You are here: Home / Archives for Impossible Things

We’re Building A School In Guatemala ≠ Impossible

January 4, 2013 By 18 Comments

We did it.

We freaking did it.

Impossible School

I remember shooting this video in LA back in July and wondering “What the heck amI getting myself into?” Apparently the answer was: An Awesome Adventure.

The goal was $25,000. We smashed that a week early (on Christmas no less), and raised $26,406

Because of you guys, 1,000 kids in Guatemala are literally going to have the chance to do something they thought might be impossible – get an education. I really can’t accurately describe how that makes me feel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The Breakdown

A large quantity of consistent small actions can produce incredible things.

An interesting thing happened as our campaign developed.

Most campaigns are dominated by the 80/20 rule. They’ll have big, generous, flagship donors who contribute anywhere from 25% – 50% or even 75% of the goal. We didn’t have that.

That’s probably something I can work on doing as I learn more and get better at fundraising, but personally I think it’s pretty freaking awesome that we raised over $25,000 with mostly small donations.

Now small is relative, of course, we had some very generous donors, but I think the biggest overal donations were a touch over $1,000. The majority were made up of $100, $50, and $25 donations. That means a ton of people got involved and took action.

That’s pretty cool.

Things I Learned

Clarity 

Clarity is huge. Stating exactly what you want to achieve by an exact date is really important. It can be tempting to be vague when talking about doing something impossible because vagueness gives you safety. When you’re vague, you give yourself some cushion in the future in case you fail – you have a built in alibi.

Specificity makes it a hard landing. Interestingly enough, the bolder you are, the more precise your goals are, the easier it is to achieve them. Be clear. Be precise.

Deadlines

Goals without deadlines are nothing but dreams.

Always have a deadline. They have a way of creating an urgency and focused around.

Have a deadline. Make it shorter than you think you need. You might be surprised at how fast you can actually accomplish it (for more on this, see Parkinson’s Law).

The Origin of Service

Service (like most things) is more about mindset than capability.

It’s less about the amount of money than it is the idea of generosity. For some people, donating $5 takes way more than it does for other people to give $1,000. It’s not about the quantity as much as it is about the attitude of the person giving.

Anybody can donate $5. Few people will actually do it.

If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing it, usually you can’t achieve it. – David Goggins

Similarly, if you tink you can make an impact, you probably will.  If you don’t think you can, you probably won’t.

Interestingly enough, this is exactly what happens when you want to do something impossible.

If you always say “I’ll start being generous when I have X amount of dollars”, chances are you’ll never learn how to be generous in the first place – even if you have a million, billion, trillion dollars (or whatever the number is for you).

Similarly, if you always say “I’ll start doing something impossible when [insert your reason here] (ex. I know more / I’m less scared / I’m more prepared), chances are you’ll never learn how to do things that require you being ignorant, scared and unprepared and you’ll never do much of anything.

You’re probably not ready to do the things you need to be doing. Do them anyways.

Special Thank Yous

Special Thanks to the following people for stepping up big throughout the campaign.

All of them stepped up to raise more than $1500 towards the campaign.

Also, thank you to everyone else who donated or rallied their own friends & family to raise money for this.

For those of you who donated throughout the campaign, I’ve fulfilled my promise. I ran the race with a camera and shot videos throughout it giving shoutouts along the way. It’s a little on the long side (it was a long run), but if you make it through past mile 20, I start to get a little loopy and the shout outs get a little more convoluted/entertaining :) . You can click through to youtube you can skip directly to different parts. There’s a special thank you to EVERYONE (over 300 of you) who contributed in some way at the end of the video as well.

Ultramarathoning

(click on my face to watch the video in email)

What’s Next

I learned a ton from this project and it’s not done yet. We’re still finalizing all the details, but we’ll be heading to Guatemala later this year to check out the school and add some final touches.

To everyone who’s been involved with the campaign in any way: thank you. You made this happen.

This is just the beginning.

Thanks for being a part of it.

- Joel

(If you’d still like to give, you can do so here – these guys will appreciate it).

 

Impossible Ones School

 

Filed Under: Adventures, BIT Updates, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Life, Story, The Impossible Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Blackmail Yourself: How To Set & Accomplish Goals More Effectively

December 27, 2012 By 18 Comments

Blackmail Yourself

Forget New Years Resolutions. They don’t work.

If you want to really accomplish some new impossible challenge this year, you need something a little more drastic.

I call this strategy blackmailing yourself and I’ve used it extensively along with cold shower therapy when I need a kick in the butt and the extra push to get something done. Here’s how it works.

Pick A Challenge

Pick a challenge, we’ve already talked about this before. Make it an specific challenge. It needs at least 2 specific things.

  1. Make it specific.
  2. Give it a deadline.

Those are the basics (we’ve talked about these before), but we’ll make blackmailing yourself a little more interesting.

Find A Blackmailer

You need to find a friend to help blackmail you. Your friend/blackmailer is someone who is going to keep you accountable – no matter what.

Ideally they’ll have at least the 3 following traits.

  1. They’ll check in on you daily/weekly.
  2. They won’t succumb to your sweet talking rationalization.
  3. They’d love to see you fail…but they’d love to see you succeed more.

