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Moderation Is Overrated

February 26, 2013 By 21 Comments

Everything In moderation – especially moderation

“Everything in moderation” is my least favorite phrase on the planet. Admittedly, I have a bit of an extreme personality. When it comes to doing something, I either do nothing, or I go all out. There’s very little middle ground.

I realize everyone is not like me, but I think it’s worth while noting that this concept of moderation has been so engrained in people’s minds that it’s the default “common sense” mindset – which in and of itself, means it should be questioned.

moderation

Why So Moderate?

Why be “moderate”?

If you’re going to do something – go balls out. Really go after it. If you’ve convinced yourself to be “moderate”, check yourself and make sure it’s not for these reasons:

Moderation is Easy

Moderation is easy. If you go to work out and decide instead of sprints or something intense, you’re going to take it easy and ”jog for 10 minutes”, you can go as slow as possible.

If someone questions you on the actual value of the workout you’re doing, you can simply respond, “Oh, I was jogging – it was moderate.”

Oh…Okay.

There’s no room for argument. Even if you suck, you still have  ”defensible” argument.

It’s an easy choice.

Moderation Happens When You Don’t Know What You Want

If you don’t know what you want, it’s pretty easy to take things easy. If there’s no urgency and no goal to orient your behaviors around. It’s easy to be wishy washy and take whatever comes your way because you’re letting life happen to you.

You haven’t decided that you want X out of life and that you’re going to do whatever it takes to get it – so instead you let things fall as they may and keep ambling along moderately.

Moderation Makes Room For Failure

“I wasn’t really trying – I was being moderate.”

Being “moderate” makes room for failure. If you were actually honest and went after something as hard as you could and still failed, it hurts a lot more. You might be *gasp* embarrassed.

Being moderate is a way of preparing for failure before you actually do, so the impact doesn’t hurt so much. Unfortunately  by preparing for failure, you’re practically guaranteeing it’s going to happen.

This is a huge reason: they’re scared of failure.

You’re scared if you actually tried and gave it your all, you’d still fail (and everyone would point and laugh and think you’re stupid).

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. – Teddy Roosevelt.

(What’s even scarier still – if you go all out – you might actually succeed.)

Moderation is a Cop Out

Call it what it is. Most choices of ‘moderation” are a cop-out. A way to avoid pain and difficulty. When in reality, pain and difficulty are the only things that spur growth.

Pain & difficulty are not optional – they’re essential. No good story ever develops without pain & difficulty involved. Don’t try to “cheat” by being moderate. You only cheat yourself.

Crash Diets, Extremism & Burnouts

About the biggest proponent of “moderation’ is the idea that you’ll burn out if you go too hard for too long. Not to mention that extremism is has terrible associations with politics, religion, wars etc.

That’s not an invalid criticism.

However, no one ever talks about the dangers of moderating yourself into a standstill.

The one good thing about extremism is that you know what drives them. You know where they stand. You know what they’re going after.

In our quest for moderation, that element is often lost. Moderation isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but becoming so moderate that you don’t have any forward motion and you simply exist is. No action. No direction. No movement.

Sure, there’s dangers to going all out, but there are very real dangers to being moderate as well.

Guess What? If you’re in a bad place in your life, you’re not going to moderately change.

If you’re 400 pounds, you’re not going to “ease” down to half your body weight. Because if you’re 50, 100, 200 pounds overweight, something is wrong. Something needs to change – drastically.

And (honestly) eating, and exercise are the last things you need to worry about. You need to fix the mental game first.

Mindset –> Nutrition –> Exercise

Your steps might be small, but your mindset shift is huge. You might not start doing 3,000 burpees a day, but at the very least, you have to wage war on your mindset.

When people see people lose 15, 30, or 70 pounds on Impossible Abs in 3-6 months, they lash out with terms like “crash diet” insinutating that people are just going to rebound and gain all the weight back as soon as the course is over. I’m sure a small percentage of people do that, but Impossible Abs is less of a case of a crash diet, than it is a complete rewiring of how you think & interact with food & exercise.

