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The New Years Contest Transformation: 3 Incredible Stories

April 12, 2013 By 7 Comments

Woah.

I’m finally getting my butt in gear and announcing our winners for the New Years contest. We had so many entries – it took me a while to get through them all. It’s been a big process, but it’s been really cool to see some of these transformations happen in real time.

It was tough to narrow them down, not only going through physical changes, but also the stories of the people behind them but after much deliberation, we narrowed it down to our top 3 (with 1 runner up).

We had some big prizes at stake, but some of the biggest transformations actually actively turned down the prizes. While they started because of the different prizes at stake, they realized in the middle of the challenge that they were doing it for themselves – not some prizes – no matter how awesome they may be. And so while I’ll be sharing their stories coming up in the next few months, there were a ton of people who finished out the contest and deserve the swag. Here they are:

Here are the results of the winners in their own words.

Honorable Mention: Alessandra

24 year old, Quality Assurance Manager

Lost 7 pounds in 8 weeks, but gained a six pack and one cool pair of sunglasses.

Before

Alessandra-1-17

After

Alessandra-3-3

What’s Your Story Allesandra?

I’ve always been pretty fit, but got to a space where I was teetering. I just thought that was where I was going to stay. I made tiny strides of progress, but then would fall back at square one. Basically I was good, but not great.

I started off at 140 lbs (I’m 5’4”) and measurements of 37:28:40. I’ve always been in decent shape and loved my curves, but there was no reason why my stomach shouldn’t be totally flat. There were a ton of reasons why I wanted to get fitter and stronger and I just needed and excuse to do it. Honestly, I never realized how much social pressures affected my lifestyle. I was weeaaaakkkkk.

What type of Results Did You See?

Every week I felt some sort of change. First, it was endurance. I realized that I suck at starting a workout, but once I got into the groove, I could go forever. That’s when I started doing back to back MMA classes so I had 2 hours for ass kicking. Then, I felt my core get stronger. I was in better control of all my movements, especially headstands and handstands. I’ve always been an excellent yogi, but the extra arm and core strength had me pushing harder and finally getting into the full expression of some of the most challenging poses. Finally, my cardio started improving. I live in a 4th floor walk up and while getting up the stairs has never been an issue, these days it’s like NOTHING.

I hesitate to give final weight and measurements as I went on a bit of a bender during my last week, so this is in no way final, but here it goes: 133 lbs; 34.5:27:38.5.

Mental Clarity

I realized that a really hate starting an exercise on my own. If I’m in a class, I can jump right in, but that first bit of motivation (I mean, discipline), is hard to muster. Getting past those first ten minutes is the worst, but after one circuit, I didn’t want to stop working out. I’m still working on getting rid of the fear of the first ten minutes, but I’m definitely better prepared to face them.

As far as eating goes, “I don’t need it” became a sort of mantra. And I don’t. I don’t need bread. It was such a staple and it can be annoying not being able to eat sandwiches and other convenient gluten wrapped foods, but I don’t effing need it!

Any Words Out There For People Thinking About The Challenge?

I’ve been toying with the idea of going paleo for awhile, and this was the push I needed. Having the excuse of a contest to decline alcohol really takes the social anxiety out of the equation, and now that I feel amazing, I don’t even care about the social implications of drinking less and cooking more. I also can say, I can’t meet you out that night, I have an MMA class, and not feel guilty. Feeling better in my own skin had killed my FOMO (fear of missing out).

Five stars. Highly recommended. Just try it already. NOW.

 

Third Place: Josh

27 year-old Australian. Former fat guy.

Total weight loss = 17.6 pounds

josh before after impossible abs

What’s your background Josh? Tell me a little bit about your story:

I come from an overweight family. I’m not sure how much genetics has to play in it, but inactivity, good food and too keen an interest in bright colours and flashing lights (read: TV) had some input I’m sure. Being of the build I am, weight was extremely easy to put on, and it seemed the family way of life and the path down which my life was headed. Fast food, soda, junk food, and binges on bread and sweets was almost a weekly occurrence.

For too many years this has been going on. I graduated High School 9 years ago at a weight of 85kg, and since then I’ve seen it fluctuate from 79kg (working as a dishwasher in a restaurant and being poor will do this), all the way up to most recently a whopping 104kg. That was in September 2012.

before impossible abs

104kg in September

Since September I’ve been following about a 75% paleo diet, with the odd bit of exercise in there when it was convenient to do so. I noticed some of the weight simply melt away and by New Years i was a decent 94kg.

I’ve been a reader of Impossible HQ for the last 10 months, give or take a few, and I’ve owned a copy of the Impossible Abs program since it was released. And I am super encouraged by the honesty, badassery and constant pushing that is dished out on the blog and through email correspondence.

Before Christmas, I took a leap of faith (decided to blackmail myself) and signed up and paid for a Tough Mudder event. All I needed now was the kick in the butt.

Okay, so you took on the challenge, right around New Years. What types of results did you see? How did you not fall off the wagon like so many people do?

The biggest result I noticed was only a moderate drop in weight. At the start of the competition, I weighed in at 93-94kg and at the end I struck in at 86kg. That’s only 7-8kg lost (~17.6 pounds for us state side). It doesn’t sound like much, and I really thought I was going to lose more. However, I gained a lot more than I anticipated.

Core strength is the largest improvement I noticed. Obviously improvements in numbers of repetitions of exercises and the depth or intensity at which I do them were noticeable as well. But, the biggest, especially coming from a life lived mostly on the couch, was definitely core strength. The power and control  that I now have over how my body undertakes movements was the best realization I had.

I’ve been getting comments from all sorts of people about how much better i’m looking, which is always great to hear. It’s also great being able to fit into better clothes. I even found a pair of pants that I put away because I was too fat to fit into them (I’m now too thin to wear them – they practically just fall off me!). I’ve also moved down about 4″ in pants and belts size since September.

It’s cool to see the physical changes, isn’t it? How did the challenge change you mentally?

This was also one of the biggest improvements I noticed. Mental Grit, is the term I believe. Obstacles seem a lot smaller and more easily tackled. My optimism is through the roof, my confidence is up and all bets are off as to what the future holds.

Yes, it was quite difficult at times, and there were certainly days where I thought about skipping a workout (and I’m not above mentioning that, yes, there were a few days where i did skip the workout, but for the most part, I stuck it out (and  some days where I ended up outside the house doing exercise at 10pm).

Killer story Josh, what’s next for you man?

The overall result is that I want to continue down the path i’ve been on for the last 2 months, I have the tools to continue and mental determination to keep going. Self-discipline is better than it was, and there is definitely room for improvement. One day i will finally have the 6 pack abs. I don’t want them for looks, or vanity, i want them for the sake of it, to prove that i can do it, that i can take something to it’s full end.

BOOM

Second Place: Kiernan

42 year old mother of 3.