Point 3 is important, because while they want to see you succeed, they’re not afraid to press the button, and enforce your self-imposed consequences if you don’t. You might love this person, but you’ll swear they’re the devil when you’re at the worst points in the challenge.

If you think about the challenges we talked about before, you’re essentially giving your blackmailer the opportunity to enact a consequence if you don’t follow through and do what you say you really want to do.

I usually pick Vic because I know he won’t let me talk my way out of it (and I’m a pretty good talker).

Deal with the Devil

Why This Is Important
Your challenge will be hard. It should be, otherwise you’d already have done it, right? Hard things are easy to want, but hard to do. There will be times in your challenge where you need to do things that you won’t necessarily want to do (ex. workout) in order to do the things you really want to do (ex. run an Ironman). Your blackmailer is the one that’s going to help you keep an eye on your long term goals and hold you accountable to those and ignore your short-term whining & excuses.

Make The Deal

Make the deal and blackmail yourself.

Force yourself to create a specific challenge to be accomplished by a specific date and empower your chosen blackmailing friend to carry out the consequences if you don’t complete it.

Use this template if needed.

If I don’t complete _______________ (specific challenge) by _______________ (specific date), I will donate/pay _______________ (blackmailer’s name) , exactly $_______________ (an obscenely painful amount of money).

Money

Bet Your Rent

The last part of that contract is important. Whatever the consideration for the bet is, it should be obscenely painful for you to give up if you actually lose.

It doesn’t count if you just put $5 on the line. That’s not much of an incentive or disincentive. You need to actually blackmail yourself.

Bet something that hurts, give it teeth – Bet your monthly rent.

Whatever it is: $500, $1,000, $2,000. Put it on the line.

“But…but…but…” you might say, “I can’t afford to lose my rent!”

Exactly.

That’s the point. Make the amount large enough that you’re not willing (or can’t afford) to lose it. Make it hurt. Then go make it freaking happen.

Why? Anytime you’re tempted to skip a workout or cheat on a meal, you’ll find yourself asking if it’s worth your rent. Suddenly those slices of cheesecake start to seem pretty expensive – because they are.

Make It Hurt

Make blackmailing yourself hurt even more by making sure the money goes someplace terrible. It’s helpful if the money goes to someplace or someone that you’d really not rather the money would go to. Ideally you really hate this person one way another.

A few ideas on where you could instruct your blackmailer to send this money.

  • Pick your least favorite person in the world.
  • Pick your arch-nemesis
  • Pick your least favorite charity out there.

To pick out real examples:

  • If you hate abortion, send it to planned parenthood.
  • If you’re an atheist, send it to Billy Graham.
  • If you love the rainforest, send it to BP.
  • If you’re a paleo junkie, send it to PETA.
  • If you’re a Republican, send it to Barack Obama.

I picked Steve Kamb.

You get the picture.

You want to make sure the money is going to a person/place/cause that you really don’t want it to go to and the only way you can stop it is by completing your challenge.

Game on.

Extras & Add-ons

In addition to the basics above, here are a few extras to get the most out of blackmailing yourself.

Make Sure Your Blackmailer is Evil
There’s no sense in having a nice, forgiving blackmailer who’s going to love you forever no matter what, and tell you you’re special. That’s what your mom is for.

You need someone who’s going to give you tough love and not listen to your bullsh*t or excuses. You need to make sure they’re going to hold your feet to the fire and love you enough to make you do the things you say you want to do – even when they’re hard (especially when they’re hard).

Write The Check Now
Write the check now and give it to someone. Don’t think you can get away with committing to something and writing the check later while thinking you can back out later and cross your fingers hoping that the the other person forgets.

Write the check now.

In poker terms, you need to be pot committed from the start. Make it so you can’t back out.

Add A Non-Monetary Reason
Money is a good starter, but you can up the ante and add a non-monetary reason to the deal to boot.

It could be a whole variety of non-monetary consequences, but I’ve found that the best incentive (other than cash) is public humiliation of some sort – you’ll have to do something in public that you really don’t want to do.

This could be doing a photo shoot, public announcement, or holding a sign on the corner of the street detailing your sins (I don’t necessary endorse that last one).

This can be an even bigger driving factor than cash for some people. Many people would rather cut a huge check than have to embarrass themselves publicly.

For me, it was knowing that I had a photo shoot in 8 weeks. Other times, it’s simply signing up for a race beforehand and knowing that I can either train for it, be in good shape for it and enjoy it OR not train for it and hope to God I don’t drown.

What Do You Want To Do This Year?

If you have something you want to do this year, take a step past ordinary “new years resolutions.” Bet your rent, blackmail yourself and FINALLY make it happen this year. Get after it.

—-

If you want to actually put this into practice, Stickk is a great site that sets up this functionality for you, puts your money in an escrow account and sends it to your blackmailing friend if you don’t make it happen.