The problem is most people only see the physical change. It’s not a crash diet – it’s an exercise on waging war on your mindset through an exercise and nutritional protocol.

People like Toyah, who’ve gone through Impossible Abs are different. Sure, they might be down 20-30-40 pounds, but mentally, they are not the same person they were.

That happens whenever you run a ultra, take cold showers or lose a bunch of weight. Your physical change is one small aspect of the mental & emotional changes you’ve undergone throughout the journey (this is why I talk so much about cold shower therapy and the benefits of it).

That’s what this whole site is about: understanding that who you are is not defined by where you are now. That you’re way more capable than you think you are – but you won’t get there by hoping to moderate yourself there. You have to really go after it.

In order to do that, there needs to be a realization that something needs to change. Drastically. An all-out war on this mindset that this current iteration of your choices is acceptable. If you need to completely change your life, you have to want it – bad.

Time For War

You probably have tried being “moderate” before. It might not have worked. If “moderation” is your code word for “nothing” then throw it out. Screw moderation. Screw conventional wisdom. Change your mindset.

In cold shower therapy, people ask “how cold is cold?” Can we just do “lukewarm” water to ease into it?

My answer: no you can not.

It’s cold shower therapy. Not “kinda-chilly-shower-therapy.” Cold shower therapy. As in freezing cold – as in “water-so-cold-they-shipped-it-directly-from-antarctica-because-it-was-too-cold-for-the-effing-penguins-to-take-cold.

But whyyyyyyyyyy can’t I take a warm shower? Not a hot one, but just something that’s lukewarm?

Do you want lukewarm water? Is that how you’re going to live your life? Luke warm? Not hot? Not cold? Just “meh?”

Afraid to jump in and go balls out? Not even for a measly 5 minutes of your day? A whole .3% of your day? Point 3 percent?

If so, you’ve got bigger problems than cold water.

“Wow, he’s so moderate”, - said no one ever.

Screw this lukewarm crap.

Screw moderation.

Pick a side. It’s time for war.

Moderation Is Overrated Video

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photo credit: Scott Ableman

Filed Under: Adventures, Kicking A**, Life, Physical Challenges

“All-In” 31 Pounds In 8 Weeks – Toyah’s Story

February 19, 2013 By 5 Comments

Over the past 6 months or so, I’ve gotten quite a few great Impossible Abs success stories. Today I get to share with you one of them.

Meet Toyah.

Toyah first emailed me a few months ago:

Hi Joel.

I did your 8 week impossible abs challenge and lost 14 kilos.

Just wanted to say thank you. Your blog has changed my life in a lot of ways, not just health wise.

Thank you!!!!!

Toyah

I had to do some conversions, but I did the math and 14 kilos is 31 pounds for us Americans. In just 8 weeks. Woah!

Toyah Impossible Abs

I decided to sit down with her to see exactly what she did:

—–

Hey Toyah, Thanks for taking the time to do this interview! Before we get started, what’s your story? Can you give us a little background about who you are and your fitness history?

A: Hi Joel, no worries, I’m a police officer and my fitness history doesn’t go much further than a few years ago when I started to think about becoming a cop. It was one criteria that needed to be met to get into the academy, so my first taste of training for anything was the beep test, the Illinois agility run, hand grip strength testing and a 75kg dummy drag. It was a pretty gruelling introduction to training and I hated every second of it. If I knew back then what I know now about it all starting in the kitchen it would have been much easier. But I guess things have to suck at first for you to start looking at better avenues to take things, so it took me a few years to figure that out.

Cool, So How Did You Find Your Way To Impossible HQ?

A: There’s an Australian woman who runs a Facebook page, she’s very paleo focused. It’s called  Eat. Sleep. Move. She often posts bits and pieces she finds helpful from other facebook pages like Bellatrix Nutrition, I was looking through a few things and found a link to your Impossible Abs Challenge that both Bellatrix Nutrition had posted at Eat. Sleep. Move.    

So Why Did You Decide To Start Impossible Abs?