Total weight loss = 15 pounds.

kiernan before & after impossible abs

Kiernan After

I am a 42 year old mom of three. I am a yoga instructor, and I “live” yoga but I workout by running. Most of what I do for fitness revolves around being in shape for half marathon or marathon distance events. By 1/1/2013 I had fallen out of shape though. Lots of things conspired to create a perfect storm of self-medicating. A big part of that was 12/14. My kids go to school in Newtown, CT – they have for their whole lives. The shootings have turned my life upside down.

By the first of this year, I knew I needed to grab control of SOMETHING. I decided to make it the hardest thing I could think of. I had read about Impossible Abs on the blog, and I had dismissed it out of hand. Paleo eating is kind of contrary to my endurance runner/plant focused way of eating. Plus, an 8 hour window just seemed ridiculous. The workouts didn’t “scare” me but they did seem like something I would absolutely hate and dread. So – I decided to change the meaning of “Impossible” into something good. If something impossibly horrible like the Sandy Hook shootings can happen, then so can things that are impossibly great.

All right, lets cut to the chase – what types of results did you see?

I lost 15+ pounds. I am close to 5’6″ so that’s a pretty significant difference. My final weight is 137 and that’s within a pound of my lightest weight ever. I went from needing to go get size 6 jeans to having my size 4 start to fall off. Even my yoga tights are roomy! I also got back my upper body definition, not seen since I did Insanity a few years ago. I have better leg strength than I can get just from running. My sleep has improved, my skin and hair has a significantly healthier look. My belly is calm ALL THE TIME.

I have basically lost my taste for sweets. To me, this is HUGE. I take my coffee black, I don’t look twice at cakes and cookies. I see these changes as maybe more important for the long run than the burgeoning six-pack. I am eating so clean now, and I plan to continue to do so. My next challenge is to run a marathon in May at a light weight and see how that affects my performance. My kids are eating better too! What a bonus. Also, in the photos you can see my guns!!

kiernan after impossible abs

So what about the mental aspect of the challenge?

The challenge was really all mental for me. And I am a tough person. I’ve done drug free childbirth three times. I’ve done GORUCK and other all night physical tests. I’ve run marathons. I embrace hard workouts and I know how to lean into the sucky parts. The diet was tough, since I love toast and peanut butter! The workouts were tough because I really dislike pullups and burpees. But I just embraced it.

I am SO fortunate that my boyfriend did the program along with me. He is truly tough mentally. He never even seemed to want to waiver or complain. Together, we ate kale and fish and eggs and greens and fruit. We drank water and black coffee. We did not have even a cheat “moment” for eight weeks. Carlos managed to lose over 30 pounds during the challenge!

Awesome! We need to get Carlos’ story on here. Any additional thoughts on the challenge in general?

I learned from this. I read a LOT about fitness and diet, I’ve done P90X and Insanity and Asylum. I live yoga. I know my body and I know what I’m doing, yet I learned from this. I learned about how making a few seemingly impossible moves to clean up my diet could make a very big difference. I learned about how I can maintain and build fitness doing things that take less time! I learned big things about myself too – about what I can give up and what I need. About how much I’m willing to do things differently than those around me.

I think the best thing I can say about this program is that I am going to make a LOT of it my lifestyle. Specifically, the clean eating (I’m not staying Paleo, can’t give up grains completely and don’t really like to eat much meat). But no processed food! I won’t buy dairy – just have it out at a restaurant once in a while. AND – Monday thru Friday we continue to eat Impossible Abs style completely. I also plan to incorporate pushups and pullups consistently even when marathon training.

Prizes Kiernan Is Going Home With

First Place: Brock

29 years old. Full time desk jockey, full-time student, family man, and father of 3.

Total weight lost = 25.5 pounds

Before

impossible abs before brock

After

impossible abs after brock

Brock, what’s your story?

Well, I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. I’m 29 years old, I have a family with three kids. I work full time, and also go to school full time (going to graduate with my BS in Accounting in December). I’m 6’1″ and when I started this contest I weighed in at 193 pounds with a 42.5″ Chest and 40″ waist (measured at the belly button). I started this challenge a week late and didn’t start exercising until a week after that, but did reign in my diet for the first week. I used your free No Excuse Workout for 6 weeks and no other exercise. I found it pretty challenging to get it started. I didn’t realize how out of shape I really was! After spending a year in Iraq as a Calvary Scout with the Army National guard I really started packing on the pounds over the last couple years. I also quit working out after I got back. I pretty much did the bare minimum health wise, no exercise and eat anything and everything.

What Type of Results Did You See?

Here are my weekly weigh-ins

Weigh Ins

  • 3-Jan  – 193
  • 10-Jan – 185.2
  • 14-Jan – 183.5
  • 19-Jan – 180
  • 27-Jan – 179.2
  • 3-Feb – 175.7
  • 12-Feb – 173
  • 19-Feb – 171.8 
  • 3-Mar – 167.5

That is a total weight lost of 25.5 pounds, 3.5 inches off my chest and a whopping 5 inches of my waist!!!!

Besides looking better, most importantly I feel great! I’ll admit that it was extremely hard to keep going the first couple weeks. I was tired, sore and wanted to give up. I knew that it would eventually pass when I was in shape for the Army. And it did, once that initial stage of pain was over I looked forward to working out. Plus when I was finished working out I felt great when it over. I wasn’t as tired or sluggish at the end of the day and fell a sleep quicker at night as well.

Was There A Mental Barrier To This Challenge At All?

I think the challenge really helped me break past that mental barrier and give me an end date to work towards. The hardest part is always starting out. Now that I’ve been in the swing of things it much easier to keep the momentum going. I plan on upgrading to Impossible Abs when I get my tax money back. I’ve also started training for a GORUCK Challenge, which is what I will pick if I happen to place in the top three. Even if I don’t win I plan on pursing the challenge anyways and earning my patch!

1st Place Prizes He’s Going Home With

 

BOOM!

Josh, Kiernan & Brock – shoot me an email & lets get in touch & I’ll ship you your prizes. Nice work.

These are just some of the few of the stories we got in. It made me incredibly proud to see what people could accomplish in just 8 weeks – AND how their entire trajectory for the year changed because of the habits they made in the first two months.

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that results are not typical – but I’d really hate to do that. Of course, these results aren’t typical if you just buy a book and expect it to transform your life. You have to take the time & energy to invest yourself in actually doing the work. If you do that, sure your mileage may vary, but the physical results will come along & the mental ones might be even greater.

What’s cool is that the results came came from about an even 50/50 split between the programs.. About 50 percent of the participants used impossible abs. & 50% just used the free no excuse workouts. You won’t hear too many fitness people tell you this, but you really don’t need the latest & greatest gear, equipment or programs to do what you really want to do. While solid info definitely can give you a boost, the real secret to fitness is this:

Half the battle is doing the work.

All the fitness secrets in the world won’t help you if you don’t get that foundation down.