If you don’t have someone to play the part of your blackmailer, add me (joel@joelrunyon.com) and I’ll gladly be the do it for you. :)

—-

photo credit: Darwin Bell | photosteve101

Filed Under: Hustling, Impossible Things, Life, Physical Challenges, Strategies Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Lessons Learned From My First Ultra Marathon

November 2, 2012 By 14 Comments

This weekend I ran the Chicago Ultra Marathon.

I never thought I’d actually run an ultra marathon. I told myself after my first ever marathon that that was more than far enough and I was quite okay.

Then I found out about ultras and they kept popping up in my mind. At the same time, I found an amazing organization to partner with, and pretty soon I was working in a coffee shop sitting next to Nicky when I looked up at him and said, “I think I just signed up for an ultra marathon.” What am I doing?

A few months later, after a few months of trainig, I was staring at the starting line this past Saturday, listening to the race director shout out “5 minutes till start!” I lined up, took my sweats off and over the next 6 hours, ran the thing. Here’s what I learned.

Here’s 5 Lessons I Learned From My First Ultra Marathon

Reference Points Matter

The course was a about 31 miles. It was a 10.5 mile loop we ran 3 times. That meant it was a ~5 miles out, and ~5 miles back.

A lot of marathon courses don’t have loops. They’re like big running tours where you can see different parts of the city. That’s great for big cities where you have crowds out cheering, but on longer courses with smaller fields, the number of people tends to get spread out, it’s much quieter and can be more difficult to always know where you’re at on the course.

That’s why reference points matter. They help give you familiar segments throughout the race.

The race was 30 mles, but it was only a 5 mile run, 6 times.

That sounds way more manageable. And while it was still freaking hard, every 5 miles, I had a reference point that I had definitely seen before and after one loop, I was running in familiar territory and began to know what to expect. I knew where hills were, when the head winds would pick and where the break stations were. That might not sound like that big of a deal, but in the middle of the race, it makes a big, big difference when you know that you’ve been here before, you’ve done it before and you can damn sure do it again.

It Hurts Until it Feels Good

As we started running, the pack was pretty close for the first 5-7 miles. You don’t want to take it too fast out of the gate since you’ve got quite a few miles ahead of you. I started talking to a guy named Tom who had run a couple of ultras before and he said something I took me the rest of the race:

It hurts, it hurts and hurts until it feels good.

I didn’t really “get it” at the time, but 10-12 miles later I knew exactly what he was talking about.

It’s All About The Decision

Up until the run actually began, the idea of an ultra marathon was all cerebral. I knew I was running an ultra marathon, but it didn’t really set.

At mile 17 or 18, it hit me. I realized that no matter what, I was going to finish.

It was decided. No motivation needed.

It might take me all day, but it was going to happen.

Chicago Ultra

It’s Not About You

It was a good thing I decided that at mile 18, because miles 22-30 sucked. Like really sucked. I tweaked my ankle and spent an hour fighting a brutal headwind that was on special delivery from Lake Michigan just for me, but there wasn’t a chance I was going to quit.

Because I had perspective.

The race wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about how fast I could go or if I could beat the 200 other nut jobs spending 5+ hours on a Saturday pushing themselves to the limit.

It was about giving a small group of kids access to do something that’s literally not possible for most of their peers.

When you get perspective you realize that your problems aren’t that big after all. Sure, an ultra is tough, but it’s also the opportunity to push myself to do things I never thought I could do. Most people don’t have that same opportunity and there’s a lot of kids out there who just want the chance to read.

Realizing that most of your problems aren’t really that tough. And, when they are tough, don’t quit because they’re hard: keep going because it is hard.

Impossible is Negotiable

Ask anyone I knew 3 years ago if I would ever “run” and they would have laughed your face off. I hated running. I still do.

3 years ago, I laughed at my friend when they asked me to sign up for a 5k. I signed up because there was candy at the end. I remember hearing there was also a 15k race happening at the same time and I can distinctly remember thinking to myself:

15k? Why would you ever run a 15k? That seems WAY too far! There’s no need to run that far.

I’m running that same race this weekend as a cool down run.

When I announced our inital fundraiser goal to build an entire school, $25,000 seemed MASSIVE and unachievable. Now that we’ve raised over $17,000+ already with less than $8,000 to go. It doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.

Impossible is negotiable. Negotiate.

Chicago Ultra Finish

—-

I’ve got videos of the event that I’ll editing and posting soon on my youtube channel. You can subscribe here.

You can still donate to the #impossible campaign. We’ve got just under $8,000 left to go. Almost there!

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Physical Challenges, Races Tagged With: , , , ,

Running Back To Back Marathons

October 16, 2012 By 15 Comments

A few years ago, I had never run more than 3 miles.

After a few triathlons and some other short distance races, I ended up running my first marathon – barefoot.

When I finished that, I basically told myself I never want to do that again – I was done running marathons – at least that’s what I thought…

Sometime after my legs had forgotten how much pain they experienced during my first marathon, the idea of running an ultra got planted in my mind. I pushed that thought away and told myself that I didn’t need to do it…and I thought that would be the end of it.

But it wouldn’t just go away…and it kept coming back again and again.

