love to do. And I always believe with anything in life, but especially working out that it's important to have a structured routine.
Plan that you follow on a weekly basis where everything is written out. So You're not thinking or guessing of what you're trying to do when you're going into the gym Like you have a plan, you know what you're doing. You know the exercise that you're doing you know the weights that you're gonna be using and It just allows you to fully focus on executing on the plan rather than trying to think of what you're gonna do and For my personal experience, you know, just the way that I'm wired is
If I have a plan with things in place that I need to improve upon on a weekly basis, it becomes that much more challenging for me not to want to stick to that plan. Like I could be tired or whatever, but I'm like, I got a plan in place. I got to stick to this plan. I got to, you know, do this work and somebody like me who loves to work out. mean,
That would be easy for me to do. That's what I enjoyed. But this one night in particular, just so exhausted where I was just like, man, I do not want to go to the gym. And I think there are days where it's important where you do take time off, where, you know, you could be doing more harm to
Tim (13:04.428)
your body if you do go to the gym rather than taking a rest day. And then there's obviously days where your mind is trying to play tricks on you. And from my experience, those days where your mind is trying to play tricks on you happen much more often. And I remember I kept going back and forth with myself. do I go to the gym? Do I not go to the gym? I'm like, I got a plan in place. I got to stick to this plan.
And I remember one of the last things that I told myself on this night was, all right, whatever, like you might feel tired, you might be exhausted, but guess what? The weights don't care. You know, everyone says nobody cares, work harder. It was kind of like a similar thing where I was like, all right, like the weights don't care. And I really wasn't even trying to like motivate myself by saying that or like hype myself up. I kind of just said it so matter of factly.
I was just like, the weights don't care. Go to the gym.
And I had an incredible workout. I felt absolutely revitalized and I was like, boom, look like your mind was playing tricks on you. Couple of days go by, same thing happens. Absolutely exhausted after my internship. Get back to my apartment. And this time there was no, you know, internal contemplation. was just like, I'm exhausted, but guess what? Weights don't care. Go to the gym.
So that was January, 2020 and like this mantra and now this phrase now the weights don't care had become something that I kind of lived by and that fed into other areas of my life. Obviously the weights don't care. has a massive component with the gym and working out, but that phrase helped me in all other areas of my life. And there were two really
Tim (15:05.678)
big moments, also, guess you could say extended periods of time where the weights don't care had a really big impact on me and my mindset and my life at the time. And that first time was just a few months afterwards in March of 2020 where, you know, COVID hits and obviously everyone's life was impacted during that time and everyone's life changed. And
gyms closed down and I'm really bummed, but it's more so like I'm annoyed and I'm mad that gyms are closed. And I'm like, you know, somebody who takes working out so seriously, it's a massive part of their life, you know, progressing in their gym was, you know, it's a big component of honestly, like my wellbeing. It's like, all right, if I'm, if I'm progressing in the gym, it feels like that's going to allow me to progress in other areas of my life as well. So it felt like,
When gyms closing, was like, all right, there's like this massive piece of my life where it keeps me fit, but also keeps me mentally fit and keeps me feel like I continue to push forward. And it's like, that's being taken away from me. And that was really annoying. You know, thankfully I was able to get some equipment that I was able to put into my family's garage. But those first few weeks, I was still annoyed.
But then it clicked. The weights don't care.
The weights don't care that this isn't your ideal setup and your ideal environment. Like there's plenty of stuff for you to do here to continue to work hard and to continue to progress.
Tim (16:54.69)
And the second moment, the second extended period of time where the weights don't care had a massive impact on my life.