A: It was the way you wrote it that got me, no excuses no bullsh*t attitude, and I thought “this guy’s on to something” over a few days I read pretty much everything on your blog and everything on the Impossible HQ website. And then lastly I read the manifesto. I was in Spain during that time, I’d run off and left home for a few months after an incredibly sh*t year and I felt I was either going to make a massive change in my life and go home with a new outlook or just run as far from home as possible which probably would not have helped me at all.

After reading the manifesto I made a decision to not run away and to become stronger by facing everything. Doing the challenge wasn’t about weight loss anymore it was about owning myself and giving enough of a shit about myself to be happy, regardless of how crap life can be sometimes. Taking control of such a small thing like your diet and exercise, I found, brought everything else into line. 

So You Jumped In! I Know When Most People Start – The Actual Starting Part Is The Hardest – How Did You Jumpstart The Program In Order To Make Sure You Didn’t Fail Before Even Starting?

A: I used cold shower therapy to start the diet, I needed to know I could do anything even if it initially sucked pretty badly. As I said before I was in Spain and I was feeling pretty down and pretty desperate. Cold shower therapy woke me up out of my lull. Once I’d done my first whole 5 minutes I got out feeling ruthless, stealthy, and just a bit awesome. It puts this realisation into the forefront of your mind that you are able to do anything, but only if you’re willing.

Did The Program Work? What Results Did You See?

A: It worked much better than I expected. After all those years of looking for the quickest way to lose weight and finding out it seems like the “hardest” way, was actually the most effective. I haven’t tried another eating or diet plan where a person could lose this much weight in such a short period of time. I lost a stack of weight. My mind was more focused and clearer than it had been in about 2 years. And that’s what I most loved about it.

How Did You Track Your Progress Throughout The Challenge? Did You Find That Helpful?

A: I was ‘all in’ when I started, nothing was stopping me at all, I took photos of myself every few days and when I felt a lull in progress I’d have a look at them. The best part of this program is its simple for people like myself who don’t have time to write things down and take notes on workout and all that. I ate until I was full, I would work out until I was wrecked. And at the end of that I’d take a photo and compare it to last weeks. And noting the difference was how I tracked my progress. 

Have You Tried Other Programs? What Did You Do Differently This Time Around?

A: Not necessarily ‘programs’ but I’ve gone vegan before which yes, I lost a lot of weight but I was incredibly unwell. And then I went paleo and put all the weight back on. Don’t get me wrong paleo is amazing, but we all need to do what’s right for ourselves, I was obviously having too much in the way of carbs via my fruit intake. 

What’s Your Current Workout & Nutrition Regime?

A: My current workouts are a lot less, a couple times a week I’ll do short sharp sessions of body weight exercises, all kinds of push ups, dragon walks/bear walk/spiderman walks, dips, kettlebells and isolated weights with free dumb bells, and a lot of burpees. I stay away from the assisted machines as much as I can. Diet recently has been pretty relaxed, and when I say relaxed I mean there’s fruit in there and I’ve for onto this Bullet Proof Coffee that you love Joel! So there’s some butter in there. However, I’m beginning the 8 week impossible abs challenge again, so it’s on like king kong!

What Was The Toughest Part Of The Program? Did You Ever Want To Quit?

A: The toughest part of the program I felt was justifying things to other people. “Everything in moderation” they’d say or, “I don’t know how you live without carbs.” I felt I’d had this massive awakening and I wanted everyone else to have one too, but a lot of the time I was talking to a brick wall.

However after all my success. I have swayed the bravest few who are eating clean and loving burpees with me. When you first start those little voices start getting really loud, and you can easily pull the pin. But I found as I got healthier my mind got stronger. And while people were putting their two cents in, I was telling myself in my head was positive and reassuring that I was on track and doing the right thing.

What Do Your Friends & Family Think? Have They Noticed The Change?

A: Oh yeah! Everyone’s noticed. After I’d done the challenge I’d lost 14 kilos (31 pounds for you Americans) and now I’ve slowly lost another 4 kilos since (~9 pounds). My face looks completely different, everyone’s pretty amazed by it all. 

What’s Your Next Impossible Thing? What Do You Want To Do Next?