I don’t particularly enjoy running and I’m certainly not the fastest on the course, but I enjoy the challenge of pushing myself to go farther and do stuff I haven’t done before…I think I have a problem…

Finally, I decided if I was going to do it, and realized that I might as well put it all to good use and decided to run a 50k in order to raise awareness and help build an #impossible school in Guatemala (We’re a little past 50% of our goal as a community. If you’d still like to be a part of the campaign, you can find out more info here).

So, I kicked off the training a few months ago and I’ve been slowly adding miles to my long runs every weekend which somehow culminated in me running back to back marathons in consecutive weeks – yup, I surprised myself too.

Why Back To Back Marathons?

My simple answer is why not?

It certainly seemed to be the best option given my training schedule.

See, a big part of running is dealing with the boredom. While some might be especially fast, if you’re not, it can take a little while to get from point A to point B. So when my training schedule said I was supposed to run 22 miles one week and 24 the next, I wasn’t terribly excited about the prospect of spending 3+ hours running around Chicago on my own as the temperatures began to drop.

While training runs aren’t always fun, races aren’t too bad. There’s water stations, usually a few spectators – no matter how sparse – a timed result and food at the finish line. I realized I’d be much more excited, motivated and interested in running a marathon than I would be to run 22 or 24 miles for “training.”

I should note, that this is probably not the smartest way to choose races and most running coaches would probably hate me, but it seemed more interesting to me, so I decided to do it.

Prairie State Marathon

First up two weekends ago was the Prairie State Marathon.

I literally decided the night before the race that I was going to do it (like I said, most running coaches would hate me).

But, I realized I probably wouldn’t run the 22 miles on my own given the upcoming weather conditions. Either way, I showed up early, paid my $90, got my bib number and started running.

The first 18 miles were pretty straightforward. 9 out and 9 back on the north side of the course. I felt pretty good as evidenced by the picture through the first 18 miles of the course. Of course, my legs were tired, but you have to look pumped for the camera. Joel Runyon Prairie State MarathonComing back, you run right by the finish line as you pass the 18 mile marker and head out for another 4 mile out and back on the south side of the course.

It was not amusing.

After being teased by the finish line a little less than 2/3rds trhough the race, the four mile out and back weaved through a marshy/swamp area that seemed to be endless cruel joke where the race director sent you to run for eternity – never to return. Again. Not amusing.

After what seemed to be forever, I finally hit the turnaround and made my way back the same 4 miles to the finish line. It wasn’t pretty but I finished.

Over the next 7 days, I took lots of ice baths, ate bananas and rested. My legs hurt.

Stone Bridge Marathon

The bridge marathon was this past Saturday. After taking the past 7 days off, my legs were feeling better and I figured I would have no problem. We showed up early and somehow it got darker between the time we left and the time we got there – I have no idea how that happened.

When we showed up, I thought maybe 10 people were going to run the race – there was practically no one there. About 15 minutes before the race started a bus with about 50 people showed up.

Whatever the final total was, it was under 100 athletes – easily the smallest race I’ve ever been a part of. Seriously, this was the start line.

Stone Bridge Start

But at 7am, off we went.

Stone Bridge is advertised as a flat course, but there were definitely hills – especially the first 12 miles. I realized about 6 miles in that I was going to feel the effects of the previous week’s race. Around mile 14, my legs decided to let me know how tired they were and my quads were just screaming at me. There were a few time where I had to stop and stretch them out, but I just had to keep going.

After I hit 20 miles, I told myself – It’s all over in less than an hour. You just have to make it 60 minutes. And I did. Again, I finished – it wasn’t really pretty – but I finished.

Back to Back Marathons: DONE.

—

Both of my times were well over 4 hours which was fine with me – considering they were training runs more than anything (and believe me: that sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you). I’m taking this week easy, filling it with ice baths, stretching and (unfortunately), probably more ice baths.

Next weekend I’ll take it easy with a half-marathon followed by the 50k ultra on the 27th. After that, I’m not sure when my next big race will be. I’m not sure I’ll need to do any more runing after this – but then again, I’ve said that before.

Like I said…I think I have a problem.

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Life, Physical Challenges

How You Can Help Sponsor The Ultra & Get A Personalized Video From Me

October 12, 2012 By 6 Comments

A little over 6 weeks ago, we announced we were going to build an #impossible school through a partnership with Pencils of Promise. The goal was big – really big – $25,000 to build a school by the end of the year. As part of the effort, I’ll be running my first ultra marathon at the end of the month and running a 50k along the south short of Lake Michigan in Chicago and invited everyone to join in and do something impossible, set a goal and raise money for it.

Our group has raised over $11,o00. That’s pretty freaking impressive, but we still have a long way to go. We need to raise $14,000 still to reach our goal  – a big number, but not impossible. Here’s how we’re going to do this.

Here’s How We’re Going To Do This

The other day I wrote on the blog’s facebook page:

I’m thinking about running the Ultramarathon with a GoPro to give you guys updates throughout the race. Thoughts? Yay or Nay?

GoPro

I was just toying with the idea, but apparently the popular opinion is that people would like to see me in pain. Thanks! (I guess).

