E232 | Why Environment Beats Willpower with Richard Porter

You can have all the motivation and discipline in the world, but if you're constantly surrounded by the wrong people and environments, staying consistent becomes a battle. Recorded live at the recent Built To Last event in London, this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast features Kirk Miller and Richard Porter discussing one of the most overlooked factors in high performance: your environment. Kirk opens with a personal story about how quickly his behaviour changed after being released from professional football. Going from a high-performance environment to one with completely different standards had a significant impact on his decisions, habits and direction. Richard then explores why willpower alone isn't enough to create lasting change, and how deliberately shaping the people, places and influences around you can make high performance easier to sustain. In this episode: Why your environment can be more powerful than willpower. How the people around you influence your standards, habits and decisions. Kirk's experience of losing the structure of professional football. Why motivation and discipline aren't always enough to maintain consistency. How your surroundings can either support or undermine your progress. The importance of surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to improve. Why high performance becomes easier when your environment supports your goals. How to build an environment that helps you perform consistently in business, health and life. The bigger message is simple: You can't expect to consistently perform at a high level while surrounding yourself with people, habits and environments that pull you in the opposite direction. High performance isn't just about working harder or becoming more disciplined. It's about creating the conditions that make the right behaviours easier to repeat. If you're a founder, CEO or business owner looking to improve your health, mindset and performance, this episode will challenge you to look at what's influencing your results every day. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: https://www.kirkmiller.co.uk

We often blame a lack of time for not reaching our health, performance, and personal goals. But what if the real issue isn't time, it's how we use the energy we have? In this episode, Kirk Miller shares six practical strategies to help you stop trying to "find more time" and instead make better use of the time already available to you. In this episode, Kirk discusses: Identify your energy drains — Recognise the people, commitments, and activities that leave you feeling depleted and create more space for what actually aligns with your values. Create personal KPIs — Track the health and lifestyle metrics that matter to you, from sleep and exercise to body composition and overall performance. Optimise training and nutrition — Learn why consistency and quality can be more valuable than trying to fit in the "perfect" workout routine. Manage your emotional wellbeing — Understand how stress and unprocessed emotions affect your energy, decisions, and performance. Build discipline into your routine — Stop relying entirely on willpower and create systems that make healthy habits easier to maintain. Audit your environment — Look at the people, places, and commitments surrounding you and ask whether they energise you or drain you. Ultimately, optimising your energy isn't just about improving your health. It's about becoming more present, focused, and effective in your business, relationships, and everyday life. The goal isn't to find more hours in the day. It's to make the hours you already have work better for you. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

Your mindset affects far more than how positive or motivated you feel. It influences the standards you set, the decisions you make and how you respond when life doesn't go to plan. In this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast, Kirk shares 10 of the biggest mindset lessons that have shaped his approach to business, health, relationships and life. Drawing on experiences from football, business, relationships and his own personal struggles, Kirk explains why rejection can become fuel, why genuine confidence has to be earned and why taking complete responsibility for your circumstances can change everything. In this episode: Why you need to stop putting other people on pedestals. How the right mentors can accelerate your growth. Why taking full responsibility gives you more control over your life. How Kirk learned to turn rejection and failure into fuel. Why confidence is built by consistently keeping promises to yourself. How difficult periods can create greater gratitude and resilience. What previous relationships can teach you about yourself. Why consistency creates predictable progress in business, health and relationships. How your environment can influence your standards and behaviour. Why emotional freedom can be a more meaningful measure of success than money or achievement. These aren't lessons Kirk learned from a textbook. Many came from getting things wrong, experiencing rejection and having to change the way he thought about himself and his circumstances. Your past doesn't have to dictate what happens next. But changing the outcome starts with taking responsibility for what you do from here. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

Getting in shape is one thing. Staying in shape when life gets busy, stressful, or unpredictable is another. In this episode, Kirk breaks down the three essential steps for building and maintaining the physique and lifestyle you actually want. Whether you've made great progress before only to fall off track, you're currently stuck at a plateau, or you simply want a more consistent approach to your health, these three principles can help you stop relying on motivation and start building something that lasts. In this episode, Kirk covers: 1. Identity-led goals Before changing your diet, training, or daily habits, get clear on who you want to become. Your goals should reflect the identity you want to embody—not simply a number on the scales or a short-term physical target. 2. Minimum non-negotiable standards Your real habits are revealed when life gets difficult. Establish a baseline of behaviours you can maintain even during your busiest or most challenging periods, so one difficult week doesn't turn into months of lost progress. 3. Scheduled implementation Knowing what to do isn't the same as actually doing it. If your health and fitness goals matter, they need a place in your calendar. Look at how you're currently spending your time and ask: Does my schedule support the person I say I want to become? Beyond the physique Creating a great physique isn't just about how you look. It's about having the energy, confidence, discipline, and capacity to show up fully in the rest of your life. The goal isn't to repeatedly get back in shape. The goal is to build a life where staying in shape becomes part of who you are. If you're ready to transform your fitness while building a lifestyle that supports your personal and professional ambitions, learn more about Built To Last and how Kirk works with founders, CEOs, and high-performing individuals. Listen now and discover the three steps to building results that actually last. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk  

