Living the Dream

“Living the dream, man.”
You’ve said it. I’ve said it. Every corporate guy has.
But let’s be real, most of the time, it’s code for:
“I’m exhausted, off-track, and pretending everything’s fine.”

In this episode, I’m calling out the quiet burnout so many high-performing men are stuck in… and showing you how to snap out of it before it becomes your new normal.

We’ll talk about:
The real cost of saying “I’m fine”
Why your body isn’t just a side project, it’s the engine
What to do when the mirror doesn’t lie anymore
And how to stop coasting and start leading again, from the inside out

If this one hits home, DM me the word DESIGN on Instagram (@spencerhgallo).
This is not for a pitch; it's just a conversation about what your next level could look like.

If this episode hit home, make sure you’re subscribed. This is Fitness by Design, the podcast for high-performing men ready to stop winging it and start leading with their body.

For more stories, strategies, and hard truths:

Follow me on Instagram – @spencerhgallo
Connect with me on LinkedIn – Spencer Gallo
Or shoot me a text, I read every single one.

Let’s keep building your edge, one episode at a time.

Transcript

0:37

Living the dream man. Living the dream. You've said it. I've said it. every single guy that has ever worn a collared shirt walking into the office has said this. But let's be honest, half of the time what this really means is I'm frigging tired. I feel off and I don't really have the time to talk about it. So in today's episode, I wanna break down why that little bit of a joke we all make might be the biggest red flag in the office that we are all ignoring. And what to do when that quote unquote fine becomes your new normal. Now, living the dream is literally just corporate code for I'm exhausted, frustrated, I'm running on fumes, and I don't have the time or patience to talk about it. It's your armor. It's that professional mask that, yeah. Yeah. Go away. Everything's great. The thing that you say when you don't have to admit that you're not feeling like yourself, you're out of alignment and you just don't really want to be there. The job looks great on paper. Your paycheck is incredible. LinkedIn headline is hitting. You're getting recruiters calling you to try and pull you to other companies, but under the surface, under that profile photo, under that quarter zip that you're wearing, you're already tired by noon. You hate how your body looks when you turn on your Zoom camera. You dread traveling for work because it absolutely destroys any routine you might have had And you just keep saying, I'll get back on it next week, but nothing ever changes, man. This isn't about shame, it's just about honesty Because the moment that you start to normalize, fine, you shut down any growth potential that you had. Now, here's the problem. Fine becomes that new standard. And when you're a guy who thrives on results, high performance and solving problems at work, fine is where excellence goes to die. You don't feel awful. You're not in the hospital, you're just drifting. You're coasting. That slow fate is harder to catch than just a full on crash because it gives you just enough comfort to avoid doing that hard work of actually making a change. So let me ask you something. I. Would you accept fine from your team? Would you tolerate me performance from your direct reports? Then why the fuck are you letting yourself off the hook physically? Because here's the truth, your body isn't just a side project. You only have one body to live in for the rest of your life. It is literally the engine behind how you lead, how you show up, how you think, decide, perform, all of it. The snapback doesn't have to come from complete and utter rock bottom man. It just has to come from a moment when you look in the mirror and you realize that you are not who you used to be. You are not who you could be, and staying here is no longer an option. That might be that quarter zip feeling a little bit tighter than it should. The moment that your kid asks why you're always tired and can't get on the floor and play with him anymore. That might be you catching your reflection on that team's call and thinking, holy shit, these are not surface level issues. These are giant signals. And the best leaders in the world listen to those signals before they can turn into massive blaring sirens. So here's my invitation to you, man. Stop coasting. Stop performing at 10 in your career and a three in your health. Start to reclaim that edge. Reclaim that leadership, reclaim that confidence in your body that makes you proud to walk into every single room. Now if this episode starts to hit home with you and you know that you've been drifting that living the dream feeling, just DM me the word design on Instagram at Spencer h Gallo, and we'll have a conversation, not a sales pitch, but just figuring out what that next level might actually look like for you. Because you don't need more motivation. You don't need to just keep listening to me on this podcast every week. You need an actual system to start to make a change. So this is fitness by design. I will see you in the next episode and trust me, you are not gonna want to miss that one. So until then, keep building, keep grinding, and stop living the damn dream.