I don’t mind that much – I have no problem looking stupid or being in pain. If it’s for charity, then it’s that much more awesome. But, at the same time, I figured we can use that motivation to push the campaign along even further. I explain it a little below, but you can also watch the video.

[watch video here in email]

The Incentives

So, if you want to get involved, here’s a few incentives. Besides supporting a great organization, I’m going to shoot a video for the entire experience. I ran a marathon to praceice last wekeend and will do it again this weekend.

Here’s how you can get in on it and be a part of it.

$25 - A private personalized video thank you from yours truly saying thanks for helping out the campaign.

$50 - Personalized Runyon Face Photo & Thank You :) .

$100 - Sponsor a mile. I’ll be carrying my GoPro to document the race and give you a shout out as a sponsor on a mile marker.

$500+ - I’ll do a public video shout out to you and whatever site you’d like me to talk about and post it on my YoutTube channel.

$1,000+ – I’ll give your/your company a shootout and thank you on the blog. We get ~100,000 hits/month and thousands of subscribers.

$10,000+ – I basically do whatever you want me to do while racing (I get to keep my pants on, but that’s all).

Also, as a reminder, if we hit $25,000 the person who helped raise the most will come with me to Guatemala and actually help build the school (I think this is my favorite part).

Even if you can’t give hundreds of thousands of dollars, something as simple as $25 can make a HUGE difference in the lives of kids all over the world – and especially in Guatemala.

How To Get In On This

If you want to get involved, here’s how

  1. Donate Here
  2. Fill out this 3 second form here and let me know.

If you’ve already donated, thank you! Fill out the form here with your contact email and I’ll be in touch in the next 24 hours to sort out any details we might need.

Of course, you can always donate anonymously or choose to opt-out of anything above, but for tho

Also, tell a friend (both online and offline) even if you’re not quite sure they’re interested. Incredible things happen when you put yourself out there and just ask.

We talk a lot about doing and this is a great opportunity to stop wishing & hoping something will happen and actually go out and do something.

1,000 students. One school. 25 Thousand dollars. $14,000 left to go to open up a whole new realm of possibility for a whole class of students in Guatemala.

It’s a big goal, but it’s not impossible.

Lets do this.

*Although I’m willing to do almost anything, I do reserve editorial privileges on any sites/videos (I won’t be linking to any site I can’t tell my mother about – sorry, not sorry).

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Impossible Things 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: , , , , , ,

Get Disciplined, Not Motivated

September 6, 2012 By 69 Comments

Discipline

There’s a lot of problems with simple motivation:

Motivation is fleeting

Motivation comes and goes however it wants. It might not last to the end of the week, end of the day, or even the end of blog post you just read. It’s fleeting.

Motivation is situational

Motivation is based on your current situation. How do you feel? If you don’t feel like doing it, then you’re off the hook. You don’t have to do it – because you don’t feel like it!

But then you don’t do it and you just feel worse and more stuck than ever.

Motivation is everywhere.

Everywhere you go, you see people trying to get motivated to do something, to make a change. They’ll go read something, watch something or attend a conference and come away “motivated.” But that only leaves them “motivated”,  it doesn’t move them to action.

“I’m motivated to do this”. “I’m motivated to do that”. Stop being motivated and just do it already! You don’t need more motivation – you need discipline.

See discipline is a whole different animal.

Discipline is Consistent

The consistency of discipline is what makes it discipline. You go out and do it, day after day.

Discipline Is Habitual

Discipline doesn’t just “happen.” It’s intentional and it’s repeated. Every. Single. Day.

Discipline Is Rare

Discipline doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s how you see results.

Motivation is the start, but if it’s not solidified into a discipline,  it usually fades away into regret pretty quickly once you realize you never acted on it.

How To Be More Disciplined

Get Rid Of Your Excuses

Your excuses suck. Every single one. Get rid of them.

Create Routines

Don’t leave it to chance. When you discipline yourself, it’s like programming as a robot. There’s no more emotion involved. It’s simply “if this…then that.”

That’s why a plan of attack is so crucial. You don’t have to decide what you want to do every single day when you wake up. You don’t have 100 different decisions points. You decide once to follow the plan and then wake up every morning and reference said plan.

You’ve already decided you’re going to do it. You don’t have to decide anymore, you just have to do it..

Decide if it’s Worth It

Of course, making that initial decision will be tough.

Ask yourself, how bad do you want it? You will have to sacrifice something at some point. If you want it bad enough, it’ll be worth it. If you decide that it is worth it, then…

Invest In It

Literally. Money has a way of routing your priorities. Want to look at where you spend most of your time? Look to where you’re spending most of your money. There’s probably a correlation.

Get yourself personally invested in whatever you want to do. Make NOT achieving what you want painful.

When I was beginning my six pack challenge, I told Vic I’d give $500 to the absolute worst person I could imagine – my arch-nemesis.

Sure enough, I woke up every morning thinking about how pissed I’d be if I had to give Steve $500.

After the first two weeks, I had enough momentum that I didn’t even need that as motivation anymore, but the first few weeks you can be sure that that investment was enough to make sure I made my disciplines a priority.

Invest in your goal. Make a bet, hire a trainer, but invest it in a way that actually means something to you and will help route your priorities in the way you want to.