So congratulations everyone. I’ve never been happier to spend a few thousand dollars on things that for other people that I want badly for myself (but hey, at least I’m racking up miles). I think this was a lot of fun. It was cool to see how many people got jumpstarted by the bribery, but once they were in, they kept going for themselves (I even had a few people voluntarily disqualify themselves from the prize because “they wanted to do it for themselves, not a prize.”) That’s what it’s all about and I can’t wait to share some of those stories :) .

Again, thanks to everyone who participated in the Impossible Abs challenge. I keep coming back to the fact that Impossible Abs is different from a lot of fitness programs for a reason. It’s not about shortcuts. It’s not about vanity. It’s not about crash dieting. It’s about taking control, creating habits & making a change.

I loved this quote from Josh (down 40+ pounds since September) that he presumably thought up while climbing the mountain he’s photographed in below:

One day soon, I will finally have 6 pack abs. I don’t want them for looks, or vanity. I want them for the sake of it, to prove that i can do it, that I can take something to it’s full end.

after impossible abs

That’s what it’s about.

—-

Impossible Abs Updates Are On The Way

I’ve been getting a lot of queestions about Impossible Abs lately. I’ll be releasing an update in the next 10 days to address a ton of questions I’ve gotten that are really easily solved. and should put your mind at ease. I’m not done with this yet. We’ve got a TON of more great stories on the way & I’m still working on making this the best resource out there. If you already have it, don’t worry, you’ll get an email notification when the update is ready. If you’re about to pick up a copy, don’t worry – you get free updates for life (cause I love you like that) so you’ll get the updated copy when it’s live.

Note From Joel:

I literally just got off a google+ hangout with Vic Magary (my co-author for Impossible Abs) at 7am this morning. After showing him the stories listed above, he wanted to do something to really get people pumped about Impossible Abs and offered to throw in his course – 40 days fit - to whoever picks up the program in the next 72 hours. If you’ve been around the blog much, you’ll know I don’t really do promotions like this ever – seriously ever – so if you want to get started this weekend, pick up a copy of Impossible Abs + forward your receipt to vic (vic@vicmagary.com) to get your f*ee copy of 40 days fit as well. This is good until midnight on Sunday, CST.

Boom indeed.

Fitness Resources

Look like a bad a** and do impossible things in your Impossible Gear (Available Here).

Want to be featured on the blog? Cross something off your impossible list while wearing your impossible gear & send it in!

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Case Studies, Fitness, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , ,

Read This Post

March 25, 2013 By 12 Comments

Just read this post

We’ve got a lot of really intriguing announcements, meetups, races and job postings (yes jobs!) in this post. I could come up with a fancy title for all of this, but just read this post.

read

RSS –> Email

RSS is dead (mostly). If you’re reading this via email – relax and move on to the next item. If you’re reading this via rss on the blog – this is for you!

You might know that google recently killed google reader and if you’re reading this via GReader, as of July 1, you won’t be able to anymore – they’re shutting it down. Essentially, RSS is dead. If you really, really want to use RSS going forward, I recommend feedly.

However, the best way to stay up-to-date with everything is to join ~10,000 other really awesome people and subscribe via email right here. You also get a ton of really great stuff when you sign up (I like to bribe you). Not to mention, I’m doing a ton of new stuff with email in the next few months, so it’s going to be an even bigger deal than before. If you’re reading via RSS and want to keep up with everything we’re doing here at Impossible HQ after Google Reader goes to technology heaven, email is the way to go.

–> Subscribe here <— Get in on this.

Impossible HQ is Hiring An Editor

Big News –> I’m looking to hire an editor here at Impossible HQ. For the last 3 years, I’ve been running everything myself + a very tiny team of on/off contractors of mostly graphic designers.

As things continue to grow, I’m going to continue to expand (we have two big projects in the works as we speak). That stats with making sure everything on the site is high-quality, helping schedule & plan out content strategy as well as do some copy-editing to fend off the extra commas and missing words that sometimes creep into the site. Ideal candidates are great writers & highly organized but can deal with someone who is not (mainly me).

Note, this is a part-time position and you’re not going to make google money, but it is a paid position. You also get a first-hand look at what I’m coming up with next and other projects before I launch them publicly.

If you’d like to apply send an email to joel [at] impossiblehq [dot] com.

Please put “Editor Position” in the subject line and answer the following questions:

  • Name & Location (virtual position, but time zones are important)
  • What’s your relevant experience as a writer/editor? What should I know about you?
  • What type of time availability do you have on a weekly basis to dedicate to Impossible HQ?
  • How long have you been reading Impossible HQ? What’s your favorite article?
  • Why are you a good fit for this position?
  • Why do you want to do this?
  • What’s the one thing you’d like to influence about Impossible HQ?
  • What’s the next thing you’re crossing off your impossible list? When are you going to do it?
  • When was your last cold shower?
  • Is there anything else you want to brag about/I should know?

Applications need to be in by April 5th (10 days). Once I get them all, I’ll be reading through the apps, pick out the best to do an interview and a few test projects. If we find a good fit, we’ll run a 90 day contract (3 months) to see how it goes and hopefully move full steam ahead if things go smoothly. If you’re interested, I’d love for you to apply – just remember applications need to be in by April 5th.

Chicago Meetup

Chicago area people.  We’re having a small meetup next week on Wednesday at 7pm(ish). We’re still finalizing venue details, but if you’d like to come, simply RSVP and click here and fill out the form below.

Chicago Tough Mudder

In another case of “I’m doing X, who wants to come with me?“, I’m running the Chicago Tough Mudder on May 18th & 19th…who wants to come with me?

If you want to get in on it – put your details in here. I’ll be sending out an email asap, pick our date and get a team together. If you’re in Chicago and think you’re tough enough to give it a shot, lets go.

*note, you’re going to have to be in decent shape to pull this off. It’s a 10-12 mile obstacle race with 20+ obstacles, so if you’re still struggling doing a couple miles, we’ll be doing some other events down the road. You might want to start training now.

To RSVP to the Chicago area Tough Mudder, click here and fill out the form below.

Non-Chicago & International Readers

Don’t worry – we’re working on a few solid meetups outside the Chicago area. Later this year, we’ll be doing more & more meetups around the U.S. and hopefully interenationally as well :) .

—-

Random Fun Fact: Last weekend I gave a TEDx talk here in Chicago. It should be online in the next few days & I’ll be posting it as soon as it’s live. Stay tuned!

—-
Whew! I think that’s it….

I’m constantly working on new stuff around here and I’m pretty excited about what 2013 has in store. I’m always working to make things bigger & better and as I do, the simple limits of what I think is impossible keeps moving further away.

As always, thanks for being a part of this :) . Keep doing something impossible.

photo credit: the bbp

Filed Under: BIT Updates, Business, Life, Meetups

The New Years Contest To End All New Years Contests

January 1, 2013 By 59 Comments

Shake off your hangover and wake yourself up.

It’s 2013 and we’re not wasting anytime with getting started on your new years resolutions.

We are not wasting any time. Today’s the day you can get started and get after it. I’m willing to bribe you to help do it.