Setbacks are inevitable, whether it's an injury, a bad training session, falling off your nutrition, poor sleep, problems with clients, business challenges, or unexpected changes to your plans. In this episode, Kirk Miller breaks down how he deals with setbacks without allowing them to derail his progress. Rather than getting caught up in frustration or adopting a "fuck it" mentality, he focuses on evaluating what happened, taking responsibility for what he can control, and using the setback as information for what to do differently next time. Kirk covers 10 different areas of life where setbacks can happen, including: Training: How to respond when injuries, failed lifts or bad sessions get in the way. Nutrition: Avoiding the "I've already messed up, so I might as well keep going" mindset. Hydration & sleep: Understanding how poor preparation can affect performance and recovery. Clients & business: Learning from difficult situations and identifying what could have been done differently. Money: Changing your perspective around financial stress and using challenges as opportunities to grow. Team management: Turning mistakes into opportunities to improve communication, teaching and systems. Planning: Adapting when your calendar gets disrupted without abandoning your bigger goals. Emotions: Learning how to change your state instead of allowing negative emotions to dictate your decisions. Preparation: Reverse-engineering setbacks to understand what could be improved. Mindset: Recognising that a setback is only as significant as the meaning you give it. The key message throughout the episode is simple: don't fold. Things will go wrong. Plans will change. You'll have bad days, make mistakes and face situations you didn't expect. The goal isn't to avoid setbacks — it's to learn how to respond to them, adapt, and keep moving forward. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

You don't need a fancy diet, complicated biohacking protocol or extreme nutritional rules to improve your health. In this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast, Kirk challenges the idea that there's one perfect way to eat. From carnivore and keto to whatever diet is currently dominating social media, extreme approaches often get more attention than the fundamentals that consistently produce results. Inspired by a recent post from nutrition and fitness educator BioLayne, Kirk looks at why nutrition needs to work for the individual—their goals, training, lifestyle and the stage of life they're in. He also shares how his own nutrition has evolved over the years while the objective has remained the same: staying lean, strong, healthy and energised enough to perform at a high level. In this episode: Why there is no single perfect diet for everyone. The problem with turning diets into brands and "magic solutions." Why restrictive approaches like carnivore and keto aren't automatically better. How your lifestyle, goals and training should influence how you eat. Why Kirk's own approach to nutrition has changed throughout his life. The fundamentals that matter more than chasing the latest nutrition trend. Why protein, whole foods, movement and quality sleep remain so important. The role carbohydrates can play when training for strength, endurance or HYROX. Why your nutrition needs to support your energy outside the gym too. How to build an approach you can realistically maintain year-round. The goal isn't to find a diet you can follow perfectly. It's to understand the fundamentals, apply them to your own circumstances and build an approach that supports your health, physique, performance and lifestyle for the long term. If you'd like help building a body, mindset and lifestyle that lasts, apply here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk  

In this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast, Kirk comes to you with a raw and honest conversation about one of the biggest reasons people struggle to achieve their health goals: self-sabotage. If you're nowhere near where you thought you'd be with your health this year, this episode explores why the problem may not be your diet, training plan, or lack of discipline — it may be the way you're spending your time and energy. In this episode, Kirk explores: Why self-sabotage isn't always about food or exercise — and how repeatedly saying "yes" to the wrong things can quietly undermine your health. Auditing your calendar to identify which commitments are giving you energy and which are draining it. The connection between stress, overwhelm and poor health decisions, particularly for busy founders and entrepreneurs. Why your calendar reveals your real priorities — not what you say your priorities are, but how you actually live. How overcommitment depletes your mental and emotional reserves, making it harder to make good decisions around food, training, sleep and recovery. Creating space for what actually matters by delegating, removing or reconsidering commitments that don't align with your values. Why you don't need to wait for January to make a change. There is still time this year to reset your priorities and build healthier habits. How better health can improve more than your personal wellbeing, including your performance at work and the quality of time you have with the people you love. If your calendar is constantly leaving you exhausted, stressed and overwhelmed, it may be time to start saying "no" to the things that are pulling you away from the person you want to become. Your health isn't separate from your business, relationships or everyday life. How you structure your life directly influences the choices you make. If you're a founder, CEO or business leader who wants to build year-round health, confidence and energy, apply to Built To Last here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