Keep Going

When you really, really, really want to give up, don’t stop. Keep going. Discipline doesn’t depend on your feelings. It happens whether or not you “feel” like it.

When you think you are done, you’re only 40% of what your body is capable of doing. That’s just the limit that we put on ourselves. – David Goggins

Keep going.

Get A Lobotomy

Remove your brain from your equation. Your mind sucks. It will tell you all of the things you’re not capable of doing because it wants to protect itself. It wants to play it safe. It wants to be comfortable.

Meanwhile, your body will sit there and not say anything to the contrary even though it knows it can run triathlons, marathons, climb mountains, and get a six pack if you just give it the chance.

Do a manual override. Tell your brain to shut up and just go do it anyways. Turn your brain off.

When you brain tells you it’s impossible, tell your brain,

That’s nice, I’m going to do it anyways.

Yes, this might mean that you’ll end up getting into arguments with yourself. Do it anyways.

Get Your Shoes On, Get Out The Door

If nothing else, put your shoes on, get out the door.

Your room/house/cubicle/wherever is the ultimate bastion of safety. If you stay there, you’ll never want to leave.

Just get started. Figure everything else out on the way. Getting out the door is half the battle.

—-

You don’t need more inspiration. You don’t need more motivation. You need more discipline and you need to start now.

—-

If you want to kill your excuses, and get disciplined while finally getting in shape, Impossible Abs can help.

photo credit: crypto

Filed Under: Fitness, Impossible Things, Life, The Impossible, Weight Loss

Impossible Abs Is Here!

September 4, 2012 By 21 Comments

Impossible Abs

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited today.

After 6 months of planning, testing, programming, some more testing, a ton of work and even more anticipation, it’s finally here.

As promised, Impossible Abs is now live. This project will help you burn fat, kill your excuses and get six pack abs through a zero-excuses 8-week fitness program designed to work anywhere in the world without fancy equipment or an expensive gym membership.

You can read more or pick up your own copy here (There’s a special bonus only for those who pick up the program within the first week!)

***

After designing the program around my six pack transformation, we ran Impossible Abs through some beta testers over the last few months. It’s still early, but in a few short months, we’ve seen some incredible results already:

  • Justin lost 30 pounds in 2 months
  • Michael lost 22 pounds in 3 weeks
  • Abigail lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks.

Here’s all the legal mumbo jumbo about results not being typical, etc (yadda yadda yadda), but I’ve found that each person who committed to the program and stuck with it, saw results.

3 Main Options

In order to make this available to as many people as possible, we’ve created three different versions of the guide in order to serve those with different goals, needs and budgets. The middle CHALLENGE version is my personal favorite (surprise), but make your own decision. We have a basic training program for the do-it-yourselfers out there and a  personalized coaching option for people who want one-on-one attention throughout the challenge. There’s also an experience option which is available on  a very limited basis to challenge & coaching members by application only due to it’s expense and complexity.

Usually, this is where most people will say it’s available for the next 10 minutes only and if you click off the page, you’ll get 20 banners asking you to stay.

There’s no artificial timer and no pop-up windows if you try to leave, but if you pick up the program in the first week, you’ll be invited to a special webinar where you can ask Vic and myself any question you like.

Like everything I do, there’s a 100% satisfaction guaranteed with Impossible Abs. If you’re not happy with your results, just let me know and I’ll send you a prompt refund.

On top of all that, we’ll be allocating a portion of all revenue will go towards building our #Impossible school charity project with Pencils of Promise.

If you want to burn fat, kill your excuses and get six pack abs, you don’t need an expensive gym membership or any fancy equipment. We’ve designed this program to be done anywhere in the world. The only thing holding you back, is whether you want to do it or not.

There are no more excuses.

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it

If you want Impossible Abs,  you can get it here.

Go do something impossible.

-Joel

#boom

Filed Under: Fitness, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Launches, Nutrition, Personal Development, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

30 Questions About Six Pack Abs

September 2, 2012 By 13 Comments

Questions

Impossible Abs is coming out in just a few days. Whew.

After working to create a library of 25+ video tutorials for Impossible Abs, I decided that I’m going to be incorporating more video throughout the blog as we move forward. So, when I got a bunch of questions via emails, comments and facebook, I decided to bust out the video camera and answer them all at once. 30 questions total – dang!

You can watch each of the videos or click on the questions that you’re most interested in. Let me know what you think of these videos. Here we go!