A: Well Joel I did my first fun run yesterday – first one ever. I wanted to start getting into those kinds of things. Now, I’m looking at a triathlon which is coming up in a few months, as well as running the 88 flights of stairs of the tallest building in the southern hemisphere here in Melbourne called the Eureka towers. I’m fit as a fiddle right now, and I love it, I can do anything! No really I can!

—

Since the initial challenge when Impossible Abs launched, Toyah has lost another 9 pounds for a total of 28 kilos/40 pounds lost. Lets break down why it worked for it and why she continues to be successful.

—

Toyah’s Keys To Success

“Everything in Moderation” Is A Load of B.S.

HA! Moderation sucks. I’m kidding, but seriously…

When you work on breaking habits “moderation” is a death trap for staying the same. It’s an easy way to justify complacency. There’s time to be moderate when you get to where you want to be, but if you’ve got 20, 30, 50 or 100 pounds to lose, it’s not time for moderation - it’s time for war.

“Everything in moderation” sounds nice and fuzzy but the reality is you might need a good dose of extremism to get ready to suit up and go to war.

She Did It For Toyah

I felt I was either going to make a massive change in my life and go home with a new outlook or just run as far from home as possible which probably would not have helped me at all.

She decided that she wanted to do it for herself. It wasn’t about impressing anyone. It wasn’t about vanity, it was about taking back control of her life.

No one could have made that decision for Toyah except for Toyah.

She Wasn’t Afraid of Cold Water

She kickstarted her challenge with cold shower therapy which helped her tackle the mental aspect of the challenge. Once you figure out the mental part, the rest is simple.

I’ll say it over and over and over again.

If you’re having trouble kickstarting a new habit or getting out of a rut, give Cold Shower Therapy a trial run. 30 days of cold showers and you can do anything.

She Tracked Her Progress

The photos of the beginning of the workout are what kept her going when things got tough. Take a photo once a week. Even if the scale doesn’t show a huge difference, the best proof of all is a photo in the mirror. You don’t always notice a difference week to week, but over time, looking back at the photos is what shows the cumulative effort you’ve expended.

She Ignored The Haters

A Frustrating Truth: People want you to stay the same. They might not say that, but if you start changing, it starts to make people uncomfortable. When people started questioning Toyah about this crazy diet and how it’s probably not “safe”, she put them out of her mind and kept going. Not because she believed some random guy on the internet with a blog, but because she saw results and results trump all.

People will try to keep you exactly as you are. If you want to change, you’ll have to ignore them and fight for it.

She Realized It Was More Than Just Abs

People tend to thinks Impossible Abs is just about abs, but like Toyah said:

Doing the challenge wasn’t about weight loss anymore it was about owning myself and giving enough of a shit about myself to be happy, regardless of how crap life can be sometimes. Taking control of such a small thing like your diet and exercise, I found, brought everything else into line.

Weight loss, abs or whatever you want to talk about is one aspect of it, but it goes much deeper. Once you realize you can exercise control & discipline in your own life, you’re able to apply that to other things. It’s also why Toyah’s now moving on to things like fun runs, triathlons and other adventures & challenges. Losing weight was a gateway drug into doing other impossible things with her life that she wasn’t physically capable of doing before.

She Didn’t Believe Me – But She Tried It Anyways

I love hearing form people, “I didn’t really expect anything, but I was really blown away by the results.” I’d rather undersell something and overdeliver than the other way around. 100% of the time. No question.

Here’s the deal: you don’t have to believe me. You really don’t.

But, try it for yourself. Experiment. Hold on to what works.

Toyah had a healthy dose of skepticism coming into this, but she still went ahead and did the work anyways. And guess what? She saw results.

She Went “All In”

Best of all, she went all in. She didn’t pick 3 different programs and do 10% of each of them. She picked one went after it and gave 100%.

She was all in.

What About You?

Toyah’s story is really inspiring and the great thing about inspiring stories is that they’re – well – inspiring. It’s amazing to see what regular, normal people are capable of doing.