Introducing the Ridiculously-Massive-New-Year-Giveaway-Shamelessly-Bribing-You-To-ACTUALLY-Do-What-You-Keep-Saying-You-Want-To-Do-But-Never-Do-Contest.

The Ridiculously-Massive-New-Year-Giveaway-Shamelessly-Bribing-You-To-FINALLY-Do-What-You-Keep-Saying-You-Want-To-Do-But-Never-Do-Contest

Impossible Abs

The Prizes

Lets talk about the goods first because – lets be honest – they matter. The good news is that  I’m giving away a deluge of prizes. Yes, a deluge. Here’s what’s at stake. These are not your mom’s contest prizes…

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

I also reserve the right to lavish said winners with copious amounts of great looking impossible gear - but that’s just a rumor I’ve been hearing that may or may not be true :) .

How To Enter

Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, here’s how you can win all the previously mentioned deluge of prizes.

1. Get one of my programs if you don’t have it already.

2. Actually Do it (this is pretty crucial).

3. Take a before and after picture, and document your progress (bonus points for progress photos).

4. Send in your amazing success story.

5. Win the deluge of prizes.

How Long Is It?

The contest runs today through March 3rd. That’s 8 weeks and some change (to make it end nicely on a Sunday and all). That’s enough time to go through Impossible Abs 8 week program once or the No Excuse Workout twice. That means you get started now. Bonus points if you use Cold Shower Therapy to kickstart yourself out of a rut.

Winners will be judged by a completely biased panel of judges including me, myself, and I and announced 1-2 weeks after the contest ends.

How do you know which one to pick? If you want to really get after it and specifically burn fat, I don’t know of a better resource out there than Impossible Abs. The no excuse workout is awesome as well, but to be honest, it doesn’t have nearly the level of detail that Impossible Abs does. While you can see incredible results on both programs, but I’d be lying if I said that Impossible Abs customers won’t have the distinct advantage of a more intense workout & the in-depth nutritional component.

If you want to change your life – then change your life. Make it happen. Today. Get after it.

Get Impossible Abs

 

Get The No Excuse Workout

 

If you’re taking the challenge, do me a favor and tweet this – a little healthy competition is good for you. :)

–

Whether or not you join the contest, I’d like to say thanks for being a part of what’s going on here at Impossible HQ. 2013 is going to be awesome.

Filed Under: Business, Nutrition, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss

How To Kill A Project

December 7, 2012 By 10 Comments

I’m a big proponent of starting lots of things. I think it’s a really good exercise in learning to become a doer. But there comes some times when you have to admit that some things fail (or even just didn’t go the way you wanted them to go).

Chris called this “letting go of a project.” Letting go sounds really nice, but I’ve found it to be much more difficult than simply “letting go.” The truth is that “letting go” often means a project dies, and you’re the one responsible for killing it.

Muderer!

And that means you have to be a little heartless. When you start a lot of projects, you have to get okay with killing a project (your baby) now and then. In the past 6 months alone, I’ve had to kill at least a half-dozen projects that simply didn’t pan out, were distracting or taking up too much mental space.

A few notable ones you may have noticed

  • I’m no longer a part of Nerve Rush
  • I took the forums down (they’re not coming back up).
  • I closed down an e-commerce store I ran.
  • I shuttered several niche-type sites that were taking too much anecdotal energy.
  • I’ve closed down multiple other side projects & turned down a lot of ancillary opportunities.
  • I’ve fired a few marketing clients.

Sometimes you have to kill a project and when that time comes, here’s how you can kill your project and focus on what really matters.

How To Kill A Project

Figure Out What You Want

Figure out what you want.

When you start something, you often have no idea what you want. That’s not a big deal when you start because the hardest part of everything is starting. When you’re starting out, simply starting trumps all.

However, down the line, once you get the hang of starting things, you might find that one or two of the projects aren’t what you thought they would be or don’t quite fit into your future plans. You’ll need to get rid of those projects.

Spend some time figuring out what you really want and the rest of this will be a lot easier.

Take Inventory of Your Projects

Before you kill your different projects, you’ll want to take inventory of all of them by asking a few important questions.

Time Investment
How much time is this taking me on a monthly basis? How much time am I investing in this every week? Multiply that by 4.

Monetary Investment
How much money is this costing me on a monthly basis?

Unseen/Intangible Investment
Some projects don’t take a lot of capital investment or even a lot of your time, but they do take a ton of your energy. They sap your energy and enthusiasm from what you really should be spending your time on.

You’ll find yourself dreading doing some projects and simply not interested in other.

This can be the most dangerous of all these investments, because you’re not always aware that it’s happening.

The Return

Once you’ve figured out what your inputs are, it’s important to figure out what you’re getting from each project.

Am I getting any additional time from this? Is my time being utilized correctly?

How much money is this bringing me every month? Is this substantial/sustainable/worth it?

What additional opportunities is this bringing me that may not be immediately obvious (relationships, opportunities, curiosity, enjoyment).

Opportunity Costs
If you kill this the project, what will it allow you to do in the future.

  • What additional things can you do with your time?
  • What can you do with your additional resources?
  • What parts of your business/life can you focus on now that you’ve cleared your mental space?

Ask The Hard Question

Once you’ve gathered all the info above, you have to ask yourself the hard question:

Is it worth it?

Is whatever return you’re getting on the project, worth whatever you’re putting into it?

At this point in the game, it’s important to keep in mind the answer to the first question of this whole process: what do you really want?

Decide Which One To Kill

You may have one. You may have 3. If you have a bunch of different projects, some with more success you’ll probably have to kill a couple of them.

Weigh what you want with the inputs & outputs of each project.

Pick which one to kill and decide.

Walk Away

This is the hard part.

Walk away.

You keep telling yourself, just six months. Just six more month. Six more. S-I-X. Walking away seems like quitting, but eventually you just need to do it

If something is a side project, you need to treat it like a side project. If something is a business, it needs to be a business.

The worst thing you can do is drag things out and slowly bleed yourself out and let the project die a slow terribly death while taking your other projects with you and slowly sapping your enthusiasm through the whole process.

What About When A Project Isn’t Necessarily Bad?

This is the worst scenario to be in.

If a project hasn’t succeeded and hasn’t failed, it’s in danger of settling into solid mediocrity – which unlike failure, can go on for eternity.

Ask yourself a few questions:

  • Am I really set on completing this project?
  • Can I get this project out of mediocrity in 3-6 months?
  • Do I want to put the effort into getting this out of mediocrity

Set a Time Bomb
Set a time bomb for this. Essentially an exploding deadline that makes you kill your project if it doesn’t get to the level of success you want by a specified time.

If _______________ (project name) doesn’t achieve  _______________ (directly measurable metric of success) by __/__/____ (specific date less than 6 months in the future), _______________ (project name) automatically shuts down. I’ll cease future work on it and the automatic consequence of goes into effect and I have to shoot my project in the face (figuratively) and walk away.

This is extra tough, when you have a project that’s not necessarily bad, but may not be the best project.