  1. Introduction & Is This Diet Safe For The Long Term?
  2. How Did You Get Six Pack Abs?
  3. What’s The Secret to Impossible Abs?
  4. How Do You Maintain A Six Pack?
  5. What Are The Food Costs Associated With Impossible Abs?
  6. Why Torture Yourself For A Six Pack? Why Are You So Vain?
  7. How Did The Six Pack Challenge, Challenge You Mentally?
  8. How Do You Create A Meal Plan & Stick To It?
  9. What Is The Impossible Abs Challenge? Does It Have A Set Start Date?
  10. What Types of Results Are Possible With Impossible Abs?
  11. How Long Do You Expect To See Results On a Low-Carb/Paleo Diet?
  12. Did You Really Get Six Pack Abs Or Did You Follow Some YouTuBe Tutorial To Fake It?
  13. Are You Supposed To See Your Six Pack All The Time Or Only When You Flex?
  14. Can Vegetarians/Vegans Do The Paleo Diet Too?
  15. How Tall Are You? Did You Really Get That Light?
  16. How Did You Cut Out Carbs From Your Diet? I Could Never Do That…
  17. How Much Alcohol Did You Consume Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?
  18. How Did You Count Calories Throughout Impossible Abs?
  19. Can I Drink Coffee & Tea On the Paleo Diet?
  20. Can I Run 20 Miles A Day and Still Get A Six Pack?
  21. A Doctor Told Me I Could Never Get Six Pack Abs…Are They Right?
  22. Do I Need A Gym To Get Six Pack Abs?
  23. How Do You Deal With Sugar Cravings While Getting A Six Pack?
  24. Did You Flex Throughout The Photoshoot or is it all Lighting Tricks & Photoshop?
  25. How Do I Make A Bunch of Changes At Once?
  26. Can Women Get Six Pack Abs Too? I Hear It’s Unhealthy For Women To Be Under 25% Body Fat.
  27. Can I still eat dairy? Will that slow down my weight loss? Are eggs still okay? How much fruit/vegetables/meat do you eat per day?
  28. What’s The Best Exercise For Six Pack Abs?
  29. What Are Some Quick & Easy To Make Foods That Won’t Compromise Fat Loss?
  30. How Do You Stay Motivated Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

You can also watch all the video straight through right here


Introduction & Is This Diet Safe For The Long Term?

 


How Did You Get Six Pack Abs?

 


What’s The Secret to Impossible Abs?

 


How Do You Maintain A Six Pack?

 


What Are The Food Costs Associated With Impossible Abs?

 


Why Torture Yourself For A Six Pack? Why Are You So Vain?

 


How Did The Six Pack Challenge, Challenge You Mentally?

 


How Do You Create A Meal Plan & Stick To It?

 


What Is The Impossible Abs Challenge? Does It Have A Set Start Date?

 


What Types of Results Are Possible With Impossible Abs?

 


How Long Do You Expect To See Results On a Low-Carb/Paleo Diet?

 


Did You Really Get Six Pack Abs Or Did You Follow Some YouTube Tutorial To Fake It?

 


Are You Supposed To See Your Six Pack All The Time Or Only When You Flex?

 


Can Vegetarians/Vegans Do The Paleo Diet Too?

 


How Tall Are You? Did You Really Get That Light?

 


How Did You Cut Out Carbs From Your Diet? I Could Never Do That…

 


How Much Alcohol Did You Consume Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

 


How Did You Count Calories Throughout Impossible Abs?

 


Can I Drink Coffee & Tea On the Paleo Diet?

 


Can I Run 20 Miles A Day and Still Get A Six Pack?

 


A Doctor Told Me I Could Never Get Six Pack Abs…Are They Right?

 


Do I Need A Gym To Get Six Pack Abs?

 


How Do You Deal With Sugar Cravings While Getting A Six Pack?

 


Did You Flex Throughout The Photoshoot or is it All Lighting Tricks & Photoshop?

 


How Do I Make A Bunch of Changes At Once?

 


Can Women Get Six Pack Abs Too? I Hear It’s Unhealthy For Women To Be Under 25% Body Fat.

 


Can I still eat dairy? Will that slow down my weight loss? Are eggs still okay? How much fruit/vegetables/meat do you eat per day?

 


What’s The Best Exercise For Six Pack Abs?

 


What Are Some Quick & Easy To Make Foods That Won’t Compromise Fat Loss?

 


How Do You Stay Motivated Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

 

***

#BOOM.

Thanks for all of the questions. Hopefully they helped clear up something you’ve been wondering about.

Now I gotta get back to work! Just a couple more days until Impossible Abs is Live.

photo credit: Oberazzi

Filed Under: Fitness, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Nutrition, Six Pack Abs, The Impossible, Video Posts, Weight Loss Tagged With: , ,

How To Deal With A Sweet Tooth On The Paleo Diet

August 28, 2012 By 29 Comments

Sugar

Sugar.

You can’t escape it.

Even after you cut out the usual culprits – desserts, candy, and simple carbohydrates – there are still plenty of places sugars manage to sneak into.

Even the “healthy” foods are loaded with it. Take for example:

It’s simply everywhere.

The paleo diet, the nutrition framework in Impossible Abs, cuts out most processed foods and sugars. That sounds fairly straightforward, but when you realize how prevalent sugar is in different types of food, it’s not always easy – especially if you have a penchant for it. The question that comes up a lot is:

How do you deal with a sweet tooth on the paleo diet?

Sugar has some of the addictive properties of crack. I know first-hand – I have a sweet tooth that makes small children at halloween embarassed for me. It’s bad, but I’ve learned to tame it. It’s been tough. but it’s important to learn how to wean yourself off your sweet tooth without shaking and convulsing like an addict if you want to burn fat and see results. More than that, it’s important since looking great won’t do you much good if you’re running around  disheveled with a crazy look in your eye.