However, there’s a trap that’s very easy to fall into – and that’s the trap of living vicariously through others. Reading other people’s stories and letting the inspiration you get from them substitute the feeling that you get when you actually accomplish something yourself. Once you start doing that, you never actually do anything because it’s so much easier just to watch inspiring things on youtube than it is to do something inspiring yourself. You fall into a black hole of inspirational porn.

Instead, live vicariously through yourself. Decide to not just read great stories about other people, but live a great story yourself.

The last week I’ve had a sort of overload of incredible testimonials & transformations come in and it really is one of the coolest things you can get. If you’ve started impossible abs or the no excuse workout, how is it going for you?

And…if you haven’t yet started….why not?

Filed Under: Case Studies, Good Stories, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss

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

Blackmail Yourself: How To Set & Accomplish Goals More Effectively

December 27, 2012 By 17 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: , , , , ,

Why Physical Fitness Is A Terrible Goal

December 22, 2012 By 11 Comments

Physical fitness is a terrible goal.

I might ruffle some feathers with this post but it really is. Sure, it sounds like a great goal, but it’s a terribly misleading.

Lets break it down.

Mike Impossible HQ

Why Physical Fitness is a TERRIBLE Goal

There’s a whole bunch of reasons.

It’s Not Defined

Physical fitness is a state of being, but it’s not a goal. It sounds nice if you could just magically float around in a state of fitness on a cloud while eating “healthy” foods and being fit, but it’s not a goal.

Physical fitness is not a definite goal.

It’s Not Measurable

Because it’s not defined, it’s not measurable. Physical fitness has no benchmark. You can never know if you’re actually there. There’s no metric.

Look at the following list. One of these things is not like the other:

  • Deadlift 300lbs.
  • Do 20 pull-ups.
  • Run a mile in less than 6 minutes.
  • Run 26.2 miles consecutively.
  • Be physically fit.

All of these (except one) are incredibly specific. You can either do them or you can’t.

  • Deadlift 300lbs: You either can do it or you can’t.
  • Do 20 pull-ups: You can either do it or you can’t.
  • Run a mile in less than 6 minutes: You can either do it or you can’t.
  • Run 26.2 miles consecutively. You can either do it or you can’t.
  • Be physically fit……….

The problem with being “physically fit” is it has no definition – it’s just is (whatever that means). It changes for different people.

Some people think it’s a certain weight, some think it’s a certain BMI or body composition. Others will think it’s the ability to do a certain distance race. For some people it’s to finally not being exhausted walking up the stairs, but until you define it for yourself, it provides no actual metric

But being “physically fit”, provides no actual metric for knowing how far you’ve come or if you ever get there. There’s no benchmark, so while it’s a nice ideal, it’s not really attainable.

You Learn Nothing

Most people try to be physically fit, but because they’re not measureable, and not attainable, they never properly orient their actions around their goal (because one doesn’t really exist). Instead of making concerted efforts in a choreographed manner, they do a little here, and a littler there, but they never actually improve or learn anything.

They try a few exercises for a few weeks, but they essentially stay the same person with the same knowledge when they started out.

Impossible Challenge

Why Challenges

They’re Attainable
Set a challenge, something you might think is impossible, then go do it.
Don’t wait around.
If you want to do it, you can go out and try, try, try until it’s done.
They’re Measurable

Because challenges are measurable  you’ll either complete a challenge or fail it. There’s no middle ground. You can either run the distance or you can’t. You can either lift the weight or you can’t. You can either succeed or fail. If you succeed, you set a new challenge and keep going. If you fail, you can recalibrate and make a new attempt at it.

If that sounds daunting, it’s much better than staying in no-man’s-land and never knowing. Failing sucks, but it isn’t fatal. At the very least it gives you feedback in one way/shape/form.

With challenges, you can either do it or you can’t. There’s no “maybe.” There’s no more questions of whether of not it’s possible. It either is or isn’t.

They’re Learnable.

The best part about challenges is you can learn from them. You can do anything for 30 days. You should be able to do anything for 8 weeks.