***

It’s worth nothing that this isn’t advocating simply quitting when things get hard. Things will get hard, but you’ll have much more energy to allocate to fight through the truly hard things if you’ learn to quit the projects that aren’t really strategic in your overall master plan.

***

TLDR

Launching multiple projects is great. Throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. But…if lots of things stick, you’ll probably have to pick one or two of the “most successful” projects and kill the rest.

It’ll be hard, but if you don’t do, somebody else will do it for you (or worse, it’ll die a slow, painful death).

[photo credit]

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Good Stories, Life, The Impossible, The List Tagged With: , , , , , ,

An Update On The #Impossible School Campaign

September 14, 2012 By 4 Comments

At the beginning of last month, we launched our first every charity intiative with Pencils of Promise. You can read the full announcement here, but here’s the gist:

We going to raise $25,000 to build an #impossible school in Guatemala and make education possible for 1,000 students.

Since then, we’ve raised $7,184.31 of $25,000 – almost 30% BOOM! Nicely done team!

But there’s still a ways to go and still few months to make things happen. Here’s an update on everything that’s going on.

What I’m Doing

I’m running an ultramarathon in Chicago to raise money & awareness for our #impossible school project. I’ll be running a 50k – farther than I’ve ever gone before (in fact, before this initiative, an ultra marathon wasn’t even on my impossible list). This involves a lot of long weekend runs. Fun!

We also prodcued a video with PoP while out in Portland at our Bungee Jump adventure. You can watch it below (and if you did the bungee jump, you might even see your face in the video). You should share this with everyone you know :) .

[click to watch video in email]

Other Things We’re Doing

–> We’re running a limited edition run of IMPOSSIBLE cycling jerseys. They look incredible and we’re donating 10% of the revenue to the #Impossible School Initiative. This is the final week to pre-order them if you want one. Pre-order them here.

–> We are donating a portion of all the proceeds from Impossible Abs towards the initiative.

–> Blogging, tweeting and generally getting the word out as best I can about this cause and the effort – all while running 50k to help get the word out.

There’s also quite a few of readers and league community members that decided to get in on it as well.

What Others Are Doing

People are doing all sorts of interesting/crazy/strange ways to raise funds. They’re all unique, interesting and ambitious. They’re all unique.

Theres quite few more as well. You can see all of the campaigns here. (On a non-competitive/very-competitive gender comparison side note, the ladies are absolutely killing the guys in taking on their own challenges. Lets go guys!)

What You Can Do

If you want to be a part of something bigger, help build a school and get involved, help build Here are a few practical ways to help.

1. Share the video. This is really easy, but I’ll make it even easier for you. Use the following examples below:

Twitter –> I’m helping to build an #impossible school w/ @joelrunyon & @pencilsofpromis . Want to help? http://bit.ly/Ou0gET [click to tweet this]
Facebook –> Want to help me provide access to education for 1,000 students and build a school in Guatemala? http://pencil.li/NwSsvn
Feel free to use those quotes specifically or make up your own and be creative if you like.
2. Donate to The Campaign – This is pretty simple. Even if you don’t have much, a little bit from a few thousand people can make a big difference. It’s amazing how fast just a few “small” donations can add up. To put things in perspective, just $25 helps one kid get an education.
3. Create your own Impossible Challenge This is the single bigest thing you can do to help the project. The exponential reach of the network effect is huge. Pick an impossible challenge, commit to doing it and set a fundraising goal to do in conjunction with the challenge. Even if you can’t donate a massive amount yourself, you probably know people, and can pass the vision on to them about what we’re up to.
You can share the videos below as well.

Impossible Ones Campaign Trailer - http://impossiblehq.com/impossible-ones-trailer

Impossible Ones Impossible HQ Trailer - http://impossiblehq.com/impossible-ones-hq

As a reminder, the person who raises the most is going to come with me to Guatemala and help with the school construction with our own two hands. I told you we’re serious about doing! If you decide to take this on and need anything from me, let me know.
4. Help get the word out – If you run a blog, newspaper, magazine, or other type of media outlet, I’d love to talk to you about the campaign. Email me at joel [at] impossiblehq [dot] com or just say hi on twitter and let me know.
5. Get your business involved - If you run a small or large business or would like to help contribute in some bigger way, please let me know at joel [at] impossiblehq [dot] com.

$25,000 is still a big goal, but when a lot of people, take a small action, we can do really big things.

$25,000. Education for 1,000 kids. Not impossible.

Lets do this :)

Filed Under: Business, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Life, Physical Challenges, The Impossible Tagged With: , , , , , ,

All About Impossible Abs

September 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

Impossible Abs

Whew! In the last week, I’ve moved and settled into my apartment downtown Chicago, finalized Impossible Abs and . I’m really excited to make this available to you guys.

Yesterday, we answered a bunch of questions about the program and tomorrow is launch day (9am EST sharp!), so today, I’m going to clear up any remaining questions about the program.

Impossible Abs: What It’s About

When I set out to knock “get six pack abs and do a photo shoot to celebrate” off the Impossible List, I was in the Dominican Republic and had no access to a gym. But, I had already put money down for my photo shoot 8 weeks later, so I realized I had to figure out a workout that I could do anywhere in the world, regardless of gym access or fancy equipment. So that’s exactly what I did – and it worked – spectacularly. Over the next 8 weeks, I lost 34 pounds and dropped to 5.4% body fat and finally got six pack abs. Once I shared my story, I received an onslaught of questions about what program I followed to do it.

Impossible Abs is That Program.

A lot of trainers, programs and websites will promise you “1 easy trick” or some “magic exercise” to lose weight and get ripped.

I won’t.

Impossible Abs is a no secrets, no excuses, no B.S. program.

 

And so, I’m going to do something a little different than most people would do. I’m not going to sit here and promise you that it will be easy – ’cause it won’t be.

I’ll promise you that it will be hard, but it will be worth it.

What’s Inside

Impossible Abs is the most comprehensive resource I’ve put together to date and the results people have been getting are really incredible.

In addition to the Nutrition and Workout Blueprints that show you exactly what to eat and what workouts to do over 8 weeks, you’ll get access to a growing library of over 25+ video tutorials of workouts and exercises in the program. We also give you nutrition, workout and weigh-in logs to track your progress throughout the program.

In the higher-end challenge version, we provide daily emails (56 total and counting) through the 8-week challenge where finishers get a special edition impossible shirt only for challenge finishers (it will never be for sale, you have to EARN it). We take you behind the scenes and show you how to hack the photo shoot to get that “extra lean” look for your photos as well as do exclusive interviews with expert fat loss coaches and fitness model

I also detail out my personal experience as a case study where I include weekly weigh-ins, photographs, workout repetitions and as well as every single thing I ate during the program. I really put back the curtain and even include some personal emails detailing my thought process throughout my transformation – even when things got really rough.

There’s also a personalized one-on-one coaching program level, if you’re interested in that.