Being busy doesn't mean your training has to disappear. For founders, CEOs and business leaders, there will always be periods when work demands more of your time and attention. The mistake is believing you either need to complete your normal training perfectly or not bother at all. In this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast, Kirk shares five practical strategies for maintaining effective training when your calendar is packed. The focus isn't on finding more time. It's about making better use of the time you have, adapting your expectations and ensuring every minute you spend training has purpose. In this episode: Why training should be scheduled and protected like an important business meeting. How removing distractions can dramatically improve the quality of shorter sessions. Why your training expectations need to change during demanding periods. How setting a clear intention before every workout improves execution. Why focus and intensity matter more when training time is limited. How to reduce training volume without simply going through the motions. Why one high-quality working set can sometimes be more valuable than rushing through an entire programme. How to maintain consistency when business and life demand more from you. Why adapting your training is better than abandoning it completely. How staying physically consistent can improve confidence and performance outside the gym. Your training won't always look the same throughout the year. The skill is knowing how to adjust it without allowing a busy few weeks to become months of doing nothing. If you're a founder, CEO or business leader who wants to build year-round health, confidence and energy around the realities of a demanding career, apply to Built To Last here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

In this episode, Kirk sits down with Richard D. Moat, an expert in emotional wellbeing, for a conversation about something we don't always know how to talk about: how we actually feel. Because success, achievement, relationships, and even a seemingly "good life" don't necessarily mean we feel good on the inside. Richard shares his perspective on emotional wellbeing, where our emotional patterns come from, why we often carry wounds from childhood and previous generations, and how learning to understand and express our emotions can transform the way we live. In this episode, we explore: Why emotional wellbeing starts with our relationship with our emotions How suppressed emotions can continue to affect us long after the original experience The emotional patterns and wounds we can inherit from previous generations Why the first seven years of life can have such a profound influence on how we relate to ourselves and others Why "reduce stress" isn't particularly useful advice unless we understand how to actually do it Richard's personal journey into emotional wellbeing following his father's cancer diagnosis Why high achievers can still feel unfulfilled despite external success How understanding our emotional needs can help us become more self-sufficient and fulfilled The difference between expressing emotions and acting them out Why creating a culture where talking about feelings is normal can change our relationships and communities Practical ways to start paying more attention to your emotional wellbeing Listen to the full episode of the Kirk Miller Podcast for a deeper conversation on emotional wellbeing, self-awareness, healing and what it really means to feel well. If you're a founder, CEO or business leader who wants to build year-round health, confidence and energy, apply to Built To Last here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk

Lasting transformation rarely starts with another diet, training plan or productivity hack. It starts with changing the way you think. In this episode of The Kirk Miller Podcast, five guests share the mindset shifts that helped them overcome very different challenges and create lasting change in their health, performance and lives. Mustafa Sener, Richard Porter, Luke Bland, Viktoriya and Jason Graystone each bring a different perspective—from managing time and using emotions productively, to escaping an all-or-nothing mentality, overcoming addiction and completely changing long-held beliefs around food. Different people. Different challenges. But each story demonstrates how changing your thinking can ultimately change your behaviour and your results. In this episode: Mustafa Sener shares how planning and structure allow him to balance business, training, family and the things that matter most. Richard Porter explains how emotions—including negative ones—can become powerful fuel for growth rather than something to avoid. Luke Bland discusses breaking his all-or-nothing mentality and why achievable targets and the right community helped him create consistency. Viktoriya shares her experience of overcoming addiction, changing her identity and creating systems that support the person she wants to become. Jason Graystone challenges common beliefs around food, restriction and nutrition, and explains how changing his approach transformed his performance. The circumstances may be different, but the underlying lesson is the same: lasting change doesn't simply come from knowing what to do. It comes from changing the beliefs, behaviours and standards that determine what you consistently do. If you're a founder, CEO or business leader who wants to build year-round health, confidence and energy, apply to Built To Last here: www.kirkmiller.co.uk