  • If you want to run a marathon, you don’t have to dedicate your life to running marathons, you just have to spend 3 months training.
  • If you have want to run a triathlon, you don’t need to become the top triathlete in the world. You just have to run your first one ever.
  • You dont’ have to set a world record in deadlifting, you just have to set your own goal and then hit it.

Not only is this effective, but it’s a lot more fun.

It’s really hard to learn something while trying to be physically fit because your next course of action is blurry.

You might try a few different things, eat a few different foods and head to the gym a couple times a week, but you most likely won’t create focused routines, form habits, or make lasting changes. You can spend tons of time learning to get fit while never actually learning anything.

Because the goal is vague, your immediate next steps aren’t clear. Challenges change that.

  • If you want to run a marathon, you practice until you understand running and are capable of running a marathon.
  • If you want to lose 20 pounds, you get a framework and learn what you need to do to burn fat.
  • If you want to add weight to your deadlift, you start learning how to deadlift until you get good enough to hit your weight goals.

You might be completely ignorant when you start, but by the time you cross that finish line/lift that weight/lose that weight, you’ll know infinitely more about yourself and the subject area than if you started from scratch.

The Real Problem With “Fitness” as a Goal

It’s Lazy. No, it’s not necessarily lazy with your workouts – it’s lazy goal setting. ”Being fit” is a lazy goal. It’s easy to say and most everyone will accept it, but no one will call you out on it.

No one will hold you accountable to whether or not you do it, because there’s nothing to actually hold you accountable to.

  • If you want a six pack, say it.
  • If you want to be able to run a 3 hour marathon, say it.
  • If you want to deadlift 400 pounds, say it.
  • If you want to do a planche pushup, say it.
  • If you want to do a firefly pose in yoga, say it.

Then go do it.

But, don’t cop out and pick a vague goal like “fitness” and wonder why you don’t achieve it. Be concrete.

The less specific you are with a goal, the less likely you are to achieve it. If you don’t say it or at the very least, write it down, you won’t do it. Have the courage to say what you really want. This goes for fitness. This goes for life.

The Real Power Of Challenges

The real power of challenges is they give you focus. They give you something to orient your behavior around. Fitness is a great concept, but its an unfocused goal and incredibly difficult to measure your progress. Set a challenge, then go do it and learn a ton of things along the way

If you want to set better goals, set more challenges.

Set impossible challenges, and then catch up with them! - Richard Branson

How do we do that? Simple. Follow this formula:

–> Pick a challenge. Pick a date.

Accomplish [specific challenge here] by [insert specific date here].

A few concrete examples of this include:

Do _____________ challenge by _______________ date.

Be specific about the thing you want to accomplish and the time frame you want to accomplish it in.

Don’t be lazy and set terrible goals. Be specific and set impossible challenges. Then catch up to them.

We’ll take an even deeper look at this in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.

—

Big props to Mike for killing it in his Impossible Shirt

Filed Under: Fitness, Physical Challenges, The Impossible Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Find Out Who You Really Are

November 26, 2012 By 20 Comments

Last sunday I got to interview one of the most intense people I know – David Goggins.

I first wrote about David about a year ago. If you don’t know, David Goggins is a former 300 pound man turned ultra marathoner who’s been deemed by some people as the “toughest athlete on the planet.” He’s done some ridiculous races including 100 milers, Badwater and a 200 mile race.david_goggins runs

David’s changing up his usual ultra marathon racing with his attempt at a 24 hour world record pull up attempt. He made a previous attempt on the Today Show and failed…publicly…in front of millions of people…when he had a partial forearm tear.

A lot of people would have given up, but David wasn’t done. He set out again yesterday to beat the 24 hour world pull up record (which, by the way, is 4,020). This times he’s doing it without the fanfare, in a small Nashville gym – not on national tv. I interviewed him last week as part of the run-up to the event and to him it wasn’t about the press, it wasn’t about the record, it was about his redemption.

He had to find out if he could do it. He had to find out what he was made of.

David and I talked for about 45 minutes – I have about 6 pages of notes from our call, but he said something that stuck in my brain for days after our call was:

People with a soft mentality disgust me. They live and die the same person they were made.