A lot of people were curious about what the pricing will be. The average gym membership is between $25-$50 per month and most personal trainers charge anywhere from $60-$120 per hour and I’m very happy that the basic version of Impossible Abs will cost less than a single personal training session in order to allow as many people access to the program as possible. As I mentioned before there are two other tiers for those who want to take the challenge to the next level.

There’s no artificial time or quantity limit on this program, but there will be a special webinar bonus  for those that buy it within the first week, where you can ask Vic and myself anything you like.

I tested this program on myself first and saw amazing results first-hand. We’ve seen some incredible results from the early beta testers and we’ll be sharing those stories throughout the next few weeks. The program simply works and I’m excited to share it with you because I know it can help get you in amazing shape.

There are no more excuses.

And, as always, if you’re already ripped to shreds or simply just not interested, there’s certainly no pressure to purchase it at all. Thanks for reading :) .

****

I’m pretty sure that’s it. Check back tomorrow  at 9am EST when it all goes live!

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Fitness, Kicking A**, Launches, Nutrition, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs, The Impossible, The List, Weight Loss

A Crash Course Intro To Impossible HQ

August 14, 2012 By 11 Comments

We’ve had a lot of new people in the last 10 days so I thought I’d take the time to review exactly what it is we’re up to at the site (we have a lot of things happening). If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll still want to read this. We’ve got a ton of projects going on and you may have just missed a few things.

First things first, there are a lot of sites that are about inspiration, feeling good and happy self-talk a-la a  virtual internet Oprah.

This Is Not One Of Those Sites

Here, we talk about pushing your limits and tell a great story by doing the impossible. Doing really hard stuff doesn’t happen by sitting around, and talking about how much you really want to do something, while waiting for the stars to align. It happens by going out and actually doing it. That’s why the unofficial shorter motto around here is:

  • Do something first.
  • Talk about it second (if you have time)

The even shorter version: Do something.

We believe inspiration is worth absolutely nothing if you never do anything with it – so we focus on doing. Cool?

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s how this whole thing got started…

The 2-Year, 20 Second Recap

2 years ago I was a laid-off from UPS driver helper and couldn’t get a call back from Starbucks. It was not awesome. I didn’t feel like I could do anything.

So I sat and moped  around for a while while telling myself how hard life was and how everything was impossible….then something happened. I got sick of it. I decided that even if I tried and massively failed, it would be 100x better than sitting around in my parents basement feeling sorry for myself and telling myself how good my excuses were without actually knowing it myself.

So I started doing something. I made a list of all the things that seemed impossible to me and decided to start actually trying them. The first thing I did was a “fake” indoor triathlon  (I figured it would be easier for them to fish my drowned body out of a pool than a lake when I drowned).

You can make your way through whole story, but things escalated quickly:

The fake indoor triathlon led to a real one, which led to a bunch more triathlons, my first marathon and a half ironman despite me hating running and never having run more than 3 miles in my life before.

As I started doing things, the blog started to expand as well. Since it’s inception, it’s expanded into a brand headquarters, a community, an apparel line and a manifesto that’s topped the charts on Amazon for weeks.

So what are we up to now? Well, quite a bit (we’re ambitious like that).

Current Impossible Projects.

Impossible School Project

We’re Building an #IMPOSSIBLE School in Guatemala

As a community, one of our main goals is giving back and helping others do the impossible as well. Currently we’re partnering with Pencils of Promise to raise 25,000 to build a school in Guatemala and help 1,000 students achieve an impossible goal of having a chance of education. (After announcing it just last week, we’re already 15% of the way there). But this isn’t a normal hands-off fundraiser, once we raise the funds, we’ll actually go visit the school and help build it with our hands. If you’d like to join in and help out, you can do so in two ways:

As part of this initiative, I’m running my first ultramarathon this October in Chicago to raise awareness and funds. Training starts today!

The Impossible Abs Challenge

My most recent challenge was my most daunting (and easily my most vain). For my entire life I’ve wanted six pack abs. I tried a billion different programs (approximately) and none of them worked. This spring I got sick of messing around and finally decided to get things done.

I sat down with Vic and we created a program that eliminated my excuses and in exactly 8 weeks I lost 34 pounds got to 5.4% body fat and finally the ever elusive six pack(and did a photo shoot along the way). You can read about exactly how I got six pack abs here.

After several requests, we’re releasing the training guide and coaching program in the next two weeks. If you’d like to be find out more about this, you can sign up here.

Impossible Gear

Nate Damm Impossible

Nate Damm finishing his Walk Across America in his Impossible Shirt

Several people in the use impossible gear as a reminder to live a life worth writing about and do the impossible. It’s been all over the world with people doing incredible things. If you’d like to join in the fun, grab some gear, do something impossible in it and send it in. We just might feature you :) .

Josh Furnas Impossible
Josh doing a 200ft Gainer of a bridge
More People Doing Impossible Things [Get Your Gear Here]

Other Impossible Stuff

A few other happenings and references that aren’t neatly organized into one specific category.

—-

Whew that’s a lot! If you’re still with us, congratulations, we’re glad you’re here. If you’re an impossible veteran…you know the drill. We’re just getting started :) .

#boom

If you haven’t already, subscribe via email and then join the community of other impossible doers in the impossible league community.

Filed Under: Adventures, BIT Updates, Business, Impossible Things, Life, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs Tagged With:

The Intensity Tradeoff

July 5, 2012 By 11 Comments

Impossible Intense

There’s two ways to do almost anything impossible.

Quick and hard.

Slow and easy(er).

But no matter which way you choose, almost all results come down to this formula.

Intensity Allotted x Time Allocated = Results Realized

In everything I’ve done, I’ve found this formula to be bulletproof. You can lower the intensity of your work, but it’s going to take more time. Conversely, you can raise your intensity and often accomplish things much quicker than you previously thought. The tradeoff becomes between what you’re willing to dedicate more of to something – your time or your focus.

My buddy Patrick told me once, there’s no reason to take 2 years to do what can be done in 8 weeks. I tend to agree. The faster arrival time, is often worth the increased intensity required in my experience, but your results may vary. Both approaches work, but it’s often a matter of what you want to do and how you want to do it.

Quick, requires more energy, focus, and determination. There’s less compromises available and it’s often more intense – but it works and you can often get to where you want to go faster.

Easy, takes more time, and requires less focus, but it may take you a while to arrive at your destination – if you arrive there at all.

Both approaches work – the problem arises when you want things both quick AND easy. There’s no really a shortcut – the shortcut is to work hard, work smart, and work fast. The short cut is to turn up the intensity.

That’s the intensity tradeoff.

What will you choose? 

—

There’s still time to RSVP to our Impossible Meetup in PDX this Monday. See you there!