I've spoken about before how I had a really bad back injury, made a full podcast series explaining the entire healing process from that called Back on Top. So if you're interested in listening to that, you can go there to hear the whole story. also talked about it a little in episode two of The Outworker, but how it relates to the weights don't care. mean,
I couldn't work out for 150 days straight when I was going through my back problems. Literally zero physical activity. It's not just working out that I couldn't do. Like I literally was not moving my body at
And when I got back into the gym, finally, I was a lot weaker. I was a lot smaller. And during that entire time, I literally saw my body deteriorate deteriorating in front of me. I saw myself getting smaller. just I felt weaker. And it was tough to see. And I knew when I got back into the gym, it was like
I'm starting over from square one.
Tim (18:26.37)
But guess what? The weights don't care.
That mindset and this phrase now, the weights don't care, had been so deeply ingrained within me over the last 14 months or so. I mean, when I first said the weights don't care, that was January 2020. And now it was...
April of 2021. So this mantra, the weights don't care was deeply ingrained with me.
Tim (19:02.575)
and
Tim (19:12.504)
It was obviously challenging getting back into the gym at this state where I felt like I had regressed so much.
But I was equally so grateful to be able to be back in the gym because I was finally pain free and able to get back to the spot that I loved the most ago.
Tim (19:39.446)
That really helped me.
you know, deal with everything, just that feeling of gratitude. But honestly, I think if...
I didn't have this understanding of the weights don't care.
and the whole meaning behind it, I don't think I would have been able to process everything as well. I think it really would have eaten me up internally about how...
Tim (20:16.942)
I had lost so much time in the gym. I wasn't progressing in the gym. I had regressed so much.
But with the ways don't care. I had this realization. It's like, all right, you know. Don't look at this as a setback. This is just your new starting.
So I was able to get back into the gym. Mentally, it felt like, all right, just get back to work. And got back into a regular routine.
Tim (20:51.678)
And when I got to the point where it felt like I was progressing into uncharted territories now, that's when it like truly felt that I was back in the gym. Obviously it was great to get back into working out, but obviously I had to put in a lot of time just to get back to a spot where it felt like I already was.
But when I was able to now be working out on a consistent basis, doing everything I wanted to do and have that feeling of like, all right, now you're progressing to a spot that you've never been to before. That's where it truly felt like, all right, like you're back. And the weights don't care helped me get back to that point. And it gave me the...
mental security and the confidence to be able to get back to that point. And so now
Tim (21:53.546)
a real mindset and...
Tim (21:59.648)
almost culture around this meaning the weights don't care had really been built for myself personally and internally and I was like you know what like I gotta share this with people and it wasn't something like I was like like a lot of people might resonate with this or they might like it it was kind of like just for me I was like this is a cool message that I just want to share with people
And up until this point in my life, I'd always used social media to share fitness and nutrition stuff and exercise videos. But I was like, I got to put out a video that's more so motivational, inspirational going over this.
and that video was just super raw. It was me in my car after a workout.
just sharing some raw thoughts that I had about this meaning the weights don't care.
Tim (23:13.378)
And like I said, I was doing it for myself. was like, this is a cool message that maybe on the off chance people would connect with it as well.
And little did I know how many people would connect with this. It went viral on TikTok.
did very well on Instagram as well, just talking from an engagement perspective in terms of likes and shares and people messaging me about it. And I'm not going to lie, it felt really, really, really cool. And honestly, I would have loved to see a scan of my brain when this video was going viral on TikTok because it was a huge dopamine rush. mean,
I think it was, I mean, it got crazy engagement. I mean, it's still to a certain extent, not crazy engagement, but still a lot of people like the video to this day. But I mean, that first week, that first day, those first couple of days, it was like, holy crap. Like this is wild. And it was so cool. It was just me talking to a camera.
And it also on a deeper level.