Wow. I let that sink in…

david goggins pullup

Mental Softness

When you stop becoming a talker…and start becoming a doer, there’s a few levels you go through.

The first level is becoming a person that is able to do something. Run a marathon, lose 100 pounds, fight a bear, etc. The next level is becoming a person who habitually does stuff you do not think you can do.

Because once you run a marathon, it’s not that hard to run another one. You can maintain that level with relative ease. Sure, it will take some work, but you can do it and eventually a marathon becomes a comfortable realm in which you live. And even though you can run a marathon, the blanket of mental softness still can be allowed to settle around your life as you stay there…

But if you refuse to stay there and keep pushing. And when you do, you start to rid yourself of this mental softness that tends to permeate most people.

The coolest thing about Impossible Abs has not been the physical transformations – even though we’ve had multiple people lose between 15 and 45 pounds in less than 8 weeks. It’s the mental transformations that take place.

I talked to a few people this weekend who went through Impossible Abs. They lost a lot of weight, but the thing that stood out the most to me was the mental clarity and determination they had. They weren’t mentally soft anymore.

The program is tough, but it also showed them what they were capable of doing. I had a few people tell me that while they’re still not where they want to be, but instead of hoping that one day they might be able to do it, they were determined that it was going to happen. They weren’t just optimistic. They were definite. It was already done in their mind – their body just needed some time to catch up. Sure, they were in way better shape, but they were way more mentally tough than they were just 8 weeks ago. The mental softness was gone.

The whole purpose of cold shower therapy is to eliminate mental softness. It’s an arbitrary task – voluntarily jumping into freezing cold water – but it also teaches you that your body is as strong as your mind will let it be and you can endure (and even learn to enjoy) things you used to hate.

Going Beyond

The only way to find out what you’re really made of is to go beyond.

Go beyond what you’re used to.

Go beyond what you find comfortable.

Go beyond what you think is possible.

Because when you go beyond, everything changes. You can’t stay the same. You have to toughen up, fight like hell and dig deep. You find out who you really are.

Are you the person that calls it in when life gets tough or are you the person that lets out a battle cry and stare the challenge head on.

You have to toughen up, fight like hell and get after it to reallly find out what you’re made of. You have to go beyond. And when you do, you become a much different person than the one you were made.

A man must constantly exceed his level – Bruce Lee

The Challenge

You have no idea who you really are. You have no idea what you are capable of doing.

Why not find out?

—

p.s. David stopped this morning around 1am with 3,202 pull ups after ripping open a gash in his hand (picture here – not for the squeamish). He didn’t get the record this time (0 for 2 now), but I can bet you he’s not done finding out what he’s made of yet.

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Kicking A**, Life, Physical Challenges Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fight Like Hell

November 14, 2012 By 19 Comments


Fight Like Hell

Sometimes trying to help people is discouraging.

Impossible Abs is a project we’ve been working on for a while. It’s a tough fitness program – I don’t try to hide that (It’s called Impossible Abs after all). Because of that, some people have seen some incredible results (more stories coming soon). Anyways, I don’t get a lot of refund requests, but they do happen. I understand for the most part and promptly refund things as part of my 100% guarantee, but sometimes the reasons people give make it tough. Not because I don’t want to give them a refund, but because some people give up so easily.

Here’s one email I got from someone a few days into the program:

I would like to take you up on your money back guarantee….It just didn’t “work” for me. I found the physical part difficult and the diet part very difficult.

Here’s an exact email I got about a week later from someone else:

I’m already down 7 pounds and I’ve never felt better. The first couple of days were hell, especially since I work at a very busy pizza place! But the worst are my friends, we are all in college and all they do is drink. But when there is a will, there is a way. I haven’t cheated once.

Guess who’s going to be successful?

“This is hard.”

So what.

Everything worth doing is hard.

It’s hard for everyone. The only difference is your mentality.

Fight like hell and change or go home and stay the same.

You choose.

Sometimes trying to help people is discouraging. The fighters make it all worth it.

The difference between impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination. - Tommy Lasorda

Filed Under: Life, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs

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

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: , , , , , ,
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