I devote a good section of the nutrition blueprint of Impossible Abs to this problem and I thought I’d share how I learned to deal with my sweet tooth while getting six pack abs.

—-

The following is an excerpt from Impossible Abs.

How To Deal With Your Sweet Tooth And Implement Healthy Cheats To Deal With Cravings

The fastest way to achieve results is to not to cheat at all. Unfortunately, this takes a ridiculous amount of will power and let’s face it – we all get cravings now and then. So, if you’re going to cheat, here’s how you can “safely” cheat every now and then without throwing all of your progress out the door.

Know How You Cheat

You should be very, very careful when you cheat. Know how you operate – otherwise cheating can become a dangerous proposition that gets you entirely off track. Ask yourself, “is this really just a “one-time” thing or will it lead into more cheating?”

For me, it’s never “just one.” If I have one Oreo, I’ll have the whole box. If I have one snickers, I’ll have twelve. If I have a spoonful of peanut butter, I might end up eating the whole jar – thank you very much.

For me, cheating is very, very dangerous, so I stay away from it as much as possible. You might be better than me – congratulations – but you probably aren’t.

Know what “cheating” means for you. If it’s an isolated occurrence, then feel free to partake every once in a while – but if it’s the start of a slippery slope for you – be very, very careful about how you choose to cheat.

Change The Meaning of “Cheating”

The best way to minimize the effects of “cheating” is to redefine exactly what cheating means for you. This means finding health(ier) alternatives for cheat foods that you usually crave. Then when you get cravings for something that’s not usually on the menu, instead of completely derailing yourself with a face-full of Oreos, peanut butter and shame, you simply press pause while you indulge in some of your favorite off-the-menu cheat food items that won’t set you back 4 weeks.

Typically cheat foods for me include the following:

  • Red Bull
  • Reeses’
  • Nutella
  • Snickers
  • Peanut Butter (in embarrassingly large quantities)

If it’s got an exorbitant amount of sugar – it’s got my number. So, for the entirety of the program, I changed the foods I allowed myself to “cheat” with to much healthier alternatives including:

  • Dark Chocolate (over 70% cacao, preferably 82%+)
  • Avocado
  • Bacon
  • Banana
  • Raspberries
  • Almonds

The benefit to these alternate cheat foods is that unlike most cravings you may get, they’re self-limiting. Unlike Oreos, where it’s quite easy to eat an entire box, it’s very hard to eat an entire bar of high-quality cacao, very dark chocolate.

When evaluating your alternate cheat foods, find something you enjoy that you

  • Are difficult to eat in large quantities
  • Low in sugar
  • Low in carbohydrates

If you can find something that meets these 3 criteria, you can cheat on occasion without experiencing the after-effects of eating an entire bag of Cheetos in one sitting.

Channel Your Cravings Elsewhere

The best way to deal with cravings is to channel that energy or desire into something else.

Every time you find yourself craving something, instead of indulging in it, channel that energy into something else. For example, if you find yourself wanting a snickers bar, do 10 pushups instead. If you want to have a slice of cake, do a 60 second plank instead. If you want a bag of chips, go do a 30 second handstand and channel your cravings for unhealthy food into healthy habits. This does a couple of things:

  1. It gets you closer to your goals. Most cravings you’ll have are NOT constructive; in fact, they’re trying to ruin everything you’re working towards. When you focus that craving into something good, instead of taking 1 step back, you take 2 steps forward.
  2. It builds up better habits. Over time, you’ll find yourself enjoying doing pushups, planks or handstands more than the chocolate cake. In fact, after you’ve weaned yourself away from the extreme sugar content found in most food you’re craving, you’ll find those types of food aren’t as nearly as satisfying as you thought they were and instead of chowing down on a snickers bar, you’d rather enjoy a few squares of 92% dark chocolate.

Channel that energy and those cravings into physical activities that get you closer to losing weight and improving your health rather than using it to destroy the things you’re trying to build.

Limit Yourself By Time

If you must cheat, give yourself a time limit and keep to it. Try to stay clean 80-90% of the time and keep your cheat meals to one meal or one day a week – but keep it limited. That way throughout your week, you can push off your cravings until the weekend and then cheat during your designated meal, but keep it limited – because it’s no longer “cheating” if you have it every single day – then it’s your choice.

Ask Yourself if It’s Worth It

If all else fails, ask yourself if cheating is really worth it. Impossible Abs is an 8-week program. 8 weeks. Eight. Can you do 8 weeks without eating junk food? Is it worth it to you?

Ask yourself if it’s worth it: How bad do you want it?

Do you really want it, or do you just kinda want it?

If getting into the best shape of your life isn’t worth it to you – then cheat. But if you really want to get in great shape, why give into a craving that you know is going to move you in the exact opposite direction of your goal?

Ask yourself, how bad do you want it?

—

Incoming! Impossible Abs comes out in exactly one week. Enjoy any of your cheat meals while you still can :) . Otherwise, start getting ready for the challenge program.

photo credit: Pay No Mind

Filed Under: Impossible Things, Nutrition, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Older Posts