—

Susan Lacke, my cohort in Impossible TRI, rocking her women’s tank top while posing with her runyon-esque face and looking quite intense. While I’m not sure how I feel about her tribute to me, but she did bike 500 miles, run 20+ and wrestle a grizzly bear with her bare hands just after wearing this. After that, she can make whatever face she wants. Don’t have your gear yet? Grab an impossible shirts and/or tanks, take a photo doing something a little more impossible than posing like me, send it in and we’ll put you in the gallery.

susan lacke impossible

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Fitness, Impossible Things, Kicking A**

How to Make More Good Choices

June 27, 2012 By 11 Comments

I just got off the plane from Amman, Jordan where the Jordan Tourism Board invited Sean Ogle and I to spend the week adventuring around the country. In the last 7 days, we’ve crammed more amazing experiences and stories than I’ll be able to tell for quite some time. If you want them all, you’ll have to track me down in person at WDS, but over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing them both here and on Sean’s Blog – Location180, but first I want to talk about choices – and how to make better ones.

One thing I began to notice though is that as the week progressed, Sean and I began to make some seriously good choices. That might sound weird, but we began taking advantage of opportunities available and made up some of our own as well and every time we did – we came out with an incredible experience. After each of them, we found ourselves nodding to each other, “good choice.”

Here’s 4 quick examples from our trip:

#1) Shisha or Sleep

We got out of the airport in Jordan around 6pm last Wednesday after 25 hours of travel and 10 hours of time change (we left 6am Tuesday in Portland). It would be fair to say we were tired. We checked into our 5 star hotel and could have gone to sleep. We were beat. Instead, though, we went out to a cafe, had some tea and smoked some shisha (hookah) while listening to arabic music and watching arabic music videos on the street in the middle of Amman. The weather was amazing, the culture as awesome and it was the perfect start to our trip in Jordan.

We could have gotten some more sleep, but we started things off right instead. Good choice.

#2) Passing out or Petra

The second day we spent all day hiking through the Roman ruins of Jerash in sweltering heat. After walking for 4-5 hours around these ruins – and driving a few hours to PEtra, we arrived around 7:30 at night. Once again, we were exhausted, but there was the chance to Petra at Night – where a few nights a week, they do a night tour of Petra.

We weren’t going to go. We got to our hotel rooms, showered and were planning on going to dinner, but decided to give the 2 1/2 hour tour a shot anyways and have a late dinner – even though all we wanted to do was eat and sleep at this point.

As it turns out, they light up the canyon paths to the treasury and have around 1,000 candles in front of the treasury. Sean and I moved to the front of the group in order to take photos and came away with some spectacular photos (well Sean did, mine were more like ‘meh).

We could have done the easy thing and slept and ate, while waiting for our day tour tomorrow, but we decided to do it anyways – and it was incredible. Good choice. 

Sean Ogle Petra@NightHDR 2

[Sean Ogle's incredible HDR photo of Petra at Night]

#3) 900 Steps or Nada

petra

The next day we did our day tour of Petra and it was just as incredible as the night tour. The treasury (the main thing you see in most photos) is huge, but the city is much larger. After walking in the dead heat for multiple hours, we had the opportunity to climb to the monastery – a similar engraving to the treasury – with only one difference – it’s at the top of 900 stairs – another 2-3 hour hike round trip.

Ooof

900 steps sounded daunting, but at this point, we already knew what our decision would be. It took us a while and I stopped timing ourselves halfway through the trek, but it was worth it. As we rounded the corner at the top of the mountain, we saw the Monastery – equally as compelling as the treasury only minus the tourists who didn’t want to walk the 900 steps (a lot of them), and plus a viewing area where we could actually get some really incredible photos.

Good choice.

While we were up there, instead of going right back down immediately, we also decided to climb an overlook – another 20 minutes – where we took some more amazing photos.

Once again, we had to choose between calling it in early or going the extra mile. The extra mile (or miles in this case) is worth is – always. Good choice.

petra monastery

#4) Watch TV or Go ATV’ing

We went skydiving in Wadi Rum – a giant desert reminiscent of something like mars. It was awesome – and I look way less stupid in these photos than I did last year (photo evidence coming up in another blog post) – but while we were waiting for the photos and videos for an hour or so – we were just sitting around on couches in the area, watching other people’s skydive videos.

wadirumatv1

Earlier, I had noticed some ATVs sitting outside and decided that I wanted to find out more about them. After walking around outside in the heat for 20 minutes, and looking like a lost tourist (which I basically was) – I finally found the rental office and found they only cost $35/hour – so we decided to do it.

It was an absolute blast – probably one of the top 2 experiences on the entire trip for me – and it wasn’t even on the itinerary to start – but we wanted to do it, so we changed the intineary.

We could have just sat around and waited but instead we went ATV’ing across the moon. Good choice. Good choice indeed.

—

I noticed that both Sean and I never hesitated on these decisions. We just did it. And, invariably, after each adventure, we turned to each other, nodded and simply said “good choice.”

But this isn’t just how great decision makers we are – we still make plenty of bad ones, but here’s how you can make more good choices as well, next time you have to decide.

How To Make More Good Choices

When you’re faced with a decision, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions. Some of the ones

  • Is this Life or Death?
  • What’s the worst that could happen?
  • When’s the next time I’ll get a chance to do this?
  • Will I regret NOT doing this more than doing this?
  • Do I Really Want To do this?
  • Is fear the reason I’m thinking about not doing this?
  • Which decision will make a better story? (my favorite question)

I tend to find that in adventure situations, this works the best for me: “if you get the option – take it”. In fact, by the end of the trip, it was my motto. If you’re looking for adventure – here’s your answer to every question.

“If it’s an option, then yes.”

(Of course, unless the question you’re being asked is “Do you want to sit, do nothing and watch Grey’s Anatomy all day?”)

The mantra is similar to my YES policy – if you’re trying to do more things, live an adventure and tell better stories, there’s no better way to find it than to say to yes to impromptu adventures.

Try it – it’s really simple – “If it’s an option then yes.” Or, if you’re feeling crazy, you could just use the simpler version and say YES.”

Now I realize that not all things are as easy as ATVing or sleeping. You’ve probably got a few questions…oing nothing.

What if it’s not an option, there are no options or all my options suck?

THEN YOU’RE SCREWED! HAHA. Sucks to be you! Just kidding, there’s a few ways to go with this and they’re all easier than you think.

Ask

By simply asking, you open up all sorts of doors that you never knew existed. If in doubt, ask. The worst someone can say is no. Are you really afraid of someone telling you no?

If you are, why?

Is that tentative fear worth not even considering the option?

The word “no” can’t hurt you.

Ask, see what they say. You’ll probably be surprised how often they say yes.

Rearrange Your Priorities

If you want to do something bad enough you can. Nothing can keep you back from doing what you want if your priorities are in line with what you want. The problem comes when you have priorities and goals that are incongruent or don’t really work together to achieve the same thing.

Here’s a few examples of incongruent priorities and goals:

  • I want to eat cheeseburgers 12 times a day and get a six pack!
  • I want to travel the world on $1,000/month but I won’t stay in anything less than a 6 star hotel!
  • I want to do something impossible, but I only want to do stuff I think is easy.