Tim (24:36.096)
It gave me the confidence but also the belief that like, all right, like this is the type of stuff that you're supposed to be doing. I kind of knew it.
before I posted this video, but posting this video about the weights don't care really confirmed it for me where I was like, all right, what you're supposed to be doing is sharing your voice and your thoughts and your ideas about life and you know, working out plays into that but more so just about life in general. And it's not so much about talking about the X's and O's of
you know, working out and nutrition. And obviously the X's and O's of working out has played into me building my mindset. You know, if I didn't, if I didn't work out seriously, this whole understanding of the weights don't care would have never been. But I was like, in my mind, I was like, your purpose isn't fitness. It's more so about sharing these inspirational thoughts and ideas with people. And
That's also what feels most natural and authentic to me. mean, I was sharing workout and fitness stuff just because I was like, like the social media stuff seems cool. Like it's fun to post stuff, but it felt like I was doing it just to do it. But like when I posted that weights don't care video, you know, like recording that it felt like, wow, like this is something like that I need to put out there, which was also a cool feeling.
And that gets into, you know, this podcast as well. Like, obviously with that Ways Don't Care video, because it did so well from an engagement perspective. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. It gave me the confidence to keep posting videos and keep putting my voice out there because it just acted as confirmation of like, Hey, there's people out there that could benefit from hearing what you have to say. So keep doing it.
Tim (26:45.038)
So I mean, I don't do it as often now, but if you went on my Instagram page and you scrolled a little bit down, you would see like I put out a lot of talking videos of just me talking in my camera in my car, just keeping it real raw, sharing thoughts that I have. And those are also the videos that people engage with the most.
And
Those were the types of videos that gave me the confidence and the comfort to literally do what I'm doing now. Like I wrote a script out for this entire episode, like word by word, but I have not read a single script or a single word from that script is literally me just talking off the cuff right now. And the reason why I'm able to do that so comfortably and so confidently
and keep my train of thought is because, mean, I don't know how many of those talking videos I have on my Instagram now, but there's enough that
It feels like I was just getting the reps in and that's given me the confidence and the comfort and the natural ability to be able to do this with this podcast and have the comfort of talking with other people and being able to talk with them so natural, naturally and concisely.
Tim (28:11.052)
And that would have never happened, honestly, or wouldn't I wouldn't have had the
have to do it as well if it wasn't for this Waits Don't Care video.
Tim (28:27.276)
And this gets into a deeper thing with social media that I want to leave you with. Because guess what? There's nothing special about me. You know, I'm just a kid who's going through life sharing some thoughts that you know, I want to put out into the world.
And if you're somebody like that, mean, something that I always say is we all have thoughts, ideas, experiences and stories that the world can benefit from hearing. And obviously if you're a person who doesn't want to use social media in a creative way, or if you just don't want to put yourself out there, that's obviously completely fine.
But if you're somebody who has that urge, who has that inkling,
to do it. Yeah, it'll feel really uncomfortable.
in the moment.
Tim (29:30.712)
but you have no idea how good it can feel just to put your voice out there. I mean, look at me for example, I I was that person where, you I'd be scared to put myself out there and then I finally did. In this first video that I put out there, I'm like, holy crap, look at how many people connect with what I'm saying.
And on the worst case scenario, literally nobody will care. Nobody will see it. And best case scenario, you will impact somebody in some type of positive way. And you will also benefit from that in some way as well. And just think about that. Literally think about you could have a positive impact on somebody by something that you say, by some type of thought that you have.
some type of sentence that you put out into the world.
That's just mind boggling to me. You may make somebody's day in that moment, or who knows, maybe you put something out there and it completely changes their life. You just have no idea. So take that leap of faith.
and just put yourself out there.
Tim (30:52.078)
So I'll leave you with three things.
Number one.
If you have the urge to put yourself out there, do it.
continue to do it. The more you do it, the easier it'll get. And you will build so many different types of skills that will benefit you in life. And you will have a different type of confidence that you just don't build in everyday life. The second thing I'll leave you with the weights don't care.
The way some cares a mantra that has obviously helped me in the gym, but it's also helped me so much in life. And it's just overall, it's helped me build my mind in so many different ways. And the third and the last thing that I'll leave you with.
Tim (31:53.72)
Keep outworking.
