Routine isn’t a bad thing. Most of us work hard to build one. Morning schedules. Work blocks. kids’ activities. Family dinners. Bedtime. Repeat.
The problem is that routine has a way of tightening around you over time. Not all at once, but slowly.
Weeks blur together. You’re doing fine. Life isn’t falling apart. But something feels flat. Predictable. Like you’re always reacting and rarely resetting. I’ve felt that more times than I can count, especially as a dad.
Here’s the thing most people don’t talk about: growth almost never happens inside routine. It happens when you step just far enough outside of it to see yourself clearly again.
Comfort is sneaky like that. It doesn’t announce itself. It shows up as reasonable excuses. I don’t have time. Now’s not the season. Maybe later.
Especially as dads, it’s easy to convince ourselves that putting our heads down and grinding is the responsible move. And sometimes it is. But over time, comfort turns into autopilot. Same conversations. Same inputs. Same people. Same expectations of yourself.
You stop challenging your body. You stop challenging your thinking. You stop putting yourself in rooms where your standards get raised. Not because you don’t want more, but because it’s easier not to disrupt the flow.
Before Dad Day, I spent years running events. Startup events in San Francisco. Then an adventure travel company with trips all over the country and internationally. National parks. Costa Rica. The whole thing. I’ve done big events. I’ve done complicated events. I’ve done way overproduced events.
A couple years ago, I was invited to an event in NYC by the team at Ten Thousand. For the first time, I wasn’t organizing anything. I just showed up.
We worked out. Ate good food. Walked the city. Had conversations that weren’t forced. There were speakers, but nothing dragged. There was structure, but also space. It wasn’t flashy or loud, but I left feeling different. Clearer. Lighter. More motivated. More connected.
I still talk to people I met there. I picked up ideas I actually used. And maybe most importantly, it reminded me how powerful it is to be around people who are setting their bars high.
That experience stuck with me.
As a dad, you carry a lot. Your energy matters. Your mindset matters. The way you show up at home matters. And yet, most dads rarely give themselves permission to reset.
Not escape. Reset.
To move their body differently. To hear new perspectives. To be around people who are building things and pushing themselves. To remember that growth doesn’t stop just because life got full.
There’s something that happens when you put yourself in an environment with people who have big goals. Not loud, chest-thumping goals. Real ones. Being better fathers. Better partners. Better humans.
That kind of environment recalibrates you. You don’t come home a new person. You come home more like yourself.
The best resets aren’t dramatic. They’re clarifying. You remember what matters. You regain momentum. You stop sleepwalking through weeks that are supposed to mean something.
That’s what stepping out of routine can do. Not because routine is bad, but because staying in it forever shrinks your perspective. Sometimes you need a weekend, an experience, or a change of scenery to remind yourself what you’re capable of.
That’s true in business. It’s true in fitness. And it’s especially true in fatherhood.
Built for More exists because I wanted to create the kind of experience I wish I had access to more often. Not a conference. Not a retreat full of awkward icebreakers. Not something performative or forced.
Just a small group. Movement. Time outside. Good food. Real conversations. A chance to break routine in a way that actually sticks.
If you’ve felt a little stuck lately, that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It probably just means you’re due for a reset.
Ready to Step Out of Routine?
Built for More is our first in-person experience, happening April 30 to May 2 in Charleston, SC. We’re capping it at 25 dads to keep it tight and intentional. It’s only 2.5 days, so you’re not away from the fam that long.
Still long enough to step out of the routine to come back sharper.
Early bird pricing is still live, and once spots are gone, they’re gone.
👉 Check out the event and grab your spot here.
And if you’re on the fence, we’re happy to hop on a call and chat. Just head over to our contact page and hit us up. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself and your family is say yes to the reset.
