The Best of Impossible HQ in 2012

2012 has been a crazy year. It’s been absolutely wild.

I think the picture of me skydiving in Wadi Rum sums it up pretty well.

Thrown out of a comfortable, stable situation and hurtling out of control at ridiculous speeds towards an unknown landscape while trying to make sense of it all, enjoy the ride and land without dying. Yup, that sounds about right.

This year I quit my job, and took a shot at the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. This year, we had our first (2) million visitors visitors, added several thousand more subscribers and a ton of great stories happening. It seems that things go by so quickly, but at the same time, it’s been forever since January last year and there’s still a lot I have to do. I sometimes feel like I’m moving too slow! As much as there is to do, it’s good to look back and see what’s actually been accomplished every year.

Here’s a look at what happened around Impossible HQ in 2012.

Top 10 Posts By Traffic

1. An Unexpected Ass Kicking (this thing was massive)
2. How I Got Six Pack Abs
3. How Bad Do You Want It?
4. Get Disciplined, Not Motivated
5. 7 Lessons I Learned From My Encounter With Russell Kirsch
6. Cold Shower Therapy
7. Six Pack Abs ≠ Impossible
8. 17 Killer Strategies For Never Giving Up
9. How To Stop Being So Freaking Lazy
10. The Complete List Of Convincing, Unique, And Legitimate Excuses
11. How To Do So Many Diverse & Awesome Things That People Will Want To Punch You In The Face

My Personal Favorite Posts

1. A Brief Guide To Bravery
2. How To Find Out Who You Really Are (thoughts on my interview with David Goggins).
3. Do What You Hate
4. Blackmail Yourself

My Favorite Quote

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

Top 10 Accomplishments/Experiences

1. I quit my job (technically this was late, late 2011, but I’m including it here anyways).
2. I spoke at Target (yes, that Target).
3. I spent 8 days in Jordan (the world isn’t that scary after all).
4. I ran a couple back to back marathons and my first Ultramarathon
5. I spent 2 months in the Dominican Republic.
6. I got to 5.5% body fat and got six pack abs.
7. I learned to kite surf (this might be my new favorite hobby).
8. I was surprised & featured on Oprah.com
9. I went on a two month road trip with my brother around the west coast & highway 1.
10. I finished my first year as an entrepreneur all in one piece (mostly).
11. Oh, and we raised over $25,000 and built a freaking school. More on this later this week.

Also, flying under the radar, our Kiva lending team has lent over $13,000 to entrepreneurs all over the globe. If you want to join, you can do so here. Somewhere in there we took 30 people bungee jumping as well.

Projects

• I released my first project, Impossible TRI to help you run your first triathlon in 3 months.
• I released Impossible Abs to help burn fat and lose weight. Hundreds of people have started to do just that and we have quite a few success stories already.
• I created Cold Shower Therapy course to help you get unstuck and stop being so mentally weak.
• I also made my debut on Amazon.com and released three mini-booklets (and was introduced to the ever-humbling Amazon review system).
• I also released the No Excuse Workout last week and we’ve already had close to a thousand people download it.

The close of every year is always interesting. I never have quite as detailed a plan as I like, but it always ends up being enough to get started and make an adventure of it. Sometimes I feel like Michael Westen in Burn Notice.

Max: What’s going on here? Do we have a plan?

Michael Westen: A plan, no, I… got some tactical goals, and a rough approach?

Max: A rough approach, well, that’s terrific. Thank god we got that, because we don’t have backup, video feeds or working coms.

Michael: Welcome to my world.

Obviously, I’m not perfect and I’ve got a long, long ways to go and lots of things to do, but I’ve got some tactical goals and a rough approach. I’m working on a plan. This year is gonna be big.