Most of these boil down to idea that “I want my life to be different but I don’t want to have to change anything!”

Guess what? Tough. You’re going to have to choose your priorities. Sometimes, you just have to do the work and stop complaining.

  • Do you want your cheeseburgers or your six pack?
  • Do you want to spend $1,000/month or stay in 6 star hotels?
  • Do you want to do the impossible or something easy?

You can make whatever decision you want, but you have to choose what your priorities will be and those priorities will direct your goals.

Through our Jordan trip, the decision was often: “Do we want to get a couple extra hours of sleep or take the odd chance of experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime event?” We almost always chose the experience.

(side note: This fits nicely with one my unofficial mottos: “I can sleep when I’m dead.”)

Stuck on choices that don’t seem ideal? Change your priorities, figure out what’s really important to you and act accordingly. Your best decisions come when they’re aligned with your priorities.

Get a Partner in Crime

One of the reasons we kept doing what we did was because Sean and I were on the same wavelength. It was easy because we never hesitated on these things – we just did them. This is standard mode of operation for both of us.

“We’re up for it. Lets do it. Let’s go.”

If you have someone willing to go, it helps make things easier, but note that this isn’t a requirement, it’s a bonus. Don’t use “I don’t have anyone” to justify not doing anything.

If you don’t have anyone around you like this – find some – you’ll have way more fun. The impossible league community is a great place to start.

Make It One

You underestimate what you’re capable of. If you want something to be an option – just make it one. Decide that you’re doing it and see who stops you (you’ll be surprised at how few people will).

ATV’ing wasn’t even on our itinerary – we joked earlier as we drove by them that they would be fun – so after skydiving, I took it upon myself to find out more information, walked around for 20 minutes, and then decided to do it.

I wanted to do it badly enough, so I did.

Beg Forgiveness

A consequence of taking charge and “making it an option” when it’s not one is that you should be prepared to beg forgiveness down the line and deal with the consequences if necessary. You might hurt someone, offend someone or endanger yourself. But, you’re a big boy/girl and you can decide what to do with your life so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. If you want to do something, take responsibility for it (including the consequences), and be prepared to beg forgiveness if necessary.

—

Looking back on them, all of our choices sound like no-brainers. ATV’ing or doing nothing? Local cafe or getting some sleep? They don’t seem like hard choices now, but at the time, I can’t tell you how good of an option sleep sounded. Unfortunately, your perspective is a little tainted before your decision – and way too instead of choosing what will make the better story, you end up choosing what’s easier. This is the same instinct that either convinces you or keeps you from running windsprints in 40 degree, rainy weather.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison

Opportunities are options and sometimes the best opportunities are stories are missed because people are scared they’ll be hard – so they make poort choices. Do them anyways.

Remember, better choices make better stories so make more of them and start having more adventures. Have fun out there.

When’s the last time you made a “good choice?” What are you going to do to make more of them?

*Massive thanks the JTB for having us out to their incredible country. I can’t wait to come back.

**Thanks to Sean for being an awesome travel partner. Thanks for always being up for an adventure.

Filed Under: Adventures, Business, Personal Development

Silos, Ladders, and the First Step

June 12, 2012 By 9 Comments

Impossible Shoot

Last week, we did the first photo shoot since we launched Impossible HQ. I’ve been in the midst of an incredible fitness regimen as I knock another thing off my impossible list so we decided to do a fitness shoot to celebrate. The focus is “no excuses, no equipment, just results” so we wanted to find an empty warehouse to reflect those themes throughout the shoot.

Over the last few weeks, I searched for abandoned warehouses and buildings where we could do one. It took me a while, but I found one…100-150 feet up in the air – on top of the grain silos pictured above. Somehow I convinced Jeff and Marla at six4eleven to climb up over 100 feet vertically on a 100 year old ladder and get to the top to do the shoot (apparently I’m all sorts of persuasive). That was the easy part. We spent the next few hours exploring, working out and taking some photos for the shoot – it all went spectacularly.

Then we had to come down…

To get back down, you have to lower yourself through the manhole onto the ladder in the middle of the silo. Coming up, it isn’t too hard, you sort of just walk your way up, but coming down is an entirely different story. You can’t quite  just sit down and reach the ladder with your feet – you have to stretch out and lower yourself down without any rail, handle or rung to hold on to other than the manhole you’re going through. And while you can almost reach the ladder, there’s a split second – where you have to let go of the floor and the manhole and whatever you’re holding onto and grab the ladder.

It’s probably less than a 1/4 of a second, but it seems like forever – where you leave your current position of comfort on the concrete slab 150 feet in the air and take a leap of faith and hope you grab on to the ladder rather than falling to your death. It doesn’t matter how short that split second actually lasts, all you know is that it’s full of terror and it seems like forever. So you spend a lot of time looking at the ladder, contemplating the possibilities…

  • What if you fail?
  • What if you slip?
  • What if you miss the ladder?
  • What if you fall down 100 feet in a grain silo and fall smash into a bunch of unsightly human parts in front of your friends?
  • What if?

And then you go – and as let go, it’s terrifying…absolutely terrifying…

…until you grab the ladder.

Then it’s only slightly terrifying. You’re no longer “safe” on your platform and you’re not “safe” on the ground yet, but at least you have a path to follow – a guide to get down. And instead of worrying about dying and smashing into a thousand little Joel-pieces, you focus on climbing the ladder – rung by rung. Step by step. Action after action. Instead of climbing a 100 foot ladder, you’re climbing a 1 foot rung – 100 times. 1 rung at a time.

And it’s not so scary. It’s not so impossible. You climb down the ladder and you do it.

But no matter how many times you do it, that first step is always scary. Always. Whether you’re jumping off a bridge, taking cold showers or climbing down a ladder after a photoshoot at a 100 year old abandoned building – that little terror is there. Always. It can get easier, but it’s still always there. And that’s a good thing – because the presence of fear allows you to become courageous and overcome it.

“Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous [He is also a fool.].” - Robert Heinlein

As you test your limits, you start to see that same fear everywhere. That same reflex mechanism, that same part of your brain, that same resistance trying to stop you from what you want to do. You can’t stop it – but you can train it to recognize that stupid little fear that keeps you from climbing and doing the things you want to do. You can learn to become courageous, overcome it consistently and never let it stop you from doing something you need to do.

That first step is always the toughest, but it’s also the most important so take as much time as you need - but take it.

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If you want to make that first step and get “unstuck”, Cold Shower Therapy can help you do just that. Registration closes tonight at midnight PST. After that, we close it down and CST starts Friday. #BOOM

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photo credit: Jeff Sarris on his iPhone. Seriously, if you need photography done, check out six4eleven. They’ll climb 100 foot ladders and risk smashing into little-six4eleven-pieces for you to get the right shot :) . Oh, and the photos from the shoot are coming soon.

Filed Under: Adventures, Blogging, Business, Fitness, Kicking A**, Life, The Impossible
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